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| Know Your Rights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security in charge of a nationwide enforcement initiative to identify, arrest, and remove undocumented immigrants with a prior order of removal, deportation or exclusion. However, in the course of these raids, ICE teams often encounter people without prior deportation orders and without criminal records. ICE has maintained its right to arrest and deport these people as well. Through tactics of intimidation, coercion, threats, and even force, ICE agents have violated people’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and the rights of their families. In some of the more egregious cases, ICE officers have entered homes without warrants, even when warrants were requested; U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents have been held in custody; people have been threatened and coerced into signing away their rights and have been immediately deported from the United States, leaving their families, including young children, behind; and detainees have not been provided with basic information regarding their rights or have had their very basic rights violated. The U.S. Constitution explicitly states that it protects all people, which includes immigrants, from unreasonable searches and seizures (Fourth Amendment) and self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment). However, as a result of the illegal practices of ICE, hardworking immigrants have been forced to depart from the United States, often leaving their U.S. citizen children behind. Combating ICE Raids In response to a number of ICE raids around the country, the ILRC created “Red Cards” in order to provide tips for immigrants to protect themselves against ICE. These laminated, red plastic cards serve as an important resource for immigrants when they are faced with an ICE raid. Available to U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike, one side of the card reads, in English, the Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and the other, in Spanish, reads instructions on how to exercise your rights by keeping the door closed and not answering any questions. The cards specifically made for those in the San Francisco Bay Area also have a hotline number written on them so that ICE raid victims can be connected with legal and social service agencies following a raid. The Power of the Red Card The Red Cards have been one of ILRC’s key projects in empowering immigrants to assert their rights, engage long-standing and new allies in providing legal and social services, and leverage the commitment and resources of pro bono attorneys from some of the largest law firms in the country. For the rest of 2008, we will be expanding this project to other areas of California, and in the future, we would like to provide this resource not only to those in California, but also to the rest of the country by networking with other organizations. Our hope is that by partnering with other organizations and educating immigrants about their rights, we will make an impact against the consequences of ICE raids in immigrant communities as well as in the larger American society.
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Last Modified: July 17 2008 02:25:00 |
