The White House leader´s waiting time for a bipartisan congressional agreement to reform asylum laws is over, so the President´s threat of mass deportations is yet to come.

Undocumented, U.S. activists and politicians keep on alert, monitoring the movements of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and calling on the undocumented community with support actions facing possible raids.

 Guillermo Torres, Organizer for Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), told local media to specify that, “these inhumane and atrocious policies of keeping us scared have also made us unite more, and that we learn more and more about our rights and how to defend ourselves.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a statement reiterating his call to use the state’s legal services and assistance, said, “New York will continue to stand with all immigrants to ensure they have the full protections afforded under the law.”

According to what is known so far, at least 2,000 families are at risk of being raided in ten cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or Houston.

Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti told reporters that the city’s residents should know that the Sanctuary State Laws will be enforced and that they prevent local police from collaborating with ICE on federal immigration issues.

This preoccupation about civil rights was created by Ken Cuccinelli, interim director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who said last Sunday that ICE “is ready to fulfill its mission, which is to go find and detain and then deport approximately one million people.

The ICE official said recently on the “Face the Nation” TV show, that his team will hardly be able to detain such a large number of undocumented immigrants and that even not all of those arrested would be deported.

Yet those words do not calm down at all U.S. activists who point out that a massive civil rights outrage is about to be committed in the United States.

Guillermo Torres highlights that the White House’s strategy is to manage big numbers of arrests in order to create anxiety among the community, but that their plan is to counteract these threats with proper information.

“If you know your rights, you refuse to answer and use your right to remain silent, if you refuse to open the door and understand when an arrest is discrimination we create real resistance,” Torres added.

These resources, on how to deal with ICE agents and the immigrants’ rights are part of the plan that the Mexican government is implementing in the 50 consulates it has in the United States.

Translated by: José Espinoza

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 A lot of Philadelphia activists are reacting to the new wave of raids. Philadelphians are following Andre Segura, who is Senior Staff Attorney for the ACLU’S Immigrants’ Rights Project

He uses Twitter to help the weak legal so that the state does not violate the civil rights of immigrants.

For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been the guardian of the nation’s freedom, and has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights enshrined in the law and the Constitution.

Tips for an ICE visit

Andre Segura, Legal Director at ACLU of Texas, has uploaded a digital media document which advises documented or undocumented immigrants about how they should behave in an ICE visit.

The young lawyer believes that some immigration agents “may be violating your rights in a new wave of raids. We´ve heard many worrying reports, but there are three main issues that we are particularly concerned about”

First: We all have rights

“ICE agents typically show up to a home carrying what´s called an administrative ICE warrant or a warrant for removal or deportation for a particular person.

 “This is confusing because while it says ‘warrant’, it is not warrant in the sense of allowing officers to enter your home. In order for officers to enter your home without your permission, they need a warrant signed by a judge. If they say they do, ask to see it. They could slide it under the door or they could show it to the window and you should see: is there a signature from a judge. It must have your address on it, it must list the name of someone inside the home. If it does, then officers can enter your home without your permission. But if it does not and they only have what’s called an ICE warrant, you do not need to let them have to let them enter the home.”

According to attorney Segura, undocumented immigrants should keep calm because ICE agents could enter your home regardless of whether or not they were given permission and even if they do not have a warrant signed by a judge. “In that case it´s very important not to resist, to be calm and to remember that we all have rights regardless of whether you have documents or not. And most importantly, you have the right to remain silent.”

Second: Silence is a fortress

“We’ve also heard reports of ICE agents pretending to be local police. Be sure to ask which agency the agents belong to. Are they from immigration? Are they from your local police department? Regardless of whether they are from Immigration or local police, they still need your permission or a court order signed by a judge to enter your home. Again, you always have the right to remain silent.

Third: Don’t resist the arrests

 “We´ve also heard reports of ICE questioning and detaining people who are not the targets of their visit. This could be passengers in a vehicle or other residents of a home for whom ICE has no information.

“If you are not suspected of any immigration violations or of any crime, there is no reason for ICE to be able to detain you. If you are the passenger of a vehicle or you are another resident in a home, you should ask if you are free to leave. If the officer says no, then you are being detained, and you should remember as always, that you have the right to remain silent.”

Translated by: José Espinoza

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