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U.S. NEWS Monday 13 March 2017

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Fearful immigrants are offered

anti-deportation training

DEEPTI HAJELA as not being subjected to a legal permanent resident
Associated Press unreasonable searches from Venezuela who has
NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t and seizures, not answer- been in the U.S. for about
open the front door if im- ing questions and not sign- five years.
migration officials knock. ing any documents without She said she attended so
If you are taken into cus- speaking with an attorney. she could share the infor-
tody, tell them your name Volunteers took part in a mation with friends and
and nothing else. Definitely role-playing exercise. The neighbors, but also to
don’t sign anything. audience broke into laugh- know her own rights if she
That is some of the advice ter when a woman wearing were ever caught up even Yaritza Mendez leads a know-your-rights trainings at Make The
Road, an immigrant advocacy organization, Tuesday, March 7,
being given in New York a vest with “ICE” taped on in passing in immigration 2017, in New York.
City and around the coun- it burst into the room after enforcement efforts.q Associated Press
try at training sessions, put knocking loudly on a door.
on by advocacy organiza- “I try to make it interactive
tions, aimed at helping im- because it’s long and very
migrants living in the coun- sad, in a way,” Mendez
try illegally get in as little said.
trouble as possible if they A lady sitting at the back
encounter U.S. Immigration had a question. If immi-
and Customs Enforcement gration officials knocked
officials. on her door, what if she
Called “know your rights” opened it a crack but kept
training, the sessions have the chain on?
been pushed by some No, Mendez said. Not even
groups as a way to prepare a crack. That’s guidance
for a possible crackdown that closely mirrors some-
on illegal immigration thing criminal defense at-
under President Donald torneys have long been
Trump. Similar trainings are telling clients. Letting a law
scheduled in New Mexico enforcement agent peek
and El Paso. The idea, or- inside could give them the
ganizers said, is to give im- probable cause they need
migrants guidance on how to enter without a warrant.
to legitimately push back Other advice dispensed
against attempts to detain during the session: Make
them, mostly using tactics sure any warrants present-
designed to keep agents ed have the right name
from learning anything and addresses and are
they don’t already know. signed by a judge. Do not
The government can’t de- volunteer information. Do
port someone unless they not show the agents any
can prove they are in the fake documents, since do-
U.S. illegally. ing so is a crime that could
At a training session Tues- land them in much deeper
day in Queens, a little more trouble. Plan ahead for
than two dozen people sat the worst. For example,
in a room listening to Yarit- she said, parents in danger
za Mendez, an outreach of being detained should
coordinator at the pro-im- have paperwork in place
migrant advocacy group to have someone look af-
Make the Road New York. ter their children, instead
She spoke about various of scrambling to find some-
ways ICE agents can find one in an emergency.
a person, and what to do if Most of the people in the
they come knocking. audience were immigrants
Even people in the country in the country illegally.
illegally have constitutional But they were also people
rights, Mendez said, such like Pascalina Chirinos, 63,