Know your Rights: How to handle ICE if they come to your house and demand to enter and search.

Above is an example of how to successfully handle ICE agents who come to your door or enter your house without permission and make demands to search your home and/or arrest someone inside the house.

Most importantly, know the difference between an administrative warrant and a judicial warrant.:

“An administrative warrant does not grant ICE permission to enter or search your house.

If ICE agents show you an administrative warrant, you don’t have to let them in. If they force their way in, say you don’t consent, but don’t try to stop them.

And don’t answer any questions. Remember, in any encounter with ICE or other federal immigration officers, you always have the right to remain silent.”

— American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Below is an annotated search warrant showing what to look for in a valid search warrant.

• A judicial warrant MUST come from a court, the name of which must be stated at the top of the page. Inspect the warrant to make sure it contains your correct name and address.
• Make certain it says it is a “Search” warrant, not an arrest warrant. An arrest warrant DOES NOT confer the authority to enter or search your property. 
• There should be a clear description of the person or property to be searched. Officers can only search people or areas listed on the search warrant and nothing else.
• They can only execute the search within the time and date ranges written on the warrant.
• Lastly, the warrant MUST be signed by a judge. If it isn’t signed, or if the signature is not that of a person who is verifiably a judge of an actual court of law, you don’t have to allow the search:

Here is a link to printable “Know your Rights” cards in English. (pdf)
Here is a link to printable “Know Your Rights” cards in Spanish/Español. (pdf)

Trump is actively seeking to create a master file of information on every American. He signed an executive order tapping the data and analysis company Palantir (“America’s most dangerous corporation”) to create the infrastructure necessary to merge sensitive personal data held by disparate U.S. agencies, like the IRS and Social Security Administration, and he has given the company over $113 million to complete the task.

According to the New York Times, “the Trump administration has already sought access to hundreds of data points on citizens and others listed in government databases, including bank account numbers, social security numbers, the amount of their student debt, their medical claims and any disability status.”

Trump is also demanding states hand over to his federal government sensitive personal voting data on all Americans who are registered to vote.

Keep information about your rights close at hand.

It will become necessary if Trump achieves his goal of creating a surveillance state in the U.S. and using it to carry out attacks on individual citizens he perceives as enemies. Trump has already made over 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish people he perceives as being opposed to his views. In one example of this, Trump recently had his weaponized Department of Justice launch an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the woman who brought a civil lawsuit against him for sexual abuse and defamation and won $5 million in the sexual abuse case and $83 million in the defamation case.  He has also used aggressive tactics to harass people who engage in civil protests and students exercising their First Amendment rights.

Barring Republicans stopping him, the suppression and elimination of Americans’ civil rights will only get worse.