Know Your Rights: Immigration
My office has received many requests for resources to address your fears and confusion around how to respond to ICE activity.
Know Your Rights
- You Do Not Have to Open the Door
- You Can Ask Them to Leave
- You Can Stay Silent
- You Do Not Have to Share Personal Information
- You Do Not Have to Sign Anything or Hand Over Documents
- You Have the Right to Speak with an Attorney
Make a Plan and Be Prepared
- Make sure you have copies of your important documents and keep important documents and keep the originals in a safe place.
- Consult a lawyer before ICE comes to your door.
- Make a family plan. Identify an emergency caretaker for your children.
- Memorize at least one emergency phone number.
- Know who your elected officials are. Consider keeping a signed DHS Privacy Waiver in a safe place so they can advocate on your behalf.
To access one of our Know Your Rights pamphlets, please click below.
Contact Information for Immigration Attorney
A key step in the immigration process is obtaining a lawyer. Here is a list of organizations and representatives from the Department of Justice who practice immigration law. These organizations offer services at low of no cost. The link to this list is here.
The American Immigration Lawyer Association has compiled a search tool, allowing users to search for a lawyer by geographic location and area of expertise. To find an attorney, please click here.
Contact Our Office for Immigration Casework
Our office does all the work we can on your behalf. Contacting our office through casework is the best way to receive new information. For pending immigration cases with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or Department of State (DOS), we ask for updates and in some cases expedites. However, we cannot direct an agency to make a specific decision. For individuals who have been detained by ICE, we can ask for updates on their location and ask that ICE do a wellness check.
To access a Privacy Release Form, please click here.
To access Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Privacy Release Form, please click the PDF below. This paperwork is for applicants or detainees pending immigration court hearings and appeals.
Please find the PDFs for the ICE Privacy release forms in English and Spanish below.