Here’s the deal:
Border Patrol can verify citizenship within 100 miles of a border or “external boundary.” This includes coastlines, so NYC, Philadelphia, and all of NJ are within the 100-mile zone.
Border patrol can only ask brief questions about citizenship, and they cannot hold a person for an extended time without cause.
Everyone always has the right to remain silent. No one has to answer their questions.
WITH THAT SAID, IF YOU ARE A BORN CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE WHITE, PEOPLE NEED YOU TO SPEAK 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 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.
WHITE CITIZENS: YOU have a level of privilege which protects you from retaliation from ICE for being “rude” and making a scene, which makes it you 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 ANYTHING. MAKE ICE UNCOMFORTABLE. THROW SAND IN THE GEARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY.
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 boarded, pull your phone out and start videorecording immediately.
If you are detained or see someone getting detained, get the agent’s name, number, and any other identifying information. Get it on video if possible.
Contact the ACLU or your local Immigrant/Migrant support orgs if you see someone’s rights being violated.
THIS HAS BEEN COPIED AND PASTED.
PLEASE DO THE SAME.
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5 Responses
I’ve encountered MAGA “Christians” who think that ICE should enter churches, round up all the Hispanics and cart them off to be deported. When I mention that church should be a sanctuary, they become agitated and declare that “illegal aliens” have no rights and that ICE should be able to do whatever they want. Indeed, these “Christians” have no problem with ICE roughing up people, family separation and people sleeping on concrete floors.
I can only say this: First, they came for the immigrants, but I said nothing because I was not an immigrant. Then they came for the gays, and I said nothing because I was not gay. We know where this goes.
Thank you, Mark, this is excellent information!
This is very useful information.
Those tempted to remain passive should also keep in mind that white privilege ultimately won’t protect them if this fascism is allowed to flourish.
Everything being done to immigrants now – arbitrary detention, placement in concentration camps, will be done to citizens too in the end.
Important clarification: you have a right to photograph or video record in a public place, but you can not interfere with the actions of law enforcement officers.
If you try to get in between them a person they are trying to detain, or even if you get close enough to them they decide it is an attempt to disrupt them or intimidate them, they might arrest you for obstruction. If you were being reasonable, any charge they might press against you will likely be dropped, but it still might be a huge hassle for you. I bring this up because people have been arrested before for recording arrests, and the usual justification given is obstruction.
Similarly, don’t verbally harass the officers or try to make too much noise for them to be heard. Deliver the messages Mark suggested, and then focus on being a conspicuous witness. In addition to potentially prompting them to accuse you of obstruction, verbal harassment or similarly disruptive behavior may escalate the situation by making tempers flare, and may confuse the attempt to document clearly what occurs.
In other words, there are three simple goals here:
1) Ensure the person being detained knows their rights.
2) Ensure the officers detaining them know their actions are being documented, so they have to follow the rules.
3) Document the actions to support any later legal challenges.
There’s just one problem with that: POTUS already showed what he thinks about court orders and about constitutionality of his actions. And he extended that invitation to ignore the law through the entire chain of command. All agents are now empowered to go about as they please and they were made aware that they are not accountable to anyone.