SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officers arrest an undocumented Mexican immigrant during a raid in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn on April 11, 2018 in New York City. ICE detentions are frequently controversial in New York, considered a "sanctuary city" for undocumented immigrants, and ICE receives little or no cooperation from local law enforcement. ICE said that officers arrested 225 people for violation of immigration laws during the 6-day operation, the largest in New York City in recent years. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
'Not On Our Watch': Rights Groups Rally to Help Immigrant Communities Ahead of Reported Weekend Raids by ICE
"ICE is doing this to not just rip apart hundreds of families apart but also to terrorize everyone else. This is the definition of terrorism."
Jun 21, 2019
Ahead of raids the Trump administration is reportedly set to begin on Sunday, rights groups on Friday urgently circulated information to immigrant communities and families nationwide to ensure their rights are known and protections are in place.
Three officials with knowledge of Trump's directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Washington Post that up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders could be targeted in 10 major cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Francisco, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
The news of the planned raids comes days after the president threatened that he would soon begin deporting "millions" of undocumented immigrants.
To prepare communities, groups including United We Dream and Raices posted on social media information about immigrants' rights.
If ICE agents come to an immigrant's home, one infographic made by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) read, he or she should not open the door. Instead, families should demand to see a warrant for arrest and exercise their right to remain silent and speak with a lawyer.
"Don't give personal information or your fingerprints, or answer any questions about your status," wrote FIRM. "Don't hand over your ID or papers to the ICE agents. Don't sign any forms or documents (paper or digital) that the ICE agents give you without speaking with an attorney."
FIRM also compiled a list of ways communities and organizers can help immigrants ahead of the raids.
"Create an emergency list of a large number of lawyers that will be ready to roll immediately" to provide legal aid, FIRM wrote. "Prepare a database of the names and numbers of individuals who can help with translation and transportation...Identify local people in the town where the raid happened that can be ready to brief lawyers when they come."
Rights advocates called on community members to connect with social justice groups in their area and vow to help undocumented immigrants if they saw a raid taking place, by familiarizing themselves with immigrants' rights during a raid.
Rights advocates and lawmakers condemned Trump's reported plan, which acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan had warned ICE would likely separate children from their parents, according to the Post.
"ICE raiding our communities is domestic terrorism," tweeted the immigration legal aid non-profit Raices. "ICE is doing this to not just rip apart hundreds of families apart but also to terrorize everyone else. This is the definition of terrorism."
Trump is reportedly intent on carrying out the widespread raids despite the McAleenan's warnings.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Ahead of raids the Trump administration is reportedly set to begin on Sunday, rights groups on Friday urgently circulated information to immigrant communities and families nationwide to ensure their rights are known and protections are in place.
Three officials with knowledge of Trump's directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Washington Post that up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders could be targeted in 10 major cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Francisco, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
The news of the planned raids comes days after the president threatened that he would soon begin deporting "millions" of undocumented immigrants.
To prepare communities, groups including United We Dream and Raices posted on social media information about immigrants' rights.
If ICE agents come to an immigrant's home, one infographic made by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) read, he or she should not open the door. Instead, families should demand to see a warrant for arrest and exercise their right to remain silent and speak with a lawyer.
"Don't give personal information or your fingerprints, or answer any questions about your status," wrote FIRM. "Don't hand over your ID or papers to the ICE agents. Don't sign any forms or documents (paper or digital) that the ICE agents give you without speaking with an attorney."
FIRM also compiled a list of ways communities and organizers can help immigrants ahead of the raids.
"Create an emergency list of a large number of lawyers that will be ready to roll immediately" to provide legal aid, FIRM wrote. "Prepare a database of the names and numbers of individuals who can help with translation and transportation...Identify local people in the town where the raid happened that can be ready to brief lawyers when they come."
Rights advocates called on community members to connect with social justice groups in their area and vow to help undocumented immigrants if they saw a raid taking place, by familiarizing themselves with immigrants' rights during a raid.
Rights advocates and lawmakers condemned Trump's reported plan, which acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan had warned ICE would likely separate children from their parents, according to the Post.
"ICE raiding our communities is domestic terrorism," tweeted the immigration legal aid non-profit Raices. "ICE is doing this to not just rip apart hundreds of families apart but also to terrorize everyone else. This is the definition of terrorism."
Trump is reportedly intent on carrying out the widespread raids despite the McAleenan's warnings.
Ahead of raids the Trump administration is reportedly set to begin on Sunday, rights groups on Friday urgently circulated information to immigrant communities and families nationwide to ensure their rights are known and protections are in place.
Three officials with knowledge of Trump's directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Washington Post that up to 2,000 families facing deportation orders could be targeted in 10 major cities, including Houston, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, Baltimore, San Francisco, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
The news of the planned raids comes days after the president threatened that he would soon begin deporting "millions" of undocumented immigrants.
To prepare communities, groups including United We Dream and Raices posted on social media information about immigrants' rights.
If ICE agents come to an immigrant's home, one infographic made by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) read, he or she should not open the door. Instead, families should demand to see a warrant for arrest and exercise their right to remain silent and speak with a lawyer.
"Don't give personal information or your fingerprints, or answer any questions about your status," wrote FIRM. "Don't hand over your ID or papers to the ICE agents. Don't sign any forms or documents (paper or digital) that the ICE agents give you without speaking with an attorney."
FIRM also compiled a list of ways communities and organizers can help immigrants ahead of the raids.
"Create an emergency list of a large number of lawyers that will be ready to roll immediately" to provide legal aid, FIRM wrote. "Prepare a database of the names and numbers of individuals who can help with translation and transportation...Identify local people in the town where the raid happened that can be ready to brief lawyers when they come."
Rights advocates called on community members to connect with social justice groups in their area and vow to help undocumented immigrants if they saw a raid taking place, by familiarizing themselves with immigrants' rights during a raid.
Rights advocates and lawmakers condemned Trump's reported plan, which acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan had warned ICE would likely separate children from their parents, according to the Post.
"ICE raiding our communities is domestic terrorism," tweeted the immigration legal aid non-profit Raices. "ICE is doing this to not just rip apart hundreds of families apart but also to terrorize everyone else. This is the definition of terrorism."
Trump is reportedly intent on carrying out the widespread raids despite the McAleenan's warnings.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.