Ahead Of ICE Raids, Nancy Pelosi Says KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

THE CONSTITUTION COVERS EVERYONE, JACKHOLES.

With mass arrests of immigrants apparently going forward this weekend, immigration rights groups are ramping up efforts to advise immigrant communities that they have legal rights and don't have to open the door to ICE unless the officers have a warrant from a judge. This really pisses off law-and-order types, because how can you have any order if people know their "rights" under the law? After all, "rights" are for people like national security advisers who weren't explicitly warned that lying to the FBI is a crime .

Now the wingnuts have another thing to freak out about, and it is a little thing called "Nancy Pelosi."

Politico has the deets:  

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday warned her caucus about President Donald Trump's planned immigration raids this weekend, urging members to spread information about undocumented immigrants' legal rights.

Speaking to a closed-door whips meeting, Pelosi urged members to spread the party's "know your rights" campaign, according to two people in the room. Democrats took the same approach earlier this year, when faced with the Department of Homeland Security's initial threat of mass deportation raids.

The massive arrest operation isn't merely aimed at some 2000 migrants who have deportation orders against them, but also will include scooping up any other people in the area who might be undocumented, a tactic with the fun, not at all blitzkrieg-sounding name "collateral" deportations. That fact and concerns about the due process rights of those who have been slapped with deportation orders have driven much of the opposition to the mass arrests. In fact, since Trump spilled the beans about the mass arrests in June, ICE expects a lot of the targets have already moved away from the addresses the government has on file, so those "collateral" arrests may make up an outsized portion of the people swept up by ICE.

In her weekly press conference, Pelosi explained a few basic facts about the law and people's rights to demand due process:

Pelosi Slams ICE Raids on Undocumented Immigrants: 'Families Belong Together'    www.youtube.com 

An ICE deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant. If that is the only document ICE brings to a home raid, agents do not have the legal right to enter a home. If ICE agents don't have a warrant signed by a judge, a person may refuse to open the door and let them in.

Pelosi also expressed hopes that religious leaders may convince the Trump administration to not go ahead with the mass raids, which seems maybe a bit overly optimistic of her?

Pelosi later told reporters she thinks evangelical groups played a significant role in Trump's decision to call off the initial raids and she hopes they'll chime in again.

"They were very concerned that this goes too far because these raids were not what they signed up for with President Trump. And I think their calls to the president made a difference," Pelosi said. "Hopefully the president will think again about it or these groups will weigh in once again.

Dunno if there's any likelihood of that at all, considering the tendency of Evangelicals to justify pretty much everything Trump does, but if nothing else, it's a chance to remind Bible people of all that stuff about the stranger in our midst, and what happens to those who fail their obligations to the least of these.

There are a ton of good resources, in multiple languages, reminding people of their rights. Let the Manbun of Justice explain some of them:

‘This is a warrant.’ ’No it’s not.’ — This citizen stopped ICE from arresting 2 undocumented immigrants because he… https: //t.co/HaTdFCfV90

— NowThis (@NowThis) 1553638740.0 

Or there's this brief series from We Have Rights , a project by several nonprofits:

For #ICEraids it is critical to be prepared. If ICE is outside your door, don’t panic, & remember: YOU HAVE RIGHTS.… https://t.co/T2iOXe06g6

— Scott Hechinger (@Scott Hechinger) 1562888097.0 

In addition, the ACLU is suing the Trump administration to demand that any raids follow the law, and that families swept up in the raids are allowed to go before a judge before any family members are deported.

Not surprisingly, Pelosi's completely accurate information was decried by rightwingers, like the National Review ("Pelosi Advises Illegal Immigrants on How to Avoid ICE"). Twitter was also simply oozing with wingnut Constitutional Scholars who explained that in the USA, illegals have no rights at all, and what's more, anyone who tells illegals they have rights is a traitor:

Oddly, the rights of the accused are a lot different when you're talking about grifting welfare cowboys or armed dildo terrorists who take over a federal wildlife refuge, because federal law enforcement is nothing but a bunch of jackbooted thugs out to impose tyranny. In those cases, the law is clearly wrong and any federal agent enforcing it should probably be shot, because this is America and people have rights, even if they've broken some dumb "law."

[ Politico / ACLU / NYT / We Have Rights / KPIX-TV / NBC News ]

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