Amidst the fear created by President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign, undocumented immigrants in Santa Clara County have been advised to learn about their constitutional rights, including the right to stay quiet if approached by ICE.
In Trump’s first hours back in office, he reversed two executive orders that protected undocumented immigrants during the Obama and Biden administrations, expanding the pool of people who can be removed and eliminating sensitive locations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents cannot interfere with. Santa Clara County reported around 134,000 undocumented residents in 2021.
Richard Hobbs, an immigration lawyer who has been practicing for 35 years, said that he saw an immediate uptick in people coming to his office for help.
“People are arriving with tremendous fear,” he said. “Fear that I’ve never seen at this level in the last 35 years.”
Jose Sandoval, founder of worker rights’ organization Voluntarios de la Comunidad, said that he heard rumors of ICE activity from people around him.
“[There were] rumors of ‘don’t go to this mall,’ the attendance to malls has declined a bit, at a few schools where the parents aren’t taking their kids,” Sandoval said in Spanish. “But the anxiety that you have, it starts to pass as the weeks go on because we all know that they can’t deport everyone.”
Hobbs also said that people should remain calm, even if they are undocumented.
How does ICE operate?
Hobbs said that ICE usually does targeted immigration enforcement, which means that they are usually looking for a specific person at their home or work address. Most of ICE’s targets are people who have already received an order to leave the U.S. or who have been arrested previously.
There are around 1.4 million people who have deportation orders but have not left the country and around 65,000 people who have been arrested but not deported, Hobbs said.
“If you haven’t been arrested and you haven’t been deported previously, then you are not a target of ICE,” he added.
Hobbs also said that many of the rumors of ICE raids are likely unfounded. He recalled that the last time that ICE tried to look for anyone who “ ’looked’ undocumented” was in the 1990s, in the area of Story and King roads in San Jose. However, he said that it is unlikely that that would happen again because officials need “reasonable cause” to stop someone, and they are usually operating on targeted enforcement.
Hobbs added, though, that it is possible that someone may be swept up in a targeted enforcement, giving the example of ICE going to a workplace to look for a specific person, but asking around to see if anyone else may reveal that they are in the country without documentation.
What rights do undocumented immigrants have?
Everyone in the U.S. is protected by the rights outlined in the Constitution, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Undocumented immigrants, like U.S. citizens, are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. They also have the right to remain silent, as listed by the Fifth Amendment.
Hobbs advised anyone who may encounter ICE to exercise their rights. If immigration officials stop by your house, whether or not they are looking for a current or former resident, Hobbs advised people to not open the door, remain silent and not sign anything. If possible, they should also call their attorney.
He also directed people to the Rapid Response Network, a coalition of nonprofit organizations and volunteers who respond to and observe ICE visits and connects detainees with attorneys who can try to remedy their removal order. Volunteers can also accompany people to their compliance check-ins with ICE.
“Undocumented immigrants need to know how ICE operates and remain calm,” Hobbs said.
Despite these protections and community efforts, Sandoval said that people should also direct their attention to trying to fix the immigration process. He encouraged people to call their representatives to find ways to give more people a path to citizenship.
“I’ve seen in different eras here in California, Florida, Arizona, when the field workers stop picking the harvest, they call on them to (come back and) pick up the harvest. Or in any area of work, be it construction, the service industry, cleaning hospitals, in food or restaurants – all over,” Sandoval said in Spanish. “The ones who suffer the consequences are the citizens, regardless of their origins.”
Staff writer Luis Melecio-Zambrano contributed to this report.