On January 20th, President Trump was inaugurated into office, and his first line of action was to make the lives of immigrants harder. He has signed an executive order that makes it legal for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to enter what were once known as “sensitive spaces” such as, religious sites, hospitals, and even our schools. Florida’s Education Department said it will allow ICE in schools, but existing rules limit that power. Legally, ICE can not come into schools and perform raids whenever they feel like it, nor can they call random students to the school’s office, but ICE can get a warrant to search you. ICE cannot enter a school without permission of the administration or they must have a warrant issued by a court. Many immigrant parents are scared of what will happen to their children if they send them to school and have started to keep their kids home, and others have started to make their kids go to school with their immigration papers.
ICE is a part of the Department of Homeland Security and was created after the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001. ICE’s main goal was to arrest and deport immigrants with violent criminal records, meaning that as long as you didn’t break the law in any way ICE would leave you alone. But Trump’s new order has led to new approaches. ICE has expanded “expedited removal,” which fast track deportations without a hearing before an immigrant judge, which is very unconstitutional. ICE has already started raids. Last week, on Sunday, ICE arrested 1,179 people but 48% of them aren’t criminals or had any arrest warrant for them. Although violent criminals should face justice, innocent people, including immigrants, should not get caught in the cross-fire.
What should you do if ICE approaches you? ICE officers on duty aren’t dressed in their uniform, they mostly dress in casual clothes and stalk people they believe to be illegal immigrants. They would often call out your name to see if you are their target or they will approach you and ask for your name. If you give them the name that they are searching for, they will approach you and interrogate you. If someone is calling your name and you do not recognize the voice, do your best to not respond in any way, and if someone you don’t know approaches you and asks for your name, try to avoid answering. If ICE approaches you while in uniform and they ask for your name, ask them “Have I done anything wrong? Am I free to go?” You have the right to remain silent, you are not obligated to answer any questions they ask. If you are allowed to go, do not run, walk away as you would normally do. You have the right to reject a search of any kind. If you see ICE making an arrest, you are allowed to film them but do not get involved.
ICE officers do not use regular warrants that the police would use, instead they use administrative warrants. Administrative warrants are not issued by a judge and do not authorize ICE officers to enter private areas such as your car or house without your permission, but they can still enter places of business such as schools and offices. You do not need to open your front door at home for an ICE agent unless they have a search warrant, which is different from an administrative warrant. If they are saying they have a warrant then tell them to slide it under the door. A search warrant is signed by a judge, to make sure that the signature on a search warrant is real, look up the judge. If you confirm the search warrant is real, by law you have to let them in. A search warrant authorizes agents and officers to search a place only at a specific time, date, location, and object. Meaning if ICE or any agent or office comes into your house looking for a specific object such as papers, they can only look for those papers and nothing else, and if the warrant is for looking in your home, they can not search you or any other property you may own. If officers come to you demanding to search you or your property way before or way after a certain time or date, the warrant is invalid and they can not search you or anything you own. An administrative warrant does give ICE permission to arrest or detain specific individuals believed to be violating immigration laws but you are still not legally required to comply with ICE demands.
Here is how all of America will be affected. Firstly, the mass deportation will cost a lot of money. Just to get the process started, it will cost $86 billion dollars, and economists estimated that it would cost up to $315 billion dollars to remove all 11 million undocumented individuals. Another thing that we will have to worry about is our food supply. 40% of our food is grown and raised by undocumented immigrants. With that 40% being gone, we will expect a massive decrease in our food supply. Crops will die and the animals will have to be sold, we should also expect our food prices to go up. We may end up having to rely on other countries for food supply and with the tariffs that Trump ordered the price for food will still be very high. Legal immigrants can be affected by Trump’s orders as well. For example, people who came to the country legally but are still waiting for their papers are at risk.
If you are approached by an ICE officer, remember your rights. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to record what is happening. You have the right to refuse a search no matter if they ask to search you, your belongings, or your home. Do not let them search you or anything in your name without a warrant signed by a judge.
“These last few weeks have been very scary, the morning the deportations were announced I was just on my phone and my mother came crying into my room telling me from now on I would need to carry my identification with me just in case I was stopped by ICE either at school or at any public space. This was something I was expecting with the results of the election but I wasn’t expecting it this fast and awful. At least I’m lucky to be living legally here temporarily due to my TPS status. But the uncertainty of this entire situation creates a sense of dread that’s hard to ignore.”, one of our students stated today. Why should this be the new normal? We should be able to go to school and not worry about ICE raids. Immigrant parents should be able to send their kids to school and not worry about them being taken away. We are at school more than we are at home, if we aren’t safe at school then where are we going to be safe?
