With deportations on the rise, it's important immigrants, citizens alike know their rights
President Donald Trump has been known to shift his stance on issues from time to time, but his thoughts on immigration remain immutable.
His first term focused on keeping migrants from entering the United States by building a wall that would span the 1,954-mile border between the Mexico-U.S. border.
His second term has taken a more menacing tone as he pivots to an aggressive mass deportation campaign that has swept up young children with migrant parents and immigrants who legally live here.
Florida has partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to coordinate arresting immigrants through an effort that Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt said is "a preview of what is to come around this country: large-scale operations that employ our state and local enforcement partners to get criminal illegal aliens off our street."
The effort, dubbed "Operation Tidal Wave," led to the arrest of about 1,100 people from April 21-26, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"Operation Tidal Wave" targeted people in Miami-Dade and Broward counties and the cities of Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Stuart, Tallahassee and Fort Myers, according to records seen by the Miami Herald. All of them are areas with high immigrant populations.
The total number of people deported by ICE has not been publicly shared, but data compiled by NBC News estimates the figure to be north of 40,000 as of April, which is just 4% of the one million people the White House has promised to move annually.
The White House has set a goal of removing one million people annually. An estimated 10 million migrants live in the U.S.
The data also shows that border crossings have plummeted, ICE arrests have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high.
Trump's deportation numbers still trail Biden's, who deported 271,484 immigrants last fiscal year, the most since 2014. Trump's deportations have caught national attention in part because of the lack of due process.
In April, it was reported that three young children, ages 2, 4 and 7, who are all U.S. citizens, were removed from the country and sent to Honduras with their mother as she was deported.
The most famous case so far involved Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal Salvadoran immigrant who was unlawfully deported back to El Salvador, where he was held at a supermax prison. It was learned on Friday that Garcia was returned to the U.S., where he now faces two human smuggling charges.
The aggressive nature of these recent deportations make clear the importance of immigrants and U.S. citizens knowing their rights.
The rights you are afforded will largely depend on where a confrontation with ICE occurs. Your home is one of the safest places to be because ICE can only enter your home if they have a valid judicial search warrant, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Knowing that information is important but won't be enough to get you through a potential confrontation. Here is how the ACLU advises people to respond.
Don't open the door. Opening the door for an ICE agent is an opportunity for them to make an arrest. The ACLU urges people to ask the ICE officers to slide any warrants they may have underneath the door so you can review it.
Verify that they have the correct warrant. This part is crucial: Check the warrant to see if it was issued by a court and signed by a judge. According to the ACLU, only a warrant officially issued and signed grants them permission to enter your home. A warrant issued and signed by the Department of Homeland Security or ICE does not give them the right to enter your home without permission.
A judicial warrant is a warrant signed by a judge with "U.S. District Court" or a state court listed at the top. Other warrants, like a deportation warrant, do not allow entry without consent.
If an ICE agent forces their way into your home, it is important that you do not act in a way that can be used against you later. You can reiterate that you do not consent to their entry, but you should not physically resist them, according to the ACLU.
You should exercise your right to remain silent for the same reason. Tell the officers that you would like to speak with a lawyer. If they ask any questions, tell them that you would like to remain silent and wait to answer any questions until you can do so under legal counsel.
In some cases, the ACLU says that ICE officers will attempt to have a person sign a form agreeing to be deported without due process. It is best not to sign any document until you have a lawyer present who can offer advice.
A confrontation with ICE at work can be a little more complicated. Officers are allowed to be within the general public of a business without permission, but that doesn't give them the authority to detain, question or arrest anyone, according to the ACLU.
If an ICE officer attempts to question you, do not answer them without a lawyer present. If they ask to search the property, bags or anyone's products, tell them that you do not consent and encourage your coworkers to do the same.
Treat a traffic stop by ICE the same as any other. Turn on your emergency lights to acknowledge that you are being stopped, and then slowly pull over. Put your keys on the dashboard and place your hands in a visible location. Don't worry about searching for your license and registration until the officer makes contact and instructs you to do so.
The Florida Immigrant Coalition says that you should not answer any questions about your immigration status or where you are from. If the officers appear agitated, tell them that you would like to use your right to remain silent and ask to speak with a lawyer.
Do not consent to a search. Officers must have a judicial warrant to conduct a search unless they have reasonable suspicion.
If ICE officers show up at your school, it's important to know the legal rights teachers and students have.
Here's a breakdown of educator and student rights when it comes to ICE raids, according to a packet from the American Federation of Teachers:
Immigration status does not affect whether a child can be enrolled in school. Every child has a constitutional right to a free public education, regardless of his or her immigration status or parents' immigration status.
Schools cannot ask about a student's immigration status during enrollment. Public school districts have an obligation to enroll students regardless of their immigration status and without discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.
Schools can ask for documentation to prove age and district residency for enrollment. But no student should be turned away for lack of documentation. Schools may not bar a student from enrolling because the student lacks a birth certificate or social Security number or has a record that indicates a foreign place of birth. Schools may not bar a student from enrolling because his or her parents or guardians lack a driver's license or state-issued ID. Some students qualify for protections under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 which provides exemptions from enrollment requirements.
If ICE officers show up at your school, you have the right to refuse to answer their questions and tell them they have no right to be at your school without a warrant.
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), schools are prohibited, (without parental consent) from providing information from a student's file to federal immigration agents if the information would potentially expose a student's immigration status. Some schools have also interpreted the Plyer decision as prohibiting them from requiring students to provide Social Security cards or birth certificates as a condition of enrollment, test taking or participation in school activities.
The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) says that ICE agents can be prohibited from going into private areas of an organization unless they have a judicial warrant or express permission.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003 under the Department of Homeland Security to protect the U.S. from cross-border crime and illegal immigration.
ICE enforces the nation's complex Title 8 immigration laws inside the country and U.S. Customs and Border Protection handles it at the nation's borders. ICE has more than 20,000 law enforcement officers and an annual budget of about $8 billion.
The Trump administration, however, deputized thousands more federal law enforcement officers to help with his goal of mass deportations, and many local law enforcement agencies have agreed to coordinate and cooperate with the efforts.
That depends on who you ask.
"ICE detains individuals as necessary, including to secure their presence for immigration proceedings and removal from the United States," the agency says on its website. "ICE also detains those who are subject to mandatory detention under U.S. immigration law and those a supervisor has determined are public safety or flight risks."
The president, who declared a national border emergency on his first day in office and ordered the U.S. armed forces to repel "forms of invasion," has said his administration will prioritize deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal histories.
However, there have been multiple instances reported of mistaken identities, random sweeps, U.S. citizens sent out of the country, and people detained and shipped to a prison in El Salvador without any criminal charges filed, trials, or ways to appeal. The most well-known is Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was picked up and to a prison in El Salvadore without due process and kept there despite orders from a federal court and the Supreme Court to bring him back.
On April 16, a Georgia native with an ID and Social Security card on him was arrested in Florida's Panhandle under a blocked Florida immigration law. The family of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez presented his birth certificate to a judge, who agreed it was valid but said she had no power over his release. Lopez-Gomez was finally released after 30 hours in prison.
A federal judge in Texas ruled on April 25 that the Trump administration could not deport Venezuelan immigrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and ordered the release of a detained couple due to the lack of "any lawful basis."
The National Immigration Resource Center recommends:
Gather important documents for all family members showing how long each one has been in the United States. This can include birth certificates, U.S. income tax returns, utility bills, leases, school records, medical records or bank records. Put copies into a secure online folder or location you can access by phone.
Identify your emergency contacts, memorize their phone numbers and make sure your contact can access all of your documents.
Provide your child's school or daycare with an emergency contact to pick up your child in case you are detained.
Tell your loved ones that if you are detained by ICE, they can try to use ICE's online detainee locator to find you with the date of birth and country of origin. That's at locator.ice.gov/odls/#/search.
You, your family or emergency contacts can contact the local ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) office to initiate an ICE Case Review process. You can find your local ERO office here. Have supporting documents ready.
Everyone living in the United States has certain rights and protections provided by the U.S. Constitution, whatever their residency status is, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
You have the right to remain silent. You don't have to discuss your immigration or citizenship status with police or immigration officers. Anything said to an officer can later be used against you in court.
You have the right to say 'no' if an immigration officer asks if they can search you. Immigration officers do not have the right to search you or your belongings without your consent or probable cause.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: What to do if ICE comes to your home or stops you in Florida
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