Aurora Guillen is still celebrating Día de los Tres Reyes, or Three Kings Day, this year: attending events at her church, sharing a traditional pastry called rosca de reyes with her coworkers and having her children leave out their shoes for gifts in the morning.
But she says the holiday, which commemorates the biblical story of Jesus being visited by three wise men, feels different this year, as Latino communities around the country face an increased presence of immigration enforcement and threat of deportation.
Guillen is the assistant director of El Puente Ministries, a Catholic nonprofit serving the Hispanic community in Jefferson City and California, Missouri. She said the people she interacts with are afraid — of going out in public, of gathering in large groups, of being identified as an immigrant.
“People are very, very fearful, very nervous about even leaving their house for work,” she said. “It has been difficult, and I feel like the community has refrained, more so than in the past, from attending gatherings where they know there's going to be a large number of Hispanics, because there is a fear that something unexpected may happen at such a gathering.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security, 2025 saw 2.5 million immigrants leave the U.S., through either voluntary or involuntary deportation. More than 605,000 people were detained and deported.
That apprehension has caused organizations serving Latino communities to change their tactics since the start of the second Trump administration. El Puente has taken additional steps to protect their clients’ privacy, such as refraining from posting pictures of some events online, while other groups have canceled events altogether.
Jaymes Schrock is the founder of Como Comunidad, or “As a Community,” a nonprofit which works to connect Latino mid-Missourians with education, support and resources.
In previous years, the group has hosted family-friendly events to celebrate Día de los Tres Reyes. Partially due to a fear of gathering immigrants in a public space, the organization opted not to host the event this year. They’ve also had to shift their approach to serving their community: rather than bring families to a central location to hand out food, they’ve had to bring resources into people’s churches and homes where they can be reached more discreetly.
“In general, we have not seen a lot of success trying to do really big, especially immigrant-specific celebration events,” Schrock said, “Because there's just an overwhelming feeling that it becomes something easier to target.”
He said that fear can make it harder for his organization to reach the people they serve, who avoid making themselves known to public services, due to a “very, very, very fearful environment, and a really large division and lack of trust for the American institution.”
He said that apprehension persists, even when people arrive in the U.S. through legal means.
“A huge amount of fear has been created across the board in immigrant communities regardless of status,” Schrock said. “I want to make that very clear. This fear has seeped far beyond the concept of undocumented or illegal immigration, and into immigration in general, even those who are here perfectly legally.”
One side effect of that fear, both Schrock and Guillen said, is a feeling of isolation as immigrants go out of their way to avoid interacting with others. Guillen said her organization works to connect people with Spanish-language counseling services, seeking to overcome what she called a “stigma” around mental health in the Hispanic community.
In the meantime, she said she’s making an effort to stay in touch with “that magic and that hope that you have as a kid, that we shouldn't forget, even during hard times,” by celebrating the holiday with her friends, her family and her congregation.
“We try to focus on the positives rather than on the negatives, and continue to embrace our traditions and to pass them onto our children, and to support those who are fearful,” Guillen said. “There's a lot going on, but we have to maintain hope. And I think being around others who may understand, or may feel the same way that you do, is a huge relief because it shows people that they're not alone.”
