Asheville volunteers work to feed families hiding from ICE

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ASHEVILLE — The sun on Wednesday was unusually hot, so the workers had to move fast.

Dozens of volunteers at the BeLoved House on Grove Street packed food into boxes destined for families housebound after recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.

BeLoved House serves as the first declared sanctuary in Western North Carolina, a place where people on the front lines of sometimes-hidden crises mobilize.

On this Wednesday, it was a hub of activity as cars pulled up honking, hazards blinking. Volunteers would rush to collects flats of eggs, cartons of juice, bath tissue — all the needful things day-to-day life requires.

Ferried into the belly of BeLoved House or stacked out front if nonperishable, groceries were redistributed into care packages, which then were hustled into trucks and vans, destined for places where blinds were drawn and doors were locked.

The boxes told the stories of the people behind the doors, in those silenced neighborhoods: tiny diapers destined for a baby, sanitary items for her mother.

Cards offer advice for if ICE comes knocking
Volunteers at local organization, BeLoved House pack boxes of food and other supplies Wednesday, April 18, 2018, for homebound families in the Latino community who fear leaving their homes as a result of the perceived threat of deportation.

(Photo: Matt Burkhartt/mburkhartt@citize)

All of the boxes, regardless of destination, had one item in common: a card with rights and instructions for anyone facing ICE.

"If they force their way in, do not resist," it said in Spanish. "Tell everyone in the house to stay silent."

The Rev. Amy Cantrell, the creator of BeLoved House, stood in the middle of it all, struggling to quantify how many needed immediate assistance.

"One of these neighborhoods has 50 families in it," she said. "We’ve seen ICE traumatizing neighborhoods from Edneyville, to Waynesville, to Marion, to Candler, to Emma, to Swannanoa. There are countless neighborhoods that have been impacted. We’re just trying to do everything we can do."

Meanwhile, Oscar, an undocumented immigrant who declined to give his last name, said his phone was filling with pleas for assistance faster than he could answer.

"I’ve been getting messages that immigration is checking West Asheville, in Hendersonville, in Flat Rock, in Arden and Candler," he said. "There is a lot of fear in the community that I’ve never seen in the 14 years that I’ve been here."

For the previous two days, Oscar — a community activist, DJ and father — had hidden inside, doing what he could through social media. But it wasn’t enough to hide behind a screen. It was the time to mobilize, he said.

"We cannot be silent. That’s why I decided to come out today. I can’t just stay home getting worried and staying in my head. We have to be useful with the resources we have and put them together."

Raids drive undocumented immigrants into hiding
Stephen Wiseman, of Asheville, assists at local organization, BeLoved House with packing boxes with food and other supplies Wednesday, April 18, 2018, for homebound families in the Latino community who fear leaving their homes as a result of the perceived threat of deportation.

(Photo: Matt Burkhartt/mburkhartt@citize)

ICE arrested at least 17 people from Buncombe and Henderson counties during raids this week. The news drove local undocumented immigrants into hiding for days, Oscar said.

"It’s insane that people don’t want to get out of the house to buy groceries. We have text messages from people saying ‘I’m afraid to go out and buy groceries — can somebody bring me food?’ Really, this community has come to that?"

Oscar grew up in Mexico City, in one of the largest housing projects in Latin America. Neither of his parents was in the picture, he said.

"Most of my life was just surviving. Without parents, you can’t really find a job, enroll in school."

Fourteen years ago, when Oscar turned 18, he walked from from Sonora, Mexico, to Arizona, a 200-mile trip that took about two weeks. He said he wanted to make money in the U.S. to help his older brothers finish college.

"We had the opportunity for one of us to come here in a time of despair," he said. "We definitely were desperate about money and didn’t know what to do. I decided to come here for one year, and the intention was to help them go to college. That’s why I walked."

But Oscar stayed. He now has a son with his ex-wife, who also lives in Asheville. She was also at BeLoved house, packing groceries in the sun.

Oscar said his son is afraid to go to the private school his parents scrimp to afford. While at school, the boy tells people he’s afraid of the police, that they’ll take his parents away and he’ll come home to an empty house.

"When I say goodbye to him, I think about the worst," Oscar said, his calm demeanor cracking.

"It’s hard to lie to him and tell him there’s nothing going on. There’s a lot going on. And we have to communicate to this community, we have to tell all our neighbors, we have to tell all of them this is what we’re going through."

He issued a call to the Asheville community: "We need to see them here every day until we get over this. Immigration is supposed to be here until Friday, but the damage they create is probably going to be here for the rest of our lives."

He said social media posts are helpful. But direct connection is better.

"To me, (social media) is a way to remain detached from what’s really happening. Connections," he said, gesturing to the yard full of volunteers, "are made like this."

Volunteers at local organization, BeLoved House pack boxes of food and other supplies Wednesday, April 18, 2018, for homebound families in the Latino community who fear leaving their homes as a result of the perceived threat of deportation.

(Photo: Matt Burkhartt/mburkhartt@citize)

Ponkho Bermejo, another Mexican-born community activist packing groceries at BeLoved House, said the picture of people helping to get supplies to housebound immigrants was encouraging.

"You can see not everyone here is brown, so the white community is giving us support. This gives us hope," he said. "Some of us are illegal in this country, but are not scared to do the right thing."

Bermejo suggested many fail to realize just how important immigrants are to a community.

"They need to realize that we are the blood of this city," he said, looking toward the skeletons of hotels under construction on the horizon, where he said immigrants labored to build walls.

"Without us, you’re not going to have rooms for the tourists. They’re not going to have restaurants to go to because there’s nobody cooking the food, nobody cleaning the dishes."

‘We certainly stand for sanctuary’
Stephen Wiseman, of Asheville, helps load a car with boxes of food and other supplies Wednesday, April 18, 2018, for homebound families in the Latino community who fear leaving their homes as a result of the perceived threat of deportation.

(Photo: Matt Burkhartt/mburkhartt@citize)

Laura Malintzin, originally from Mexico, has lived in Asheville for 12 years. She spoke quickly in Spanish, putting out the small fires that spring up during any grassroots effort to solve a vast emergency.

Then she turned back to a reporter with a message to detractors, spoken in perfect, barely accented English.

"I invite them to come and meet us and have conversations with us, hear our stories and see how we are actually supportive to their community — our community. We’re here. We’re open to that conversation."

In the shade of a magnolia tree, Cantrell pointed to a nearby butterfly painting, a symbol of migration.

"I believe fundamentally that God didn’t make borders," she said. "If you go up to another planet and you’re looking down here, you will not see borders."

She said that, as a person of faith, she feels called to offer sanctuary.

"It’s gut-wrenching, a sense of palpable evil, when you’re staking out people’s neighbors and traumatizing families and children, taking people from grocery stores in front of other families and children.

These are the things that we can’t tolerate as a community. We have to say no. We certainly stand for sanctuary. This is our call and obligation. This is solidarity."

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Tax, Spending Laws Will Widen Budget Deficits, Boost Growth

WASHINGTON—Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper is predicting wider budget deficits and a temporary period of stronger economic growth following recent legislation to cut taxes and boost government spending.

The Congressional Budget Office on Monday said the federal budget deficit would total $804 billion this year, 43% higher than it had projected last summer, and exceed $1 trillion a year starting in 2020. The deficit in fiscal 2017 was $665 billion.

Economic growth will jump above 3% this year thanks to fiscal stimulus, the CBO said, but the agency predicted the acceleration will prove largely fleeting. It raised its estimates for the economy’s long-term growth trend modestly.

Larger deficits will add to the national debt. Debt held by the public will hit $28.671 trillion at the end of fiscal 2028, or 96.2% of gross domestic product, up from 78% of GDP in 2018, the CBO estimated.

The CBO projected that annual deficits, measured as a share of total economic output, would ease somewhat after peaking at 5.4% of GDP in fiscal 2022.

Those deficit estimates assume current law won’t be changed further, meaning Congress would allow some tax cuts to expire and spending caps to take effect again. If current policies largely remain in place, the CBO predicted higher deficits and a national debt around 105% of GDP by the end of 2028. That level has been exceeded only once in U.S. history, in the immediate aftermath of World War II.

“Moreover, the pressures contributing to that rise would accelerate and push debt up even more sharply in subsequent decades,” the agency said.

Hoping to rein in federal spending, top White House officials are working on a proposal of “rescissions,” or cuts they hope to make to last month’s $1.3 trillion spending bill. Mr. Trump can submit his proposal to Capitol Hill, where legislation canceling those funds would be considered through an expedited process, although Congress isn’t required to respond.

It isn’t yet clear if a rescission bill could pass the Senate, even though it would need just a simple majority, instead of the 60 votes most bills need to clear procedural hurdles. The $1.3 trillion spending law increased both military and domestic funding and was the product of bipartisan negotiations among the top four congressional leaders.

The CBO’s annual report on the outlook for the federal budget and the U.S. economy typically comes out in January, but it was delayed this year so analysts could account for the effects of several recent changes to fiscal policy.

Congress in December enacted a package of corporate and individual tax cuts and in February approved a two-year budget deal, followed last month by a spending bill that boosted government outlays this year on both domestic and military programs.

Monday’s report offered early independent estimates for how those measures will affect federal-government finances and the broader economy in years to come. The nonpartisan CBO is led by economist Keith Hall, who was appointed in 2015 by congressional Republican leaders.

Supporters of the tax legislation, including President Donald Trump, said it would spur stronger economic growth. Democrats opposed the bill, saying it wouldn’t do enough to help the middle class and the broader economy.

Wall Street forecasters and other economists predicted the tax-law changes likely would increase growth in the short term but were split over whether it would have meaningful long-term effects. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation staff in December estimated the tax cuts would boost the economy, but not enough to make up for the bulk of lost revenue.

When the CBO issued projections in June, it expected the federal budget deficit would widen from 2.8% of gross domestic product in the 2018 fiscal year to 5.2% of GDP in 2027. That would take the debt held by the public from 78% of GDP in the current fiscal year to 91.2% of GDP in 2027.

In Monday’s report, taking account of bills that both cut taxes and increased spending, the CBO revised deficit numbers higher in the short term. The deficit is expected to rise from 4% of GDP in 2018 to 5.4% of GDP in 2022, then ease to 5.1% of GDP in 2028. The debt held by the public will climb from 78% of GDP in 2018 to 94.5% of GDP in 2027 and 96.2% in 2028, the agency said.

Federal-government revenues are expected to total 17.5% of GDP in 2019-2028, down from last summer’s estimate of 18.2% of GDP in 2018-2027. Outlays are expected to be 22.4% of GDP in 2019-2028, unchanged from last summer’s estimate for 2018-2027.

It is unusual for the federal budget deficit to significantly expand outside of wars or recessions. But even before the recent flurry of fiscal stimulus, the CBO expected deficits would widen over the coming years as revenues failed to keep up with outlays including spending on major social programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Fitch Ratings last week reaffirmed its top rating for U.S. government debt, despite what it described as deterioration in the outlook for public finances.

“While there has been a recent loosening in fiscal policy, Fitch considers debt tolerance to be higher than that of other (nations),” the ratings agency said. “However, rising deficits and debt could eventually test these credit strengths, in the absence of reform.”

The economy is set to get a boost in the short term from increased government spending and lower taxes.

The CBO predicted GDP would expand 3.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018 from a year earlier, up from its June 2017 estimate of 2.0% growth. Annual growth would slow in subsequent years: 2.4% in 2019, 1.8% in 2020, 1.5% in 2021 and 2022, and 1.7% in 2023 through 2028.

Underlying trends are expected to keep growth modest compared with past expansions and well below the Trump administration’s goal of sustained growth at or above 3%.

The CBO estimated potential GDP growth in 2018 through 2028 would average 1.9% a year, based on expected growth in the labor force and worker productivity. That was up slightly from its estimate last summer of 1.8% annual growth in the 2017-2027 period. Potential GDP growth is the maximum growth rate consistent with stable inflation.

That’s largely in line with recent predictions by Federal Reserve officials. The median projection by Fed policy makers in March saw long-run GDP growth at 1.8% a year, with individual estimates ranging from 1.7% to 2.2%.

Such estimates, to be sure, come with substantial uncertainty.

Elements of the new tax law should “encourage investment, which should help productivity, encourage labor-force participation,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters last month. “We don’t know how big those effects are going to be. We don’t know what the timing would be.”

Write to Ben Leubsdorf at ben.leubsdorf@wsj.com

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