Note that if you are a citizen, ICE is NOT allowed to arrest you. Only cops can arrest you. So, ummm, argue with ICE about it. Ask them to arrest you. Take up their time. Distract them. Make them have to call the cops to arrest you. Because if they’re dealing with you and calling cops in to arrest you, well, you know what they aren’t doing? Arresting our undocumented neighbors.
If you see ICE, stop and watch. Ask for their name and badge number. Write down everything they do. Keep them occupied. If safe, watch them until they leave, and then either follow them or note what direction they’re headed in. The goal here is to keep tabs on them at all times. We can’t deal with what we can’t see, but we have a fighting chance if we know where they are.
If you’re watching ICE, text a friend who lives somewhere else, and/or someone who has a large, anonymous page/group and have them post. Asking vulnerable people to share information personally, or even post it on their social media can be risky. So message the admin of that 12,000 person neighborhood group and ask them to post the information anonymously. Your white friend in Kansas posting info about something happening in Providence, RI is in less immediate danger over the post than your next door neighbor who’s also known as the leader of Providence Against ICE or whatever.
In many areas, ICE agents will get on buses or trains and ask everyone on board for their identification and proof of citizenship. They’ll act like their word is law, but it’s not. So stand up and shout that no one is legally required to show them their ID. No one is required to comply. Shout “You don’t have to show ID”. Say this in multiple languages if you know how, especially the language of people on the bus that ICE is targeting (i.e. Spanish, Vietnamese etc.) or ask other passengers if anyone can translate or tell you how to say this in another language and shout that. Elementary translations are fine. Stand in the aisle of the bus or walk up and down the aisle telling everyone they don’t need to show ID. Get a “nazis off our bus, step in shit on your way out” chant started. Pile luggage in the aisles and get other white people to form a human wall with you so they can’t get further into the car. Do whatever you need to do to interrupt.
If you see ICE stationed anywhere in town, call some friends and form a grid-like perimeter around them to warn people before they get to . Position someone at every street corner or intersection a block or two out from them. Each person would then hold a big cardboard sign saying “Alert! ICE at the intersection of 4th Street and Main Street” and verbally warn everyone walking by. (In this example, you’d have a friend on 2nd Street and 6th Street, and the other 2 cross streets, like a square with ICE in the middle.) Encourage other white people to get in on it and take a corner for a while. Set up a phone/text chain with everyone on duty for this, so you can communicate any changes and warn each other if ICE is moving. Best practice is to use an encryption app like Signal, though you aren’t doing anything illegal.
If ICE is going door to door, go one or two doors ahead of them, knock and warn people that ICE is coming, and stick a “know your rights” flyer under their door. (Know your rights flyers in multiple languages are available for free download and printing here.)Be as specific as possible (“i.e. ICE is knocking at 72 Main Street 3 doors down. Two agents. Don’t open the door for them”). Remind folks that they DO NOT have to open the door without a warrant signed by a JUDGE. ICE’s own provisional warrants don’t count. If ICE enters their home, no one should talk or answer any questions.
Solidarity goes a long way — get to know your community and your neighbors and be there for each other. intervene and keep each other safe. make it so we need the state less and the state will have less avenues in to our lives.
If you see an ICE checkpoint, take up their fucking time. Ask questions. Demand they run your license or plates if that’s safe for you. Ask them a shit ton of questions. Refuse to move. Compliment them and start small talk. Ask them for directions. Do karaoke. Just occupy them.
Circle back and take up their time again. Call in your white friends to go thru the checkpoint, too, and take up more of their time.
See also: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: ACLU’s IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS
