Welcome to the Ultimate Guide for Protecting Yourself if ICE Comes Knocking at Your Door. Right now, the Trump administration has instructed ICE to make over 1,000 arrests per day and even though they say that they're not going to go after immigrants without a criminal history, they're still going after everybody and also sweeping up U.S. citizens in the midst.
Trump has also given ICE permission to arrest people in places they traditionally do not touch, including hospitals, churches, and schools. So if you are undocumented or know somebody who is, you need to know where ICE is likely to show up and the tricks they are likely to use in order to get people arrested. If you do ever get arrested, having a plan in place can make all the difference.
That's why I am making this video both in English and in Spanish in order to help people protect themselves and avoid having their lives be torn apart. I'll include a link to my Spanish channel here. Please share it with anyone who might need it.
Okay, so how can you protect yourself from ICE if they do happen to target you? Let's start with what to do if they approach you outside of your home.
If someone stops you and says that they're with ICE or the police, or anyone else asking you about your identity, the first thing you should do is ask who they are. ICE agents often pretend to be police officers, and in fact, their vest in the back may even say that they're police. Sometimes, they may even wear plain clothes.
So if somebody starts suddenly asking you questions, no matter what they are wearing, ask who they are and ask to see a badge and make sure you do this before saying anything else. If they are with ICE, ask if you are free to leave or if you are being detained. If they say that you're free to leave, then walk away and don't say anything else. If they say no, do not resist arrest and do not run.
Even if you are undocumented, you still have rights underneath the Constitution. So the only things that you should say are, "I choose the right to remain silent. I wish to speak to an attorney." In some states, you may be required to give your name, but you are under no obligation to answer any further questions.
So do not say anything about your immigration status, how you got to where you are, what country you're from, or what country you are a national of. Instead, exercise your right to remain silent. Why do you want to remain silent for these questions?
Well, because when you answer these questions, you are providing ICE with evidence that they can then use against you in any deportation proceeding.
What if they try to search you? If ICE tries to search your belongings, say out loud that, "I do not consent to this search." The Fourth Amendment protects you against unfreezable searches no matter what your nationality is and no matter what your immigration status is. So saying this out loud can later help protect you in court.
A lot of undocumented immigrants are actually carrying little know-your-right red cards in order to explain to the ICE officer what their constitutional rights are. So it's a good idea to keep one of these.
If for some reason you decide to actually speak to the ICE officers, resist the urge to say that you are an American or an American citizen because this can actually do you more harm than you realize. It might seem a quick way to get out of a scary situation, but in fact, if you do say that you're a U.S. citizen, you will be in violation of one of the toughest immigration rules that exists and there may not be a way to get you out of it.
Saying that you're a U.S. citizen when you are not can lead to a lifetime ban on certain immigration benefits and also get you deported from the United States. So in short, don't say it unless you are actually a U.S. citizen.
And lastly, do not sign any documentation that they ask you to sign without having a lawyer read it first and advise you of the consequences of what it means to sign such documentation. When ICE is presenting you with a document to sign, it is usually a document that is requesting for you to sign your rights away. So make sure that you do not sign anything without fully understanding what it says. If you require an interpreter to interpret the document for you, ask for an interpreter. Hopefully it would not come to this and ICE will let you go.
But if you do happen to get arrested despite taking these steps, I'll let you know what you should do next, which I'll explain shortly. But first, let's discuss what to do if ICE comes to your home and comes to your door. ICE officers have been showing up to people's homes early in the morning to catch them before they leave for work and in order to get you to open the door, they will usually lie about who they are and about why they are there.
A common trick that they use is to pretend to be police officers, saying that they are investigating a crime and that they have some questions for you. But if you're undocumented and someone pretending to be police comes knocking at your door, especially early in the morning, do not open it. There's a good chance that it's ICE. Note that if you do even crack open your door, they will likely swoop their way in even if you have not given them permission to enter your premises.
If they are at your door, ask to see a badge or an ID so you can actually ascertain who exactly they are and which agency they work for. Take a picture if possible and even better, if you can, record the entire interaction. Once you confirm that they are in fact ICE, stay calm and still continue to speak through the door. You can let them know that you do not wish to answer any questions.
If they request to enter your house because they have a warrant, do not take their word for it and instead ask to see a full copy of the warrant that they claim to have in their possession. Ask them to slide it underneath the door or to hold it up to a window so that you can actually read it. Here is where you want to be educated about what type of warrant allows ICE to actually enter your door versus a warrant that allows ICE to arrest you.
Many times, ICE will hold up a warrant that is issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. How do you know this? It will actually say at the top that it is a warrant for arrest, but it will also say at the top that it is issued by the Department of Homeland Security and at the bottom, you can see the signature line and it will say immigration officer or DHS official. This type of a warrant is only a warrant to arrest someone who is named on that warrant.
To the contrary, a warrant that would allow ICE to actually enter your home would be issued by a state court or a federal court and would also be signed by a judge. You also need to check to see what name is on that warrant to see whether it is yours or somebody who exists in your household. And lastly, you want to check to see how long this warrant is valid for because frequently warrants to enter someone's home will have an expiration period.
Without these things being present, ICE does not have the legal authority to enter your home. Oftentimes, they're not going to go to the trouble of obtaining a judicial warrant to enter your home because that requires a lot of extra effort by them and also requires the consent of a judge. So if they do not actually have an official judicial warrant to enter your home, then the next thing is that they might try to trick you to get you to open your door and give them permission to come inside.
They could show you other official paperwork, which is not actually a judicial warrant. They could say that they just have some questions about something unrelated to immigration, and that could be a trick that they use to get inside your home. Don't believe them and don't take their word for it.
Instead, ask to see the proof, ask to see the judicial warrant, and ask them to slide it underneath the door because these are your rights protected by the Constitution regardless of what your immigration status is.
What if they force their way in? If they force their way in, make sure you say out loud that you do not consent to them entering your home. Just like before, say that you do not consent to any searches and say out loud that you wish to speak to a lawyer and that you wish to exercise your right to remain silent. If possible, make sure that you're recording this entire interaction because as I mentioned previously, it can actually be used to help you in court later against any illegally obtained evidence.
If ICE has not actually forced their way in, as soon as they're gone from your door, make sure you write down the following things to create a record of their visit:
If they damage anything inside your home, make sure you take a picture of it and if they handed you any documents, make sure you hold on to them.
But what if ICE doesn't just leave? What should you do if they manage to arrest you and take you to an ICE location? The same rules still apply. Stay calm, do not answer any questions, and ask to speak to an attorney. The government is not required to provide you with a lawyer, but you do still have the right to speak with one.
If you don't already have a lawyer or cannot afford one, these organizations may be able to help. Within a day of being detained, your family should be able to search for you by using your full name and your date of birth in the ICE detainee locator function.
If you are personally assigned an A number through any other previous interaction with USCIS, DHS, or ICE, make sure you write this down for your family now so that they can use that to search you later should you happen to get arrested.
So what can you do in advance to prepare for any encounter with ICE?
Number one, as I've mentioned, know what your actual constitutional rights are. The second is to actually collect all of your essential documents and secure them so that your family has access to them. Make sure that someone you trust knows where your documentation and your information is and knows how to collect them.
These documents can include your passport from your home country, your birth certificate, marriage licenses, or divorce papers, proof of US residency, including anything showing the length of your time of residency in the US, including bills or lease agreements, financial and property records, medical records, and any immigration applications that you have filed, and your A number if you have one.
It's important to have a family preparedness plan and others know what to do if you're detained. These documents should be provided to a lawyer that your family contacts so that they can begin preparing any stays or removals or any other application with the government to get you out of detention. These are not meant to be provided definitely to ICE. These are meant to be provided to any attorney who is going to represent you and protect you.
Have discussions in place with friends or family members so that your children know who to go to and so that you know who will help protect and guard your children in case you are detained. You can even sign powers of attorney to give somebody the legal right to help protect and take care of your children, along with powers of attorneys to make other financial decisions, access your bank accounts, and do other things that can be executed through a power of attorney. Make sure everybody has your emergency contact information.
Another smart move is downloading the Notifica app. This app allows you to instantly alert all of your emergency contacts if you're detained and sends them in your last known location. Plus, it can automatically activate your family's preparedness plan, including sending messages to your kid's school, your employer, your lawyer, and anyone else that you need to notify. That is a lot easier than trying to individually call a lot of people after you have been detained by ICE.
One more thing, please strongly consider turning off face ID or fingerprint ID to unlock your phone because these can be used by ICE to obtain the information inside your phone if they do happen to arrest you. Your phone's lock code and PIN number is protected by the US Constitution, but not your face ID. So if you want to keep ICE from accessing your phone and the records inside of it, take off face ID and fingerprint ID.
Finally, this goes without saying, the last thing that you should do to protect yourself is to find out what you may qualify for underneath immigration law. A lot more immigrants may be qualified for legal status than they realize simply because they have not had certain questions asked to determine their options.
In this next video, I'll explain one of the best ways that you might be able to qualify for legal status without getting married and if you do qualify, you can go from undocumented to green card holder within approximately five years. I'll include a link to that video here, so click now and watch next.