In churches, office spaces, over Zoom and in parks, organizations and community leaders have been hosting “Know Your Rights” sessions for immigrant communities and allies who are increasingly worried about interactions with ICE and possible deportation under the Trump presidency.
These safety plans aren’t just for undocumented folks who fear deportation but for the other people in their lives. Here’s some of the safety planning that experts are recommending to families with mixed-immigration status:
- Make sure all children born in the United States have passports and social security cards. If they have one or more parents with documentation, make custody plans ahead of time.
- Transfer ownership of property, like cars and houses, if the owner could possibly face deportation.
- Know Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers need a warrant signed by a judge to enter a home. Make sure everyone in the household knows this, even kids.
- Always have the phone number of an attorney or legal service provider on your person. Make sure your family has that phone number as well.
- Never show false documents or say anything untrue.
A coalition of community leaders, politicians and immigrant rights advocates gathered in Detroit park last month to hold a press conference to highlight the rights of immigrants fearing deportation.
Fatou-Seydi Sarr is the founder and CEO of the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs (ABISA) in Detroit. Bundled in a coat and hat, she encouraged community members who have neighbors without legal status to stop by and offer support, such as grocery runs or prescription pick-ups.
“The deployment of military forces and ICE raids in our communities is here to terrorize, to disrupt the life and erode the trust we’re supposed to have in our elected officials,” Sarr said. "Nobody wants to wake up in the morning and wonder if they're going to go home and their father is not there."
Sarr and others highlighted that all people in this country have rights and that both Americans and immigrants should familiarize themselves with how they can and should react to immigration enforcement.
In the press conference, advocates encouraged people who are detained to use their real name so that family members can find where they are. They urged everyone to remember they have the right to ask for an attorney and the right to remain silent.
Community members with more questions can check out the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center’s guide on developing a safety plan and what to do after deportation.
Though immigration talk and coverage has been more prominent in the first few weeks of President Donald Trump’s new administration, national data shows that so far, there hasn’t been an increase in deportations in the country yet.
But there have been changes - like an executive order allowing ICE agents to enter churches, hospitals and schools, all places that were previously protected from immigration enforcement.
Make a plan, just in case
Adonis Flores is the training director for Michigan United, an organization holding some of these Know Your Rights meetings. He says he’s been getting more calls than ever from the undocumented community, with people scared and confused about what’s going to happen.
“They are afraid of really being detained at any point, like buying groceries, going to work at home,” he said. “And so they're just afraid of being, you know, basically snatched from their community and tearing their families apart and not knowing what consequences that's going to have for them and for their loved ones.”
Flores says the subject of these information campaigns have changed in the last few weeks.
“In the previous administration, we would talk a lot about your rights during the encounter with law enforcement, which is important. But now we spend less time on that and more time talking about what you need to do now before anybody in the family gets detained and how to plan for everyone in the family that could potentially be deported.”
For the children who were born here in America and are U.S. citizens, advocates say to order their passports now, and to make custody plans in case anything happens.
For families living in homes and driving cars owned by and registered to people who are undocumented or who are on visas, advocates say to transfer those properties to citizens they trust.
ICE needs a warrant signed by a judge to enter a home, so he recommends making sure anyone who enters the house, including children, knows not to invite ICE agents inside. Once they’re in, they’re in.
If detained in Michigan, “People don’t know where to look”
Diego Bonesatti is the legal services program manager at Michigan United and he’s been working in immigrant rights and legal services for three decades.
He says the experience of immigration detention is traumatic and family members likely won’t know where someone who’s detained is physically located. “Here in Michigan, ICE doesn’t have its own detention facilities. It relies on county jails… So people don’t know where to look.”
Bonesatti says it can take days for a person to appear in the system after ICE detains them. And if that person already has an order of removal, they can get deported before a family member even finds out where they’ve been held, he said.
He urges families to make a plan ahead of time if someone in their family is living in the country without legal status.
Some of the most important advice he has for people who are detained: Ask for a hearing before a judge. Ask for a bond. Know ahead of time if you want to invoke your right to silence or if you intend to speak with officers. He suggests talking to a lawyer or immigrants rights organization ahead of time to find out if someone has a remedy or a defense against removal that they can apply for.
Bonesatti also recommends setting aside some money to post a bond and also have a person who is ready to be the obligor, the person who shows up to all the hearings and posts the bond on behalf of the undocumented person.
Planning ahead of time can help ease some of the stress and confusion of deportation, he says. “If a person is unprepared, it's a little more traumatic,” he said. “There's a bunch of decisions there that the family has to think about, and which most people do not want to think about, because it's a terrible, it's a terrible thing.”
