Tacoma, WA- “Immigration raids are not new, we see them everyday early in the morning when ICE waits in parking lots, when they knock at our doors and break into our homes and take our families” said Wendy Pantoja, an NWDC Resistance leader, “the new thing here is that DHS made an announcement to intimidate our communities, but we decided to say no to fear tactics, we are organizing ourselves to protect each other and end detentions and deportations.”
NWDC Resistance, a community grassroots group, announced the launch of a toll free number for the immigrant community to report raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced in late December that they would conduct a series of raids against Central American families that have arrived in the U.S. seeking refuge during the summer of 2014, the group decided to provide tools to the immigrant community to defend themselves, as well as to monitor, report and organize against ICE activities and stop the separation of our families and terrorizing our communities.
To report ICE activities during an immigration raid call 1-800-357-3196
Know Your Rights
The community’s basic rights, with or without permit to be in the country, are:
- The right to not open the door and to demand to see a warrant
- The right to remain silent
- Refusing to sign any documents
- To prepare an emergency contingency plan with basic instructions in case of an immigration raid
- No matter where ICE is, exercise your rights and remember you can fight your deportation case
