WHAT TO DO AT AN ICE CHECKPOINT, ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE A WHITE CITIZEN
(please, please, please copy, paste, and share widely):
-Border Patrol can verify citizenship within 100 miles of a border or “external boundary.” This includes coastlines so NYC is within the 100-mile zone.
-Border patrol can only ask brief questions about citizenship, and they cannot hold you for an extended time without cause.
-You always have the right to remain silent. You do not need to answer their questions.
-***WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU ARE A BORN CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE WHITE, YOU NEED TO SPEAK THE FUCK UP.***
-The most important acts of resistance are the small ones. Make it difficult and uncomfortable for ICE agents to do their jobs. They are counting on citizens to turn a blind eye and allow them to deport undocumented citizens without challenge. Disabuse of that notion.
-If you are on a train, bus, or anything else and ICE or CBP boards, you need to stand up and loudly let everyone know that they have the right to remain silent or only answer questions in the presence of an attorney, no matter their citizenship or immigration status. There have been numerous reports that confronting the agents in this way has caused them to leave without verifying citizenship. THIS CAN SAVE LIVES.
-If you see anyone being held up by immigration, loudly ask if they are being detained and if they are free to go.
-Immigration officers cannot detain anyone without reasonable suspicion, an agent must have specific facts about you that make it reasonable to believe you are committing or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law.
If an agent detains you, you can ask for their basis for reasonable suspicion, and they should tell you.
-Always say no to a search and let everyone know that they can and should refuse consent to a search.
-They cannot search or arrest anyone without facts about that make it probable that they are committing, or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law.
-Silence alone meets neither of these standards. Nor does race or ethnicity alone suffice for either probable cause or reasonable suspicion
-As white citizens, we have a level of privilege which protects us from retaliation from ICE for being “rude” and making a scene, which makes it our DUTY to speak up and make sure people without the same privilege know their rights. GET LOUD. YELL. YELL IN SPANISH IF YOU KNOW IT. LET PEOPLE KNOW THEY DON’T HAVE TO SAY SHIT. MAKE ICE UNCOMFORTABLE. THROW SAND IN THE GEARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY.
BONUS INFO:
-It is perfectly legal to record immigration agents as long as you are not on government property or at a port of entry. If your train/bus gets board, pull your phone out and start videotaping immediately.
-If you are detained or see someone getting detained, get the agent’s name, number, and any other identifying information. Get it on tape.
-Contact the ACLU if you see someone’s rights being violated.
Make it difficult and uncomfortable for ICE agents to do their jobs.
HERES HOW TO SAY “remember that you have a right to remain silent” in Spanish
“recuerden que tienen derecho a permanecer callados” (plural you)
“recuerde que tiene derecho a permanecer callado” (singular you)
You can also add “no tiene que decir nada sobre su estatus de inmigración” (you don’t have to say anything about your immigration status"
We all know that latines are being targeted with this. Learn from a speaker or the internet how to say those phrases aloud (you can type them in Spanish into Google translate and click the speaker button to hear them). Memorize them.
If you know just those phrases in Spanish, you could save people. Make the effort, please
we all know hypothetically about the horrors
of living in trumps america. we’ve all seen the same stories, we know how
dangerous it is to be brown, that your whole life can fall down in an instant. we
know this. I thought I knew this more than most, with my boyfriend being mexican.
in the back of my mind I’ve had this anxiety for months, knowing what could
happen – and today it did.
we were stopped by what looked to be a
cop car in what I thought was an ordinary police stop (scary enough already)
but it turned out to be anything but. behind the car were three black vehicles with tinted windows, literally
like you see in the movies. me and my boyfriend are both fresh out of teenager years,
and there was just two of us against several armed government officers.
this was literally the single most terrifying experience of my life. they told
us to put our hands up and all I could think was that they’re gonna tell him to
step out of the car, they’re gonna kill him in front of me, and I’m gonna have
to call his family and tell them that I saw their son die and that he’s never
coming home.
they laughed in my boyfriend’s face, asking several times for his name and
jiggling the door handle and held us for what felt, to me, like a small and
hellish eternity. I’m sure most people can understand what a traffic stop can
be like as a brown person in america – i feel like i don’t need to say much
more here and honestly just trying to describe everything that happens makes me
want to throw up so I’m not going to.
eventually they let us go and somehow it only gets worse from there.
we found out that my boyfriend’s father had been picked up by ICE. we believe
at present that the point of the stop was to stop me and my boyfriend from
driving past the daycare down the road (where his father was dropping off his 3
yr old son at) so that we wouldn’t be able to see what they were doing to his
dad. the fact that they know our schedules so well means they must have been
following us and watching us for a while. i would say that i’m paranoid except
that honestly, this is entirely justified.
currently, his dad is being held by ICE. because it’s immigration court, not
criminal court, he is not entitled to free legal representation. we need at
least $5000 for lawyer, not even including the bond. my boyfriend and I both
work but there is no way for us to be able to raise this kind of money on such
short notice. my boyfriend is basically in shock right now, as I think is very
reasonable, and this entire situation feels beyond hopeless. the only chance we
have of keeping his family together is through this lawyer, and through asking
for help from others.
i know you are all tired from everything you see on the news. i know that there
are many stories like ours. but please, this is ours. this is the man I love. this
is his father. this is our future together. I never thought this would actually
happen and it honestly still feels like a surreal nightmare but it has
happened, and we cannot get out of it ourselves.
you can donate to our paypal here. every penny helps and if you can’t donate i completely understand, just please please share this post.
This is actually what you should say to an ICE agent who has come to your house looking for an undocumented immigrant.
Specifically, do not open the door; tell them to slide their warrant under the door. Read it carefully and check to see if it’s a JUDICIAL warrant, which will have specific information like the time and location where they’re allowed to search, and a specific description of who or what they’re allowed to search for. ICE practically *never* have this; they’ll have an ADMINISTRATIVE warrant, which is just their orders from their boss telling them to arrest a particular person. It does not give them the right to enter your house.
ICE *can* enter your house if they have probable cause, such as if they see the person they’re looking for through a window or door (which is why you don’t open the door). Other forms of probable cause include kids telling agents that they were born outside of the US. Agents will trick people into chatting with them, especially kids who serve as translators for their parents, asking things like “What part of Mexico are you from?” Staying silent keeps the onus on them to prove in court later that they had evidence someone isn’t here legally.
It’s important to remember that for now, at least, every person ICE wants to deport has to go before a judge, and ICE has to provide evidence that they know this person is undocumented and that they were arrested without violating the 4th amendment (against unreasonable search and seizure). We know that cops lie and that judges usually side with them, but agents would rather go for a sure bet from a targeted raid than risk wasting their time and energy on arrests that could be thrown out. Knowing your rights and being prepared makes you a more difficult target.
“I do not consent to entry without a warrant.”
(This information comes from notes I took at a workshop on being an immigration ally. Learn more at welcomingamerica.org)
These immigrants victims have one thing in common– they’re immigrants of color. You don’t see ICE doing any of this racist bullshit towards white immigrants. Keep in mind all of these people have clean records. ICE agents see black/brown skin and automatically assume they’re a threat. It’s sad how some immigrants aren’t allowed to live their normal lives because they fear high authority scumbags like this. Anyone who defends this shit has no sense of humanity. None.
That… I…
Fucking…
There.is no saving America
Boost this shit. Boost it right now. Because this is not okay under any circumstances.
It really does get worst tho. I’ve made posts about this in the past but people never really wonder where these immigrants go once ICE “detains” them. Well, they go to these horrific detention centers, some even worse than prisons depending on the area. Depending on the detention center, detained immigrants can be deprived of food, clean water,sanitary products, and medical attention. There have also bee number cases of physical and sexual abuse from the officers. There have actually been more than 33,000 complaintsregarding sexual abuse in these detention centers and only 570 have been investigated.
So it gets a lot worse after they get arrested, and keep in mind a lot of these people have clean record. According to ICE, trying to start a better life in America is a crime. “Land of the free” my ass.
fucking blow us up now, we deserve it, this country is shit
The agent’s decision to allow me to write about our conversations came after learning that ice was making a push, beginning this week, to arrest young undocumented immigrants who were part of a large wave of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border in recent years and who, until now, had been allowed to live in the U.S. Rather than detaining these young people, the government had placed them in the care of families around the country. Most of them are trying to lead new lives as American transplants, going to school and working. ice now plans to pursue those who have turned eighteen since crossing the border, and who, as a result, qualify for detention as legal adults. “I don’t see the point in it,” the agent said. “The plan is to take them back into custody, and then figure it out. I don’t understand it. We’re doing it because we can, and it bothers the hell out of me.”
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