Latest news with #RedCards
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
How ILRC's 'Red Cards' can help protect immigrants during ICE encounters
[Source] As immigration enforcement actions grow under the Trump administration, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center's 'Red Cards' remain a practical, trusted tool for asserting legal rights during encounters with ICE. Immigrants — and anyone who might face questioning by authorities — are encouraged to download and carry these cards, and to share them widely with family, friends and neighbors. The wallet-sized cards provide clear, legally grounded instructions based on constitutional protections. They outline the right to remain silent, the right not to open the door without a judge-signed warrant, the right to refuse to sign documents, and the right to speak with a lawyer — regardless of immigration status. Originally created in 2007, the Red Cards are available for free in 39 languages at The ILRC recommends printing them on red cardstock with rounded corners to improve durability and visibility. They are designed to be kept easily accessible in a wallet or near a front door. Since 2020, more than 9 million cards have been downloaded — more than in the previous 17 years combined. Though not part of a current ILRC campaign, the Red Cards continue to be shared informally by educators, advocacy groups and legal clinics. The organization urges users to avoid third-party sellers and download only from its official website to ensure legal accuracy. Trending on NextShark: This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter — a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what we're building, consider becoming a paid member — your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Trending on NextShark: Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today!
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mission of immigrant aid group evolves
ELKHART — An immigrant aid organization begun 26 years ago to offer basic medical care now finds itself advocating for undocumented residents in new ways. Staff from the Center for Healing and Hope spoke to the League of Women Voters about the group's mission Thursday. They also addressed services that CHH has started offering in recent months amid intense federal deportation efforts, such as offering packages of information to prepare families for an unexpected separation. 'Parents are getting pulled over by police on the way home from work and they're getting put in jail. And they're getting taken from jail over to detention in Clay County. So families are scared,' said Jane Ross Richer, immigrant resource coordinator. ''What's going to happen to my children if I'm taken, if I go to detention, where are my kids going to be? What's going to happen to my kids? My kids were born here in the united States, they've never been to the country that I came from. Who will take care of them?'' There are 37 inmates as of Friday who are being held in the Elkhart County Correctional Facility on local charges but whom ICE has requested be held when they would otherwise be eligible for release, according to department spokesman Capt. Mike Culp. He said the agency has 48 hours to pick them up from the jail once they're eligible for release. Ross Richer said they talk families through gathering all their important documents and making them accessible to someone they trust, as well as figuring out who will take care of the children if their parents are taken off the street. It's something the organization started doing alongside their usual services such as providing medical care, a food pantry, support groups and emergency financial assistance. 'This is the family preparedness packet, unfortunately something that we need at this time,' Ross Richer said. 'I distributed 50 of those to Elkhart school social workers.' They also distribute Red Cards, which contain immigrants' rights information that's needed when encountering police, and offer know-your-rights seminars in partnership with the National Immigrant Justice Center. She encourages those who live in Goshen to obtain a Goshen Resident ID card as well, which the CHH began offering at the end of 2017 as an alternative form of identification for those who can't obtain an official ID like a driver's license. The card provides verified identification for purposes such as obtaining city or school services, purchasing prescriptions or when coming into contact with law enforcement. La Casa de Amistad offers a similar ID for Elkhart residents. Ross Richer said the ID program is more important now than ever. 'If they do get pulled over by the police, number one, they want to give their real name, they want to give their real birth date. Because if they get taken into detention, we want to know how to find them, and it's hard to find people if they give a different name,' she said. 'And when they ask you where you're from? 'I'm from Goshen, and here's my card, because I belong in Goshen.' And if the police ask anything else, do not answer their questions. You do not have to answer their questions, you do not have to tell them what country you're from. It's not safe anymore to say where you're from.' 'Cruelty is the only word' Richard Aguirre, a member of the CHH board of directors, said efforts to strip people of their legal status and to target over 10 million for removal, at an unprecedented rate of 1 million per year, shouldn't be surprising after the Republican National Convention last July focused so much on bordure closures and mass deportation. He noted the actions targeting immigrants this year haven't been the result of any new laws being passed but by a flurry of executive orders. He said it's also no longer the case that schools, churches, hospitals and courtrooms are considered sensitive areas which border agents don't enter. 'If an immigrant was there for a court hearing, immigration agents would stay away because they were doing what they were supposed to be doing. They were reporting to the courts about their immigration status or some other situation, and that's gone away,' Aguirre said. 'They're arresting people who go to their immigration hearings because they were ordered to go there. And if they don't, they're subject to immediate deportation. When they go there, often the judge says, 'You're following the rules, continue what you're doing.' They step out of that courtroom and they're arrested. Cruel. Cruelty, there's no other word.' Aguirre expressed dismay at the fact that it's necessary to hand out know-your-rights cards to children. He pointed to examples of migrant children as young as 1 year old being forced to go through deportation proceedings without a lawyer after the Trump administration cut funding in March for legal advocates for unaccompanied minors. 'More than 26,000 children lost assistance from an attorney, forcing them to go to court alone to stay in this country. A lot of these kids have fled violence, sexual abuse, gangs and family dysfunction,' he said. 'That's what we've come to in this country in 2025. That kind of fear that immigrants are experiencing on the streets of Los Angeles now, in the fields of California, the farm fields, the courtrooms, has spread to Elkhart County. Children are experiencing that trauma of not knowing, when they come home, whether their parents will be there.' He said it's inevitable that mass arrests will come to Elkhart County. Blue states were targeted first, but to reach its deportation goals the administration will have to start reaching into the farms, factories and construction sites of red states, Aguirre said. It would have a devastating effect on the local economy. 'If the RV industry is shut down, the impact that that will have on our economy will be substantial. It will be very negative. But it's going to affect everything that Jane talked about: It's going to affect retirement communities, who rely on those workers, construction, restaurants. A lot of social services that are provided by immigrants,' Aguirre said. 'I'm hoping that we'll be OK for a while. But if not, I hope all of you will consider stepping up and doing what you can.' Aguirre encouraged the audience to share what they learn with others and to contact their elected officials. He pointed to the success in 2017 of grassroots efforts to keep a private prison company's immigrant detention center out of Elkhart County. 'The more they hear, the more they'll start to have a second thought,' he said. 'There can be an impact by people who contact elected officials. But I especially want to encourage you to reach out to local elected officials. That's the step that I don't think enough people are doing. Go to council meetings, go to county commission meetings and county council meetings. Start holding them accountable. Start telling them, 'Will you protect our RV workers or are you going to want our economy to collapse when the undocumented people are picked up?''
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
As US braces for ‘significant' wildfires, Trump's agriculture secretary addresses Forest Service departures
The Trump administration is prepared for what could be a "significant fire season," despite thousands of Forest Service employees departing under Trump's deferred resignation offer, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. "It did not compromise and will not compromise at all, 1%, what needs to be done to make sure that we are ready," Rollins told Fox News Digital Friday. More than 4,000 U.S. Forest Service employees voluntarily resigned under buyouts offered by the Trump administration, according to a POLITICO report. Wildland firefighters were largely exempt from the buyouts and a federal hiring freeze, but blue state leaders say President Donald Trump's slash-and-burn approach cuts key support staff. Sen. Schiff Urges Trump Admin To Exclude Firefighters From Federal Hiring Freeze "The reality is that Trump has decimated the U.S. Forest Service," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a May press conference. "Nearly every single Forest Service employee supports fire operations in some capacity." Read On The Fox News App Many of the workers who departed held Red Cards, meaning they have special training to either fight fires or "provide essential frontline support to the firefighting crews," Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon, said. But Rollins said the Biden administration wasted taxpayer funds on unsustainable and irresponsible hiring of people who "really had no job description." "That was in the — not hundreds — in the thousands of hirings that went on just in the Forest Service in the last administration," she said, adding that the service is becoming "more lean" but no less effective. La Mayor Karen Bass Accused Of Deleting Texts In Wake Of Wildfire Disaster Rollins and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed a memo on May 20 signaling the Trump administration's wildfire response strategy. It calls for the elimination of barriers and "unnecessary procedures" to ensure a rapid response when wildfires threaten life and property. The memo also directs the Forest Service to examine the impact of "voluntary departures" on the firefighting workforce and propose a plan to "remedy critical vacancies." Non-fire staff should also be deployed to support frontline firefighters as wildfire activity increases, allowing for a "more robust and more intentional and more effective force as we move into this season," Rollins said. "But we are not going to waste taxpayer dollars the way that we've seen happen in the past," she said. Wildfires have already scorched more than one million acres across the country so far this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The center's outlook shows higher temperatures and drier conditions than typical across much of the West this summer. "Our prayer is that it won't actually happen, that it will be lighter than usual, but indicators are showing that it actually may be a heavy fire season," Rollins said. She added she's confident Americans will see "an unprecedented level of coordination" among federal, state and local governments as the summer progresses. "There is zero compromising [on] having the most prepared, most effective [firefighters]," Rollins said. "And we'll do everything possible to ensure that they have every tool they need to be successful this season."Original article source: As US braces for 'significant' wildfires, Trump's agriculture secretary addresses Forest Service departures
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Yahoo
Car slams into group of cyclists handing out 'know your rights' cards in Boyle Heights
The Brief A hit-and-run driver crashed into a group of cyclists in Boyle Heights The cyclists said they were handing out "Red Cards" to undocumented community members when they were hit. The crash was caught on security video, showing one of the cyclists trying to stop the driver before they continued to drive right into them. LOS ANGELES - A hit-and-run crash in Boyle Heights left four cyclists injured. The bikers say they tried to stop the woman behind the wheel, but she kept going. They're also suspicious because they say they were handing out informational cards to undocumented community members when the crash happened. What we know The crash happened on Feb. 25, around 7:45 p.m. near Lorena and 6th streets in Boyle Heights, when they said the car came out of nowhere. Security video shows cyclists being hit one after another from behind. At one point, one of the cyclists even gets in front of the car, trying to stop the driver, but they keep going. The car eventually drove off, but they were able to get a picture of the license plate. They said the driver was a bald woman, and she had a cellphone in her hand during the crash. SUGGESTED: Boyle Heights hit-and-run sends victim flying into air; police search for driver Four cyclists were hurt. One of them suffered a head injury and spent the night in the hospital. The group says they don't know why the crash happened, but wonder if it was related to what they were doing just before the incident. Dig deeper Shortly before the crash, the group said they were handing out "Red Cards" to undocumented community members. Red cards, also known as "Know Your Rights" cards, are cards that inform people of their rights, and what they should do if they're approached by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The Los Angeles Unified School District began distributing the cards to students after Donald Trump's executive order, allowing ICE agents to enter What they're saying "We don't know if she saw us doing that and that triggered her, or if it was an accident. Maybe she didn't see us," said Daniel Flores. "Maybe she hates cyclists." "I saw our other cyclist friend almost go up in the air, and I saw her just run right into him and he crashed onto her windshield," Nancy Lopez said. Lopez said that the impact she made with the woman's car "ripped her mirror off her car and dented her car. You would think you would stop and be like 'Oh my god, what did I hit,' if she was distracted, but she went right back out and the she plowed, full speed again, right into another cyclist." What's next The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to FOX 11 that officers were called out for the hit-and-run but had no information on the investigation. The Source Information in this story is from interviews with
Los Angeles Times
22-02-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
ICE agents may be planning a major operation in L.A. What are your rights?
Within the first days of the Trump administration, the president signed an executive order that promoted aggressive sweeps to round up and deport people living in the U.S. illegally. That means that your chances of getting questioned about your immigration status have just increased. It also means you need to be armed with your rights, whether you are a citizen, a legal resident or an illegal immigrant. The city of Los Angeles has adopted sanctuary city policies and more recently a law that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using city employees and city property to 'investigate, cite, arrest, hold, transfer or detain any person' for the purpose of immigration enforcement — with the exception for law enforcement investigating serious offenses. Earlier this month an internal government document reviewed by The Times stated ICE plans to carry out a 'large scale' immigration enforcement action in the Los Angeles area at the end of the month. The operation will focus on people who do not have legal status in the country or who already have pending orders of removal, according to the document. Even though Los Angeles and the state of California have protections in place for their undocumented community members, it won't stop ICE officials from appearing on people's doorsteps, at workplaces or in public spaces. Advocacy groups and legal representatives say that everyone who lives in the United States, including undocumented immigrants, have certain constitutional rights and protections during an agent's questioning. If you're home alone or with family members and you hear a knock at the door, check the window, security camera or peephole so you can identify if ICE agents are outside. When you find yourself in this situation, the first step is to keep your door closed and locked, advised advocacy groups and legal experts. The only reason you would need to open the door or allow agents inside your home is if they present a valid search warrant. Be sure to ask the agents to identify themselves and show you the warrant by putting it against the window or slipping it under your door. A valid warrant must be: An invalid warrant would be: If you've identified that the warrant is not valid, keep your door closed. This can be an overwhelming, stressful and scary situation. All those emotions are valid, said Pedro Trujillo, director of organizing for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. Take a moment to gather yourself, he suggests, because there isn't a time limit on the visit. 'Officers are going to be pushy, they're going to try to get you to be nervous so that you can make a mistake and incriminate yourself,' Trujillo said. If you need help verbalizing your rights, show the agent a Red Card that helps explain your rights. Red Cards can be downloaded from the website for the Immigration Legal Resource Center. By showing this card, you're affirming that you want to remain silent and wish to speak to a lawyer. The card states that the person ICE agents are inquiring about has the right to decline answering questions and signing or handing over documents based on their 5th Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution. You can present this card to agents, whether it's a physical copy or a photo on your phone, by displaying it through the window. No. You have the right to remain silent, which means you don't have to answer any questions ICE agents ask of you. For example, if you're asked about your immigration status, where you were born or how you entered the United States, you may refuse to answer or remain silent, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. You can simply say, 'I want to remain silent' or 'I am exercising my right to remain silent.' Experts advise that you don't do any of the following: If you need a reminder of what your rights are, consult your Red Card. If you followed the steps above but ICE agents enter your home without permission anyway, you should clearly state, 'I do not consent to this entry or search.' Don't physically resist but instead document everything, including: After agents have left, reach out to and consult with a legal representative to address the violation. If ICE agents are present when you're on public transportation: If ICE agents approach you while you're in the car: If you are detained or taken into custody, you have the right to reach out to an attorney and receive a phone call from an attorney. You can prove you have a lawyer by giving the officer your signed Form G-28, a federal document that details your lawyer's information and your consent to their legal representation. Don't have a lawyer? Ask the ICE official for a list of pro-bono lawyers. You can also ask to contact the consulate which may be able to assist you in locating a lawyer. Get familiar with the rules of the detention center you've been placed in. You can do so by asking for a copy of the Detainee Handbook to understand the detention center's rules, your rights and how you can communicate with loved ones. The book is available in 19 languages, including English, Spanish, Arabic, Bengali, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, K'iche' (Quiché)/Kxlantzij, Mam, Portuguese, Pulaar, Punjabi, Q'eqchi' (Kekchí), Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Turkish, Vietnamese and Wolof.
