I coordinate our L.A. Raids Rapid Response
Network with CHIRLA, which is the Coalition
for Humane Immigrant Rights.
And what we’ve been doing ever since June,
when we first expected these operations to
begin, is making sure that our community is
prepared.
And that means doing the Know Your Rights
workshops, telling our community members,
through these workshops, not to open the door
if ICE comes to their house, to remain silent
if ICE stops them on the street, and to make
sure they don’t sign anything and that they
ask to speak to an immigration attorney before
they offer any information.
So, we’ve been doing these Know Your Rights
workshops with our different partners in Los
Angeles ever since June, because that’s
when we first thought that these operations
would begin.
So, honestly, every single week since then,
we’ve been in preparation mode.
We’ve been strategizing with different volunteer
attorneys that are part of our L.A. Raids
Rapid Response Network to make sure that we
have a strategy if people start being arrested,
and then there needs to be intakes at the
local ICE processing center.
And so, regardless of what happens, whether
the operations start tomorrow or whether they
start on Sunday, we have been prepared.
Explain what you mean when you say “don’t
open the door.”
Would then ICE knock the door down?
Right.
So, here’s the thing.
ICE only has permission to enter an individual’s
home if they have a judicial warrant that
is signed by a judge.
And not only that, but that judicial warrant
has to have all of the information, including
the person’s name, the person’s address,
the time of the incident.
All of that has to be accurate.
So, I can say, and our attorneys know this
very well, that it is very rare that ICE is
actually able to obtain a judicial arrest
warrant.
Most of the time they do not have that, meaning
they do not have permission to enter people’s
homes.
So, given that, we tell our community members
that if ICE knocks on the door, no matter
how aggressively, no matter what they say
to people—and we do know that this is a
very deceptive agency, that pretends to be
police, that doesn’t answer questions—we
tell our community members that no matter
what ICE does, don’t open the door, because
the only way that they could get in is with
that judicial arrest warrant.
And if they give you any sort of administrative
warrant or any other kind of document, you
have to review it to make sure that it’s
a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
So that’s what we tell our community members
here in Los Angeles.
And what if they don’t speak English?
How do they read this warrant?
And how do they know what to look for, what
is legitimate and what isn’t?
Exactly.
That is a very good point.
It is a very complicated process, which only
makes it more important that we have these
Know Your Rights workshops.
So, our Know Your Rights workshops, they’re
in Spanish.
They’re for our community members here in
Los Angeles, our immigrant and undocumented
members.
And what we do is we have copies of a judicial
arrest warrant and use that next to an administrative
warrant that ICE usually uses when it goes
to people’s houses, and we compare the two.
We pass those out to people so that they familiarize
themselves with those documents, so that in
the case that ICE does slip it under the door,
they’re able to recognize it.
But I think that that’s a very good point,
that this is an agency that is using—trying
to deceive people, and these people may not
know what is going on.
For the people that don’t attend Know Your
Rights workshops, they may not know what a
judicial warrant is and whether ICE has permission
to enter their home.
And so, that only makes it more important
that we do the outreach to make sure as many
people are aware of their rights as possible.
Natalia Aristizabal of Make the Road, how
are you preparing here in New York?
And what is the city doing?
Good morning, first of all, and thank you
for having me.
So, very similar to what was being shared
from CHIRLA, we are doing Know Your Rights.
But additionally, what we’re doing is also
letting people know who is possibly at risk
right now.
The administration leaked, or, like, the press
found out information, specifically about
who they’re going to be looking for.
So, we’re telling community members those
rights, but also saying if you had a previous
order of deportation, if you had any contact
before with ICE, you are likely a person that
they’re going to come looking for you.
They often, for different reasons, have people’s
home addresses, and that’s how they’re
going to go and find someone.
So we tell people, you have to go and get
a legal screening.
You have to go try to get and see if you have
any relief, and then, definitely, to do family
preparations.
If you have a little kid, you need to figure
out who in your family is going to be able
to take care of that little kid.
You need to be able to put together your paperwork
and your home passport and put it in a secure
place and make sure that someone in your home
knows all this information.
And also, in a city like New York, know that
there is legal representation free and available.
And, Adelina Nicholls, in Atlanta, of the
Georgia Latino Alliance of Human Rights, how
are you preparing there?
And what is the city doing about this?
First of all, thank you for having me, Amy.
We have been preparing since 2016.
And I don’t know if you remember that we
had here like a nationwide—another operation
that was to target Central American families
around the United States.
Here in the state of Georgia, more than 130
families were targeted, with their children.
At that time, our concern is that why our
community members continue opening the door
to ICE.
So we engaged in a door-to-door campaign called
ICE Free Zone, Zona Libre de ICE, where we
go talking to people, to neighborhoods, to
the trailer parks, to the churches, to the
grocery stores, canvassing.
Many volunteers have helped us with this purpose
and allowing us to talk directly to our community
members.
At this point, we have—we believe that we
have visited more than or talked to people
more than 25,000 communities around the metro
area and statewide, but, as well, trying to
send—using the social media for people to
connect what is happening inside their own
communities.
We are trying to put together forces, as well,
to pushing back these detainer policies, that
could allow the localities not to collaborate
with ICE.
Can people intervene, Shannon, if they see
a raid taking place?
And what about these collateral arrests they’re
talking about, anyone in the way?
Right.
That’s a very important point, as well,
and it’s something that puts a lot of fear
in the community, because even though Trump
is saying, “I’m going to target people,
very specific people, Central American families
and people with final deportation orders,”
it’s not just that.
ICE has the discretion to make collateral
arrests, so there may be people just in the
wrong place at the wrong time that do get
swept up into the deportation machine.
And that’s something that we teach folks
through our Know Your Rights workshops.
And I think, in terms of how folks can respond,
we always say that if you are a citizen, if
you are an ally, use that privilege.
Be able to, when you see something going on
in the street or you notice that your neighbors
are experiencing some kind of ICE arrest,
go out and document what is happening.
Film ICE and try to make the situation calmer
for the family, because it is such an intense
and terrifying situation to have ICE come
to your door early in the morning and arrest
you.
And so, we really encourage the community
to protect each other and to make sure that
people don’t feel alone in that scary moment.
