LOS ANGELES (KABC) — One out of every three people in Los Angeles County is an immigrant, and about 800,000 county residents are undocumented.
The Trump administration says it’s targeting criminals, but people in immigrant communities are on edge amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and mass deportations.
According to Angelica Salas, the executive director of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, also known as CHIRLA, says undocumented immigrants are visiting their offices with concerns about how to protect their loved ones and how to keep their families united.
“All law enforcement is bound by constitutional policing because they are law enforcement agents, so whether it’s LAPD or ICE or Border Patrol, they have to follow the constitution of the United States,” she said. “That means you have to respect a person’s decision to not say information that is going to be used against them.”
Despite the fear among the immigrant community, CHIRLA is encouraging residents to keep sending their kids to school, know their constitutional rights and demand due process.
Another worry is the financial stability of immigrant rights organizations.
“What this administration decided to do is both go after the immigrants, but also go after the immigrant rights organizations that serve those individuals by destabilizing their funding, by also destabilizing the funding of the local and the state and then cutting all sorts of programs,” said Salas.
So do immigrants in the U.S. who are not citizens have the same rights as American citizens?
According to Claudio Koren, a staff attorney for Training Occupational Development Educating Communities, the answer is yes.
He said any person in the United States has the same protection of the law of due process, regardless of immigration status and criminal history.
According to Koren, immigration authorities have a specific jurisdiction that determines when and how they can act. So they can’t conduct a stop, a search or make an arrest unless it’s related to a violation of immigration law.
If someone knocks on your door and says it’s ICE serving a warrant, know your rights.
“You have the right not to open the door unless, first of all, they identify themselves and they show you that they have a court order from the federal judge,” said Koren.
He also warns the warrant has to be signed by a judge and have your specific name and address on the signed warrant.
“Remain silent. Do not consent. Don’t sign anything, and don’t talk, if possible,” advises Koren.
We reached out to ICE and invited them to appear on Eyewitness Newsmakers.
They declined, but did issue this statement: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is committed to fulfilling the President’s promise to address the decades long immigration crisis, with support from other federal law enforcement agencies. ICE officers and agents will continue to enforce US immigration law across our nation, while criminal aliens remain a top priority. Any person illegally in the United States is at risk of arrest, detainment and removal. We highly encourage those in the U.S. illegally to self deport from home to schools to airports.”
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