What are your rights if you see #ICE activity? Recommended #safety practices for bystanders

Do not disclose anyone’s legal status, even if asked by ICE. You do not have to answer questions about others, you are only required to present your own paperwork when asked by an immigration officer. If asked about another person’s status, say 'I don’t know' or 'I can’t help.” You also have the legal right to say nothing.'

By Karlee Van De Venter and Rosemary Montalvo, February 06, 2025

"Since Trump’s inauguration, rumors and fears have circulated about ICE presence and mass deportations. Posts are circulating across social media platforms, including Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, reporting ICE sightings. But posting unconfirmed information can do more harm than good, as it can spread mass panic in already uncertain times. There are recommendations available for bystanders from many organizations, including the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (#WAISN), on what to say and do when you see immigration officials working in your local community.

What if I see ICE?

"If you see ICE activity in your area, be deliberate in your response. WAISN, the largest immigrant-led coalition in Washington state, has recommendations for bystanders who want to support their local immigrant community amid fears of mass deportation.

"When sharing information, WAISN says to carefully evaluate to be sure it’s more helpful than harmful.

What are your rights if you see ICE?

"Everyone has basic guaranteed rights in the U.S., regardless of their legal status. With threats of mass deportation, households with immigrants are creating emergency deportation plans and preparing for the worst case scenarios.
You have the right to record activity and interactions with immigration and law enforcement officers, so long as you do not impede them from doing their job.

"If you are asked to back up, WAISN suggests taking a step back and repeating 'I am exercising my right to record and document.' If officers get too close to you, state that you have stepped back and repeat you are exercising your right to record. You want to remain calm, but speak firmly.

"Record the entirety of the incident, and narrate your experience. State the date and time while recording. If you’re going to post online, make sure your information is backed up with evidence. Speak with a first-person witness if you can. Take notes of what you see. How many officers are there? What are they wearing? What cars are involved, are they marked? What agency? Are people being questioned, or detained? If you feel safe, legally you can ask an officer why they are there.

Additionally, be sure to take note of:

- Officer identification - agency, badge, numbers, uniform, name
- The specific address, if possible
- Language used by the officers, especially hate speech or identity speech and anything false or unproven
- Cars - note the license plates and agency if marked
- Any physical force

Any post you make should include:

- Date and time of reported activity
Street name or specific description of the area
- Pictures or videos with timestamps

"Once you begin documenting activity, WAISN recommends disabling thumbprint or facial recognition protection on your phone. Using a passcode better protects your evidence and information."

In Washington state, you can call the Deportation Defense Hotline at 1-844-724-3737 if you see potential ICE activity."

Read more:
https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/state/washington/article299260449.html

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/X7pEN
#ICERaids #ResistICE #ImmigrantRights #KnowYourRights

#ICE Wants to Know If You’re Posting Negative Things About It Online

ICE wants to hire contractors to monitor #SocialMedia for threats. Those who criticize the agency could be pulled into the dragnet.

by Sam Biddle, February 11 2025

"Amid anger and protest over the Trump administration’s plan to deport millions of immigrants, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to monitor and locate 'negative' social media discussion about the agency and its top officials, according to contract documents reviewed by The Intercept.

"Citing an increase in threats to ICE agents and leadership, the agency is soliciting pitches from private companies to monitor threats across the internet — with a special focus on social media. People who simply criticize ICE online could pulled into the dragnet.

"'In order to prevent adversaries from successfully targeting ICE Senior leaders, personnel and facilities, ICE requires real-time threat mitigation and monitoring services, vulnerability assessments, and proactive threat monitoring services,' the procurement document reads.

"If this scanning uncovers anything the agency deems suspicious, ICE is asking its contractors to drill down into the background of social media users.

That includes:

'Previous social media activity which would indicate any additional threats to ICE; 2). Information which would indicate the individual(s) and/or the organization(s) making threats have a proclivity for violence; and 3). Information indicating a potential for carrying out a threat (such as postings depicting weapons, acts of violence, refences to acts of violence, to include empathy or affiliation with a group which has violent tendencies; references to violent acts; affections with violent acts; eluding [sic] to violent acts.'

"It’s unclear how exactly any contractor might sniff out someone’s 'proclivity for violence.' The ICE document states only that the contractor will use 'social and behavioral sciences' and 'psychological profiles' to accomplish its automated threat detection.

"Once flagged, the system will further scour a target’s internet history and attempt to reveal their real-world position and offline identity. In addition to compiling personal information — such as the Social Security numbers and addresses of those whose posts are flagged — the contractor will also provide ICE with a 'photograph, partial legal name, partial date of birth, possible city, possible work affiliations, possible school or university affiliation, and any identified possible family members or associates.'

"The document also requests 'Facial Recognition capabilities that could take a photograph of a subject and search the internet to find all relevant information associated with the subject.' The contract contains specific directions for targets found in other countries, implying the program would scan the domestic speech of American citizens.

"The posting indicates that ICE isn’t merely looking to detect direct threats of violence, but also online criticism of the agency.

"As part of its mission to protect ICE with 'proactive threat monitoring,' the winning contractor will not simply flag threatening remarks but 'Provide monitoring and analysis of behavioral and social media sentiment (i.e. positive, neutral, and negative).'

"'ICE’s attempt to have eyes and ears in as many places as we exist both online and offline should ring an alarm.'

"Such sentiment analysis — typically accomplished via machine-learning techniques — could place under law enforcement scrutiny speech that is constitutionally protected. Simply stated, a post that is critical or even hostile to ICE isn’t against the law.

"'ICE’s attempts to capture and assign a judgement to people’s ‘sentiment’ throughout the expanse of the internet is beyond concerning,' said Cinthya Rodriguez, an organizer with the immigrant rights group #Mijente. 'The current administration’s attempt to use this technology falls within the agency’s larger history of mass surveillance, which includes gathering information from personal social media accounts and retaliating against immigrant activists. ICE’s attempt to have eyes and ears in as many places as we exist both online and offline should ring an alarm for all of us.'"

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/02/11/ice-immigration-social-media-surveillance/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/msvDC
#ICERaids #BigBrother #BigBrotherIsWatchingYou #AIBigBrother #AIProfiling #TechnoFascism #Fascism #ResistFascism

The #FarRight Group Building a List of Pro-Palestine Activists to Deport

#BetarUS said it has shared with the Trump administration a list of the “names of hundreds of terror supporters.”

"This conflation of speech critical to #Israel with #antisemitism or support of Hamas will do little to protect Jews in the United States from hate, said #JonahRubin, with #JewishVoiceForPeace, a progressive #JewishAmerican group that advocates for #Palestinian #HumanRights."

Jonah Valdez
February 6 2025

"The premise behind Trump’s more recent order is rooted in #ProjectEsther: a treatise by the authors of #Project2025. The document was billed as 'a blueprint to counter antisemitism' and offered strategies to target and silence critics of Israel, including deportation. A fact sheet about the executive order related by the Trump administration mirrored language from Project Esther and laid bare the order’s intent to 'cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses,' vowing to deport 'all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests.'

"Such ideas are increasingly gaining purchase in conservative discourse. Pledges to deport supporters of Palestinian rights were a key part of the Republican Party’s platform. A congressional bill introduced last May called for similar measures.

"#Academia is a key focus of Project Esther and Trump’s executive orders. While the most recent order instructs all agencies within the executive branch to take part in the crackdown, it encourages #surveillance in specific areas, such as #universities and even K-12 schools, where administrators are being told to monitor and report #InternationalStudents for possible deportation.

"On Monday, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights launched investigations into five schools — #ColumbiaUniversity; #UCLABerkley; #NorthwesternUniversity; #UniversityOfMinnesota, Twin Cities; and #PortlandStateUniversity — for #antisemitism, the first use of the executive order.

"'Americans and college students that visit the United States should be able to protest the #Israeli government’s human rights violations in the same way that the United United Nations, the International Criminal Court [#ICC], #AmnestyInternational, #HumanRightsWatch, and other respected institutions have for the past several years, without fear of retaliation,' said Robert McCaw, a leader with the Council on American-Islamic Relations who heads the government affairs department. He decried the order’s fact sheet of peddling anti-Muslim terms such as 'pro-Jihad.'"

"Trump’s efforts have inspired a grassroots campaign to identify possible targets for deportation. On #SocialMedia, groups such as #MothersAgainstCollegeAntisemitism and the #ChicagoJewishAlliance have shared links to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line and called on people to report 'foreign students and faculty who support Hamas' and 'students on visas who are suspected of engaging in pro-terror activities,' respectively."

Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/02/06/betar-palestine-school-activists-target-deport-trump/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/fCZve
#McCarthyism #HumanRightsAreNeverWrong #DontSnitch #ICE #ICERaids #ICEArrests #Deportation #CollegeStudents #FreeSpeech #Censorship #Fascism #AuthoritarianRule #authoritarianism #USPol