Son of immigrants from Mira de Aire, Democrat Rick Lopes became the only Portuguese-American senator in the state of Connecticut in January 2021, having been re-elected on November 5th.

Rick Lopes left a warning to the undocumented Portuguese: "My message is that you should be worried, because [Trump] is someone who doesn't care about you. Despite what he says, he doesn't care about the people who come to this country to make it strong."

Donald Trump, who was elected the 47th American President at the beginning of the month, had as one of his biggest campaign slogans the promise to carry out the “largest mass deportation in history” of illegal immigrants, whom he accused of "blood poisoning" the United States.

There are about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., according to Department of Homeland Security estimates for 2022, the most recent year with data available — although Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the real number is about twice that.

Despite the apparent contradiction, many undocumented Portuguese immigrants support Donald Trump and believe that they will not be covered by the Republican tycoon's deportation plans.

"They think they are the good immigrants, not the bad immigrants. What they don't understand is that they are going to be seen like any immigrant. The Trump Administration doesn't care if you are good or bad, it doesn't care if you work hard or no. He will simply label you as undocumented immigrants and go after you", defended Lopes.