At “know your rights” workshops popping up in Phoenix and cities across the country, immigrants are being trained how to respond if stopped by ICE officers or if immigration authorities show up at homes or places of work.
The civil rights trainings have been offered by immigrant advocacy groups for years. They were started years ago by groups in Phoenix in response to the immigration sweeps carried out under former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in the late 2000s, and later during the record deportations that took place from 2018 to 2012 during the first term of the Obama administration, advocates say.
“The whole nation is following the models started in Arizona, said Erika Ovalle, a co-founder of Puente Arizona, a Phoenix grassroots immigrant advocacy group that pioneered know your rights workshops.
But the trainings have exploded in number since Donald Trump won the presidential election in November promising to carry out the largest mass deportations in U.S. history. On day one of Trump’s presidency, he signed a flurry of executive orders aimed at ramping up deportations. Trump also rescinded a long standing policy, clearing the way for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to make arrests at churches, schools and other “sensitive” areas ICE officers were previously directed to avoid.
On Monday, Jan. 27, a know your rights training held at the headquarters of Puente Arizona, drew a standing room only crowd of more than 150 people, many of them undocumented immigrants.
Puente held a a second meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 29 to train legal immigrants and U.S. citizens how to identify and record ICE arresting people to ensure their rights are not violated, and to warn immigrants to stay away from the area.
“If we really want to be a safe community we need to watch out for each other,” Ovalle told the audience.
The group moved that training, called “Migra Watch” — immigration watch — outside because the more than 250 people who showed up did not fit inside Puente’s building.
“If we really want to be a safe community we need to watch out for each other,” Ovalle told the audience.
Those events are part of know your rights campaigns sweeping across the country in the wake of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which ICE has begun publicizing by posting the number of people arrested and detained daily on social media. For instance, on Jan. 29 ICE posted on X it had made 1,016 arrests and lodged 814 detainers nationally.
ICE has been directed by Trump administration officials to ramp up arrests from several hundred daily to at least 1,200 to 1,500, according to the Washington Post.
As part of that daily quota, local ICE field offices have been instructed to make 75 arrests a day, The Post reported.
ICE has one Enforcement and Removal Operations field office in Arizona, based in Phoenix, according to the agency’s website.
Natally Cruz, director of Puente Arizona, said during Monday’s know your rights workshop that members of the group have confirmed that “a lot of people are being picked up by ICE officers” who they were not looking for during targeted arrests.
“They are not just taking people they targeted but everyone who is undocumented in that household,” Cruz said.
The Arizona Republic reached out to the Phoenix field office of ICE, but spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe said she could not provide any information about enforcement actions taking place in Arizona or comment on the know your rights workshops.
United States; Immigrants attend a meeting held by Puente Arizona about their legal rights in case they are questioned by ICE in response to the mass deportations planned by the new Trump administration and Arizona’s new Proposition 314 on Jan. 27, 2025, in Phoenix.
In addition to local groups, some Democratic members of Congress also have joined in the know your rights campaign, among them Reps. Raúl Grijalva and Yassamin Ansari.
Ansari, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, co-hosted a bilingual know your rights tele-town hall Wednesday, Jan. 29 with Friendly House, a nonprofit social services organization, and the Nunez law firm. She also posted rights information on her Instagram page.
“l always protect Arizona families,” Ansari wrote on Instagram. “Now more than ever, knowing your rights is crucial. If an immigration agent confronts you or a loved one, KNOW YOUR RIGHTS.”
In suburban Denver, more than 50 people attended a Dec. 16, 2024, training offered by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition. The group handed out posters and wallet cards explaining the rights everyone has. The session in a high school cafeteria included role-playing arrests and traffic stops, and an explanation of the differences between local police, sheriff’s deputies and federal immigration officials.
In media interviews, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said ICE is focused on arresting public safety threats and said know your rights campaigns are preventing ICE from arresting and deporting criminals and immigrants with final orders of deportation.
“For example, Chicago, very well educated. They’ve been educated how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE and I’ve seen many pamphlets from NGOs, here is how you escape ICE. Here is what you need to do. They call it know your rights. I call it how to escape arrest,” Homan said during an interview on CNN.
During the CNN interview, Homan acknowledged that in addition to immigrants with criminal records, ICE is also arresting “collaterals,” family members and other immigrants swept up by ICE officers while making targeted arrests.
“If they are in the country illegally, they are going to get arrested too,” Homan told CNN.
Natally Cruz informs immigrants about their legal rights at Puente Arizona. The meeting was held in case they are questioned by ICE in response to the mass deportations planned by the new Trump administration and Arizona’s new Proposition 314 on Jan. 27, 2025, in Phoenix.
During the 90-minute know your rights event at Puente, Cruz the director, told the crowd the training was intended to inform immigrants of their civil rights under the U.S. Constitution to help prevent families with undocumented members from being torn apart by deportations.
“We all have rights even if we are not citizens of the country,” Cruz told the crowd, which listened in rapt attention.
Using slides illustrated with cartoons projected on a large screen TV, Cruz walked the crowd through a series of scenarios explaining their rights should they be questioned by ICE or the police about their immigration status.
Among the rights Cruz explained was to “remain silent” if stopped by police or ICE and questioned about their immigration status and only to provide their name and birthdate. She also advised them not to provide any false documents to immigration authorities as well as any documents that might indicate they were from another country, including foreign passports or consular ID cards.
Cruz also said they should also not answer the door should ICE show up their homes and they should demand to see a warrant if immigration authorities attempt to enter. She also advised them to read arrest warrants carefully to make sure ICE officers were at the correct address.
She also advised them to record encounter with immigration authorities on their phones, which could be useful to help in the legal defense if they are taken into custody.
If detained, Cruz advised immigrants not to answer questions, ask to talk to a lawyer and “don’t sign anything.”
Lisandro Lopez, a construction worker from Guatemala attended the Puente training with his family. He said he has stopped leaving his house except to go to work for fear of being stopped by ICE.
His wife, Marilu, who held a baby, said she learned during the training to “stay quiet and record everything.”
Lopez’s 16-year-old stepdaughter, Ali, a U.S. citizen, said she now does all the shopping for the family. She said her parents have also stopped driving her to and from school. Instead, she rides the light rail and bus, which takes more than an hour each way. Ali declined to give her last name for fear immigration authorities would target her parents.
“Because of the state of everything right now, I’m really afraid of what would happen to my parents and my family and just really to everyone around me,” Ali said. Although her parents do not have documentation, Ali said, “I don’t view them as criminals.”
Adriana Hernandez attended both Puente events.
She said she lived through the Arpaio immigration sweeps when she did not have immigration status, but has since become a legal permanent resident.
She said she planned to share the information she learned with undocumented friends.
“I know how hard times are going to be because I lived it,” Hernandez said. “I was I was in their shoes. And I saw a lot of injustices. I saw a lot of people getting deported for nothing. People think it’s only criminals, but you don’t have to be a criminal for this to affect you.”
USA TODAY reporter Trevor Hughes in Denver contributed.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What to do if ICE stops you: Immigrants going to rights trainings
