Know Your Rights
You have this constitutional right to refuse answering questions from ICE agents.
What is the right to remain silent?
Everyone in the United States has the constitutional right to refuse to answer questions from ICE or police, including about immigration status; this comes from the Fifth Amendment’s protection against self-incrimination.
Cite: http://immigrantjustice.org/for-immigrants/know-your-rights/ice-encounter/?
Everyone in the U.S. — regardless of immigration status — has constitutional protections
What is a fact
All people in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, have constitutional protections, including free speech and due process.
Peaceful assembly and protest are this type of protected action.
What is a constitutional right?
✊🏽 Protest & Advocacy — Answer Descriptions
The First Amendment guarantees the right to peacefully assemble and protest in the U.S. without unlawful government interference.
https://immigrantjustice.org/for-immigrants/know-your-rights/ice-encounter/?
This office at Cornell provides support and resources to undocumented and DACA students.
What is the Undocumented & DACA Student Support Office?
This U.S. government agency enforces immigration law within the interior of the United States.
What is Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is the federal agency responsible for enforcing immigration law within the interior of the United States.
ICE cannot legally enter your home unless they have this type of warrant signed by a judge.
What is a judicial warrant?
ICE needs a judicially issued warrant signed by a judge to lawfully enter your home without your consent; an administrative warrant doesn’t suffice.
Cite: https://moulton.house.gov/immigration-rights?
You do not have to answer questions about your immigration status if approached by ICE.
What is a fact
You are not legally required to answer questions about your immigration status if approached by ICE.
During protests, you may legally do this from a public place without interfering with officers.
What is record or film ICE agents?
During protests, you may legally film from a public place as long as you don’t interfere with officers’ duties. Free-speech and recording rights are supported by federal case law and civil liberties guidance.
Students worried about immigration should prepare this personal item to help communicate their rights.
What is a know-your-rights card?
Preparing something like a know-your-rights card or written statement helps individuals clearly communicate their rights if they’re stopped by enforcement.
To search or enter a private residence without the resident’s consent
What is search or enter a private home?
A judge-signed warrant is required for searches absent consent.
You’re not required to sign these if you don’t understand them without speaking to someone with legal training first.
What is any official document presented by ICE?
You’re not required to sign anything you don’t understand — especially immigration paperwork — without speaking to someone with legal training first.
Cite: https://undocu.berkeley.edu/faq/specific/know-your-rights-if-you-have-encounter-ice-officer?
Everyone in the U.S. — regardless of immigration status — has constitutional protections.
What is a fact
constitutional rights apply to everyone in the U.S. regardless of status.
Before participating in a protest, you should do this to protect yourself and others if situations change (like curfews or law enforcement interactions).
What is prepare, know the environment, and stay aware?
Preparing ahead — like knowing routes, exits, and rights — helps protect you and others if conditions change during an advocacy event.
This is the phrase you should ask ICE if you are not certain whether you are being detained.
What is “Am I free to leave?”
Asking “Am I being detained?” helps clarify if you’re legally held or free to leave — a key question in asserting rights.
This card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, allows a person to live and work permanently in the United States.
What is a green card?
A green card (officially called a Permanent Resident Card) is an identity document that shows a non-U.S. citizen has been granted lawful permanent resident status, which lets them live and work in the United States indefinitely
cite: https://moulton.house.gov/immigration-rights
This amendment protects you from unreasonable searches and seizures by authorities, including ICE.
What is the Fourth Amendment
The Fourth Amendment protects everyone in the U.S. from unreasonable searches and seizures, including by immigration agents.
Cite: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-legal-rights-do-you-have-in-encounters-with-ice-legal-experts-weigh-in?
You can lie or give false documents
What is fiction
Providing false information to ICE or law enforcement is illegal; lying can make the legal situation worse.
Cite: https://www.aclusocal.org/know-your-rights/if-questioned-police-fbi-customs-agents-or-immigration-officers/
When peacefully protesting, this action helps keep you informed and prepared if things change or become risky.
What is stay aware and secure?
During protests, maintaining awareness of surroundings and de-escalation principles helps participants stay safe if situations become risky.
This nonprofit offers targeted scholarships to high-achieving undocumented students who lack access to federal financial aid.
What is TheDream.US?
Scholarships like TheDream.US provide financial support to high-achieving undocumented students who don’t qualify for federal financial aid.
People who fear returning to their home country because of past persecution may apply for this form of protection in the United States
What is asylum?
Asylum protects individuals with a well-founded fear of persecution.
If you are detained by ICE, you have the right to speak to one of these before answering more questions.
What is an attorney?
You have the right to consult a lawyer before answering any ICE questions, and you should request one if you wish to exercise that right.
https://moulton.house.gov/immigration-rights?
An administrative ICE warrant (signed by ICE) is the same as a judge-signed warrant.
What is fiction
An administrative warrant signed by ICE itself does not permit home entry without consent — only a judge-signed warrant does.
Cite: https://sahanjournal.com/public-safety/ice-confrontations-know-your-rights/?
A safe advocacy strategy includes knowing your rights and this so that if you are stopped by law enforcement, you can act without putting yourself or others at risk.
What is your First Amendment rights during protests and how to exercise them safely?
A basic part of safe advocacy is knowing students’ rights during police or ICE interactions and how to assert them calmly without putting anyone at risk.
This state law allows some undocumented and DACA students to access in-state tuition and state financial aid in New York.
What is the NYS DREAM Act?
Some state laws like the DREAM Act and similar tuition policies aim to allow undocumented students to access in-state tuition and state financial aid. (DREAM Act is a long-standing proposal; state laws vary but this reflects typical policy goals.)
This is the process where a person can be removed from the U.S. without a hearing before an immigration judge under certain circumstances.
What is expedited removal?
Expedited removal allows removal without a hearing for those inadmissible on arrival.