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10 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
"Here's Everything We're Gonna Do If We Get Arrested By ICE": This Immigration Attorney's Tips Are A Must-Read For All Americans
Earlier this month, President Trump ordered ICE to increase arrests of undocumented people in the US from 1,000 a day to 3,000, and since then, the agency's tactics have drawn increasing criticism and protest. With reports that ICE has in some cases arrested legal residents and citizens, including New York City comptroller Brad Lander, it's so important for all of us to know our rights, just in case. That's where New York-based immigration attorney Michael Foote comes in. Foote has been practicing immigration law for 7 years, and he recently took to TikTok to share some tips for what to do if you find yourself getting arrested by ICE. In the video, which has been viewed over 3.4 million times, he begins by saying, "Here's everything we're gonna do if we get arrested by ICE," and then lays out 4 key steps to remember. he says, after you're arrested, you'll be taken to the nearest detention center to be booked and processed. When you're there, Foote says, "Do not ever sign a document that anyone gives you unless it was given to you by your immigration attorney. That's the only person you are signing documents for." On a call with BuzzFeed, Foote explained why it's so important not to sign anything without your attorney. "Detention officers, ICE officers are allowed to trick people. There is no protection from ICE officers using persuasion, taking advantage of the fact that you don't speak English. So you really want to make sure you're not signing anything. If you are forced to sign something, there's very much a strong legal case of coercion entering a deportation order under duress or coercion. But unfortunately, that suit will probably be fought after you're deported." Foote wants you to know that you have the right to a hearing before an immigration judge. "You have a day in court," he says. "You have due process rights." The right to due process is essentially the right to a hearing and to be treated fairly under the law. Foote explained to BuzzFeed that although immigration court is not the same as criminal court, immigrants are still entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment. Related: Donald Trump Supporters Are Waking Up To The Reality Of Their Ballot Choices, And The Stories Are A Loooooot you meet the judge, Foote goes on to say, "You're going to ask the judge for a list of pro bono, free attorneys in the area, and guess what? That's it. You're not going to say anything else to that judge. They can ask your name, they can ask your address. That's fine. But anything after that, you say, I really would prefer to discuss this with an attorney present." Foote told BuzzFeed, "In immigration court, you have the right to consult an attorney, but you don't automatically get one the way that, when you're arrested for a criminal act, you get Mirandized, and then the second you show up for your arraignment, there's a public defender there. You just don't get those same rights." So it's vital to know that you have to ask for representation in immigration court. He also explained why you don't need to say much else to the judge. "That judge is a neutral third party. They're separate from you and your rights, and you and your attorney. So I feel like when people go in front of a judge, they're often like, I have to do whatever the judge says. It's like, that's actually not true. Sometimes judges are going to be looking out for completely opposite interests, or they're looking to clear a docket, or we just don't know what their motivations are. They are supposed to be third-party arbiters of a case, but they're not always going to have the same interests; they're not there to look out for your rights. That's your lawyer's job." Related: "He Torched His Entire Reputation For Nothing": 27 Of The Best Political Tweets From This Messy, Messy Week for the last step, he advises you to memorize an emergency contact's phone number today so you can make a call while you're in detention. "You're going to memorize someone's phone number right now, someone you trust who you know is going to answer the phone. That's all you need to know how to do by yourself, because after that, you're going to have an immigration lawyer. You're going to contact your emergency contact." Foote told BuzzFeed, "Definitely be careful what you say on the phone. Lines are recorded if you're calling from a detention center. So don't say, 'Hey, this was that crime I committed, and this is how I ended up getting in this detention center.' You just want to say, 'Hey, I was picked up by ICE. I'm now being held here. Please help me out.'" He went on to say, "Even if you don't have someone's phone number memorized, or you don't know who to contact, these detention centers have been in existence for quite some time, so there are a lot of nonprofits that are quite literally next door, or sometimes even attached to the detention center. Those nonprofits are great resources to help get you a lawyer or in contact with your family. They've been doing this for, decades, so they're able to really help. They're no strangers to a crisis, and I lean on them all the time." Foote says these 4 steps apply whether you're undocumented, a legal resident, or a citizen, but if you have legal status, he says you should make that known at every step of the way. "You definitely want to let everyone and anyone at the ICE facility, your detention officer, the people who are arresting you, know that you are a citizen and provide those documents as quickly as possible, like a US passport, birth certificate, something like that, that is evidence." You can watch his full video here: @michael_foote_ / Via Plus, here's a Spanish-language translation of Foote's video, and you can find more Spanish-language resources about immigrant rights at the National Immigration Law Center. @theabogada / Via In the comments, people also mentioned asking for a credible fear interview. Foote told BuzzFeed, "Credible fear interviews are conducted immediately after someone crosses the border without documentation, before they see an immigration judge. It is supposed to be a short series of questions to determine if someone qualifies for asylum; however, the person deciding the outcome of a CFI is the asylum officer conducting the interview. That person works for DHS and USCIS. They are not a neutral third-party arbiter like an immigration judge. So, anyone being asked to talk to an asylum officer in a CFI should request to have an attorney present, then ask for a list of pro bono attorneys in the area of the detention center, and say nothing to an asylum officer until they have an attorney present." Finally, Foote shared his perspective on the Trump administration's immigration tactics. He told BuzzFeed, "The US does not have the capacity or the resources to do on such a large scale what they want us to believe they're capable of doing. So I think that they are being very subversive in the information that they're letting out. They'll deport someone who's a citizen. It'll dominate headlines. They'll deport someone who has a green card, it'll dominate headlines." "The immigrant community is very much a word-of-mouth community, so once you sort of get a message out there that really bad, crazy things are happening, it very much spreads. But if you look at it, we haven't built a wall, we haven't taken major immigration legislative reforms, even though the conservatives have the House and Senate." He says that the situation is far more nuanced than what people may be seeing on social media, and the system is not as broken as it may seem. He summed it up, saying, "Immigration judges understand the law and how it's applied and when it's being violated. So, I'm having plenty of wins in front of immigration judges who understand that ICE is violating well-established constitutional law." Also in In the News: "Honestly Speechless At How Evil This Is": 26 Brutal, Brutal, Brutal Political Tweets Of The Week Also in In the News: Trump Had A Middle-Of-The-Night Meltdown About... Well... So Many Things Also in In the News: A Clip Of Donald Trump Getting Angry After Being Fact-Checked Is Going Mega Viral, And It Sums Up His Entire Presidency In A Nutshell
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Who are these people?' Masked immigration agents challenge local police, sow fear in L.A.
Increasingly aggressive immigration raids carried out by masked federal agents, sometimes using unmarked vehicles, are creating problems for local law enforcement agencies. Police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place but often have to deal with the aftermath, including protests and questions from residents about what exactly happened. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immigrant communities trust the police. In Bell, chaos erupted when masked men arrived at a car wash and began detaining its workers, sparking a confrontation with residents and immigration rights advocates before they were forced to hastily drive over curbs and street islands to escape. In Pasadena last week, a man stepped out of his unmarked vehicle at an intersection, unholstered his pistol and aimed it at a group of pedestrians before returning to his car, turning on its red and blue emergency lights and speeding off. Video of the incident went viral. That incident left the police chief of Pasadena resigned to figure out whether it was a crime or part of a federal raid. "There's no way for us to verify," Police Chief Gene Harris said. The department reviewed surveillance footage and other video and saw the credentials on the man's uniform, according to the chief. "We were able to determine that to the best of our estimation he was an ICE agent. ... We will not look into it any deeper than that," he said. Read more: Feds vow to continue immigration enforcement 'every day in L.A.' Here are your rights At Dodger Stadium last week, immigration agents staged outside the parking lot prompted protests and questions that local officials had to address. "They show up without uniforms. They show up completely masked. They refuse to give ID," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said during a news briefing after the Dodger Stadium incident. "Who are these people? And frankly, the vests that they have on look like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they're federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?" Ed Obayashi, a Northern California deputy and use-of-force expert, said federal agents enjoy great autonomy and "can do what they want in their official capacity." "If they point a gun or take someone in, local police cannot step in and interfere regardless of the circumstances," Obayashi said. He said that federal agencies have extensive use-of-force policies on drawing weapons but that, ultimately, if the overall directive is to take this action, then the guidelines don't matter. "If Homeland Security says this is what we want, the policy guidelines when it comes to gun and force doesn't matter," he added. "There is little redress against federal law enforcement in the civil courts compared to local police." Federal agents are not subject to the same statues as local police, namely Section 1983 claims that allow people to sue certain government agencies and employees for violating their civil rights. "The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly shielded federal agents from legal repercussions," Obayashi said. The incidents at Dodger Stadium, in Bell and in Pasadena unfolded more than two weeks after masked immigration agents descended on the region carrying out a wave of immigration sweeps in predominately Latino communities. Residents are on edge as masked men are appearing and detaining their friends, relatives and neighbors without any clear sign they are part of federal immigration enforcement and refuse to show identification or a warrant. The Pasadena incident showed how social media can amplify an incident and highlight the lack of response from local officials. In a video posted to Instagram from Pasadena, a suspected federal agent is seen exiting a Dodge Charger at an intersection and pointing his gun at members of the public. In the video, a person walks up to the back of the Dodge Charger and appears to take a photo of the license plate. That's when the driver gets out of the vehicle and points a gun at the person who was behind the vehicle, then toward another person outside of the video frame. The word "Police" is visible on the driver's vest, along with a badge on his hip. After a few seconds, the man puts the gun away and gets back into the car as bystanders shout at him. The man then activates the vehicle's red and blue lights common to law enforcement vehicles and drives away. Citizens shared the vehicle's license plate on social media, which led to more questions than answers. According to Pasadena officials, the vehicle's license plate is a "cold plate," or untraceable, which is typically used by law enforcement in undercover criminal operations. "One question is this a law enforcement agent or someone pretending to be a law enforcement agent, and there is no good answer here," Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told The Times. "[To] have a law enforcement agent draw his weapon and point it toward someone using their iPhone, and a crowd, is showing a lack of training and a lack of temperance in the use of force." He's still hopeful that the federal government will acknowledge the incident and provide some clarity. As more immigration sweeps happen, Gordo is worried that there could be an accidental shooting or that police could end up caught in the middle if unidentified federal agents are pulling out their guns in public. Previous administrations informed the city of enforcement actions to avoid accidental confrontations between law enforcement, according to Gordo. "Our police need to be aware of undercover or unmarked law enforcement operations. These operations are endangering everyone in our neighborhoods," he said. If citizens do encounter a matter where it appears that someone is impersonating law enforcement, they should call 911, Harris said. But local police will not interfere with federal activities, he said. "I understand the lingering fear in the community," Harris said. "I would tell [citizens] to defer to their own feelings, understand what's going on around them." He added that federal immigration activities in Pasadena have not impeded local police efforts or response times. There have been no arrests, property damage or violence related to protests against the immigration sweeps in Pasadena, officials said. About an hour's drive inland in Fontana, the lack of clarity is making work harder for local police who have been mistaken for federal immigration agents. Officers investigating a recent burglary were mistaken for federal immigration agents over social media, Fontana Police Sgt. Nathan Weiske said. In another instance, undercover officers were confronted by protesters who thought they were conducting surveillance for an immigration sweep. "It is not safe for our officers, or for others involved in any active police operations if misrepresentations or misunderstandings lead to inappropriate engagement," Fontana Police Chief Michael Dorsey said in a Facebook post. In some parts of the Southland, the response to the immigration raids can be swift and fierce. In Bell, masked men in fatigues detained at least three people at a car wash, drawing a large protest. Dozens of people swarmed the area and shouted at the agents, 'Are you a bounty hunter? How much is the bounty for an illegal right now?' questioning their identities. Video showed the men, wearing fatigues and balaclavas and carrying long weapons, fire tear gas to disperse the crowd so they could leave. The Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol vehicles were damaged during the incident. Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores calls the federal government's presence in the region "political theater" meant to antagonize the Latino population. Flores plans to introduce a motion to the City Council that will direct local police to ask federal agents to identify themselves if they attempt to carry out an immigration operation in the city. "What happens if you have bad actors who decide to throw on an olive drab outfit and go around abducting people?" Flores told The Times. "I would not ask our officers to interfere with federal matters. But we have to be prepared to hold these agencies accountable for their actions. There's a tragedy waiting to happen." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
