Immigrant students host ‘know your rights’ training for Taos families

The best way for immigrants without documentation to protect themselves and their families from deportation is knowing and understanding their rights.

That advice was at the heart of a training for the immigrant community of Taos the night of Feb. 24, presented by the New Mexico Dream Team, a group of undocumented and mixed-status students and allies working to spread valuable, practical information for immigrants around New Mexico.

The “know your rights” training brought more than 200 people to the Enos García Elementary School auditorium — larger than crowds at similar trainings in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, according to the organizers.

The organizers called the turnout part of the “power surge from small communities,” but noted that people in the state’s metropolises have more options to organize within their community.

The meeting was hosted by Las Cumbres Community Services, which has held discussions for immigrant families since November.

Fear and anxiety within the immigrant community has hit an even higher level of alert with an uptick in high-profile immigration enforcement (such as a raid Feb. 15 in Las Cruces, a city about 50 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border).

As Felipe Rodríguez of the New Mexico Dream Team (NMDT) put it, the president and his administration “[want] to convince us to live in fear.”

“But we’re not doing anything wrong,” he said. “We’re living, working and going to school. I want to help my community to not live in fear. And we’re not going to allow it.”

Rodríguez added, “That’s why we’re organizing and fighting back.”

‘At your door’

The door is the first line of defense in the event of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid or routine visit to a person’s home, Rodríguez said.

“If they’re knocking at your door, you have power,” he said. “If you open your door, you’ve lost all your rights.”

That’s because ICE agents do not have the authority to enter a home without a signed warrant unless they have “reasonable suspicion,” Rodríguez said. “When you open your door to an ICE agent, they can very easily see inside and use anything as the rationale to enter your home – even without a warrant. Ask for the warrant, but don’t open your door to get it. Have them slide it underneath the door or hold it up to a window.”

Rodríguez added that the warrant should have the correct name of the person immigration officials are looking for in addition to a date of birth.

Furthermore, a warrant must be signed by a judge. He suggested Googling the name of the judge to check its validity as an extra step.

Those extra precautions and utmost level of guardedness are necessary because of the “predatory practices” that ICE is “famous” for, Rodríguez said. “Many times, ICE comes without a warrant or the warrant isn’t signed or an agent signs it.”

The team cautioned that people should stay calm and collected if they come face to face with immigration officials. Rodríguez said, “We all know how scary it is and how nerve-wracking it can be. They are going to insist. They are going to make things up. But you have to be strong.”

Rodríguez also noted that parents should teach their kids to not open the door for immigration officials and that anyone has the right to remain silent.

The team also told the crowd to not “spread rumors” about ICE being in Taos, but to use official channels to report ICE activity, including the MigraWatch hotline at (844) 363-1423 or the American Civil Liberties Union mobile app “Mobile Justice New Mexico,” which lets a user stream a video of an encounter straight to immigrant-rights organizations and advocates.

The team suggested that those with citizenship can help the immigrant community by driving to and verifying possible ICE activity because “undocumented people cannot go out on patrol.”

At one point, an emergency responder told the crowd to still call 911 in the event of an emergency because local law enforcement is not involved in immigration matters and does not coordinate with ICE.

Sanctuary

David Fernández, a Taoseño and officer with Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Taos, spoke about the idea of “sanctuary” in churches.

“For ages, churches have always been considered a place of sanctuary. They’re off limits, in a sense, from persecution and things like that. In more recent times, that’s been more of an open question. With Trump, pretty much everything’s off the board,” he told The Taos News.

If an ICE agent has a signed warrant for a particular person, “even a person within a church can get picked up,” he said.

Fernández added that beyond the legal questions of sanctuary, it’s also a spiritual matter. “Our church can be open anytime, day or night, for someone who wants to go in to seek spiritual solace and spiritual sanctuary from the world outside,” he said.