I'm always carrying my U.S. passport

Thanks to Supreme Court, anyone who looks Latino can be stopped by la migra.

- GUSTAVO ARELLANO

EVEN U.S. citizens aren't safe from detention under President Trump. Above, flags are displayed in Azusa.

My dad's passport is among his most valuable possessions, a document that not only establishes that he's a U.S. citizen but holds the story of his life.

It states that he was born in Mexico in 1951 and is decorated with stamps from the regular trips he takes to his home state of Zacatecas.

Its cover is worn but still strong, like its owner, a 74-year-old retired truck driver. It gives Lorenzo Arellano the ability to move across borders, a privilege he didn't have when he entered the United States for the first time in the trunk of a Chevy as an 18-year-old.

The photo is classic Papi. Stern like old school Mexicans always look in portraits but with joyful eyes that reveal his happy-go-lucky attitude toward life. He used to keep the passport in his underwear drawer to make sure he never misplaced it in the clutter of our home.

At the beginning of Trump's second term, I told Papito keep the passport on him at all times. Just because you're a citizen doesn't mean you're safe, I told my dad, who favors places car washes, hardware stores, street vendors, parks, parties where immigrants congregate and no one cares who has legal status and who doesn't.

"Exagera," my dad replied Trump exaggerates. As a citizen, my dad reasoned he now had rights.

He didn't have to worry like in the old days, when one shout of "¡La migra!" would send him running for the nearest exit of the carpet factory in Santa Ana where he worked back in the 1970s.

Then came Trump's summer of deportation.