Where Immigrants Can Go For Help After Trump’s Deportation Efforts Go Into Effect

President Donald Trump’s mass deportation initiative is in full swing across America.

He said it would happen immediately after his inauguration, and it did.

Whether a person is a United States citizen or not, they have probably been affected by President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan.

A construction project or home renovation you planned got delayed because a worker got detained.

Or maybe, the cost of groceries has increased because migrant farmers stopped showing up to work.

A U.S. citizen that you know might have started carrying their passport card around to prove their citizenship.

Although many believed President Trump would only target violent criminals for his mass deportation plan, it seems as if his deportation plans have targeted everyone from a certain demographic.

Even American citizens have gotten caught up in the confusion, getting detained for a while as they attempt to prove their citizenship.

But what seems odd is the fact that those detained all look like they come from a demographic group with a dark hue, even though statistics show that many Europeans are in the country illegally after overstaying their visas.

Regardless, those from immigrant communities must know their rights if they want to navigate the next four years, at least.

Therefore, Houston Ethnic Media hosted a briefing featuring immigrant community leaders to educate the press and, as a result, educate a stressed-out public on how to use their rights to their advantage and how to speak up for those rights.

The participants of the Jan. 28 media briefing panel included: Angie Dupree, citizenship coordinator for the Naturalize Now, Houston! Initiative, Kristin Etter, director of policy and legal services at the Texas Immigration Legal Council, Zenobia Lai, executive director of Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, Catherine Lee, national communications manager of United We Dream and others.

Although the speakers represented different organizations, they all stressed the fact that undocumented immigrants still have constitutional rights.

Those rights include:

  • You have the right to refuse consent for immigration or the police to search yourself, your car or your home.
  • You have the right to remain silent. If you want to exercise that right, you should say it out loud.
  • If you are not a U.S. citizen, you have the right to call the consulate of your home country. Immigration and police must let your consulate visit or speak with you.
  • You have the right to speak to an attorney before answering any questions. You may say, “I will remain silent until I speak to an attorney.”
  • You do not have to sign anything that you do not understand.
  • You have the right to a copy of all your immigration papers.

Many immigrant organizations have business cards in multiple languages with immigrants’ rights on them.

Organizations urge undocumented immigrants to carry those cards on them and read them to law enforcement officials if they are ever confronted.

Additionally, undocumented immigrants can download the information from those cards onto their cell phones via apps.

The phone can even translate the information and read it to law enforcement officials.

Undocumented immigrants need to know that the only time that they must allow law enforcement to enter their homes is if they have a warrant signed by a judge.

However, many ICE warrants do not have a judge’s signature.

Do not open your door to obtain the warrant.

If a law enforcement official wants to serve you with a warrant, make them slide it under the door.

Do not open the door if that warrant is not signed by a real judge.

Furthermore, passengers in a car do not need to give law enforcement any identification.

Etter said that Trump’s mass deportation will mirror Texas’ deportation process.

Undocumented immigrants will not get their due process at mass detention centers.

Law enforcement officials will coerce guilty pleas and deportations.

Furthermore, Texas will be the staging ground for mass deportations.

The White House has since said that Trump will open Guantanamo Bay as a mass detention center.

Regardless, Etter believes that the detention centers will treat undocumented immigrants harshly.

Although many local, state and national politicians, especially many Democrats, disagree with Trump’s mass deportation policies, Lai told Houston area journalists that the federal government could take funds from municipalities and organizations like non-profits that do not assist with raids.

Lai said that one of the reasons that Trump wants to end birthright citizenship is because their children, who were born in the United States, can petition for their parents to become American citizens once they reach 21 years old.

She said five lawsuits are currently challenging Trump’s executive action to end birthright citizenship, and a Seattle judge temporarily halted his executive order.

Lai urged undocumented immigrants not to volunteer too much information to law enforcement officials.

And it is O.K. for an undocumented immigrant to ask if they are under arrest and that they want to speak with their attorney.

Lai also urged undocumented immigrants to know that the Know Your Rights business cards are available in a plethora of languages.

Todd A. Smith
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