Federal immigration enforcement officials recently announced a wave of removals of parents and children, mainly from Central America, who came during the border surge in 2014. With these new rounds of arrests in the community, it is important that we know how to protect our rights.
The Immigrant Defense Project, in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, has prepared Know Your Rights materials to help directly affected communities understand and respond to ICE enforcement at their homes and in their neighborhoods.
Home raids and other forms of community arrest — longstanding ICE tactics — raise serious rights concerns. Over two-and-a-half years of monitoring ICE practices, IDP has uncovered extremely troubling patterns. Recurring themes include ICE agents misrepresenting themselves as police to gain access to private homes; parents handcuffed, at home, in front of terrified children; heavily armed agents bursting into homes or shelters in the pre-dawn hours; arrests of people with disabilities and serious medical conditions; and arrests in and around courthouses, interrupting immigrants’ criminal cases.
These materials include a two-page flyer in English and Spanish, and a more detailed booklet, also in English and Spanish. The flyer contains a quick-reference summary of the most important information community members can use to protect themselves or loved ones from rights abuses. The booklet expands on the flyer and includes trends IDP has identified as well as additional details on what to do if you or a loved one is detained by ICE.
