09 Mar Immigrants’ Rights in the Face of Increased ICE Enforcement: What You Need to Know

(“Protest against deportations in Dallas – February 2, 2025” by Mike Kelner / Flickr / CC BY 2.0 license)

By Danielle Parenteau-Decker 

The Trump administration’s increased enforcement of anti-immigrant policies has many living in fear, but advocates are working to ensure immigrants know their rights.

Ethnic Media Services hosted a panel of experts Feb. 7 to discuss how individuals should respond if approached by immigration officials at home, work, or school — or if they are arrested.

“As undocumented people in the U.S., we are still entitled to constitutional protections,” said Amanda Alvarado-Ford, deputy directing attorney of the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area. That includes the right to remain silent and freedom from unlawful search and seizure.

ICE at Your Door

If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents come to your door, don’t open it unless they present a judicial warrant signed by a U.S. district court judge, according to Alvarado-Ford.

Ask if the agent has a warrant and request to see it. You can ask them to slide it under the door, pass it through a mail slot, or hold it up to a window.

Examine the paperwork closely. “You want to scrutinize that carefully and not feel rushed as hard as it might be,” she said. “We have to remember to breathe and remember our rights and remember we’re looking for that signature from a judge from a U.S. district court.”

This is important because they might show you official paperwork, just not the right kind.

“Most times, it’s an ICE immigration official who has signed an ICE/Department of Homeland Security warrant for alien arrest, which is not a signed judicial order,” Alvarado-Ford said.

A proper judicial warrant will state “United States District Court” at the top and include a judge’s name and signature. The ICE/DHS order will say “warrant for arrest of alien,” but it does not actually grant the authority to arrest someone.

Without a judicial warrant, Alvarado-Ford advised saying: “I would like you to leave the premises. Please leave. I have the right to remain silent, and I also have the right to speak to my immigration attorney.”

She also said to say the last part even if you don’t have an attorney yet.

ICE at School or Work

Viridiana Carrizales, founder of ImmSchools, said that 5.5 million children in the U.S. are undocumented or live with an undocumented parent, though most of these children are U.S. citizens.

Current anti-immigrant policies are causing “a lot of fear in immigrant parents who are questioning now whether or not they should bring their kids to school,” she said. “Some parents have already withdrawn their kids from school.”

Carrizales urged parents to “be aware, be alert, be safe,” but emphasized that children should still have access to education.

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe, “every child in this country, regardless of their immigration status, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, [has] the legal right to be in K-12 schools,” she said.

Carrizales, an undocumented student herself, remembered the fear she felt.

“When I got here to the U.S.,” she said, “one of the first things that I learned very quickly, it was that schools were not safe for me, and the schools were not safe for my parents.”

She started her organization eight years ago “because no kid should ever be afraid of our schools. [They] should never be afraid of the same places that are meant to protect them.”

She’s made it her work to train educators and give information directly to students and families “to ensure that they know those rights and they’re able to exercise those rights.”

Carrizales said the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act “protects the privacy and confidentiality of our students’ records. Any information that a parent shares with a school is protected under this privacy act.”

Immigration officials can only access a child’s school records with a judicial warrant, which they “almost never” have, Carrizales said. “If an immigration official has an arrest warrant, an administrative warrant, something that is not judicial, that does not give them the authority to get information from our kids,” she added.

Such warrants may also only allow searches of specific school areas.

She also said that schools should only have legal counsel interact with immigration officials “so they can verify the validity and the legality of the documentation that they are presenting.”

Schools have indeed become less safe for immigrant families since the Trump administration rescinded the so-called sensitive locations memo just hours after his inauguration. The memo, which was signed by then-Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in 2021, prohibited immigration officials from making arrests at or near specific places, including schools and places of worship.

But the protections under Plyler v. Doe and FERPA remain, Carrizales said. And schools are never supposed to know their students’ immigration status.

“A school cannot require, cannot ask (for), cannot collect or document any information regarding a student’s immigration status,” she said. “A school cannot ask a parent, ‘Are you undocumented? Is your kid undocumented?’”

Alvarado-Ford reminded people that ICE can only enter areas open to the public at a workplace, not private or employee-only spaces. Again, they can only arrest someone with a judicial warrant.

Arrested by ICE

If arrested by immigration officials, Alvarado-Ford stressed the importance of asserting the right to remain silent.

“We can assert that right in a respectful way,” she said, “and I would recommend a respectful tone so as to avoid any undue harshness on the part of an ICE agent.”

Additionally, tell the agent if you fear returning to your home country or if you’ve been in the U.S. for at least two years. This entitles you to a hearing. Keep any documents that prove your length of stay in a safe place for easy access, she said.

She also recommended being prepared to show proof if you’ve applied for asylum, a U visa for victims of certain crimes committed in the U.S., a T visa for trafficking victims, or a green card under the Violence Against Women Act. Keep receipts or photos of these documents on your phone for easy access.