NPR

Facing A Population Decline, Baltimore Set Up A Legal Defense Fund For Immigrants

Officials in many cities have said protecting immigrants from deportation is a moral imperative. In cities with dwindling tax bases, like Baltimore, it's also a financial one.
Catalina Rodriguez-Lima runs a city office whose mission is to attract new immigrants to Baltimore, a strategy for reversing decades of population decline.

In the mayor's office on the second floor of Baltimore City Hall, Catalina Rodriguez-Lima has been uneasy lately. Rodriguez-Lima runs a city office whose mission is to attract new immigrants to Baltimore — a strategy for reversing decades of population decline. But President Donald Trump's plans to ramp up deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally have cast a pall over her efforts.

"We have been working to develop economic tools for immigrants to open businesses, to buy homes, to be employed," she said. "Our efforts

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