Regardless of your immigration status, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution. Learn more than here almost your rights as an immigrant, and how to express them.

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Woman and child in an immigration rally.

Law enforcement asks about my immigration status

How to reduce adventure to yourself

  • Stay at-home. Don't run, fence, resist, or obstruct the officer, even if y'all believe your rights are being violated. Keep your easily where police tin can meet them.
  • Don't prevarication about your status or provide imitation documents.

Your rights

  • You accept the right to remain silent and practice not take to talk over your clearing or citizenship status with police, clearing agents, or other officials. Anything you lot tell an officeholder can afterwards be used against you in immigration courtroom.
  • If you lot are non a U.S. citizen and an immigration agent requests your immigration papers, you must prove them if you lot have them with you.
  • If an immigration amanuensis asks if they can search you lot, yous accept the correct to say no. Agents practise non take the correct to search y'all or your belongings without your consent or probable crusade.
  • If you're over xviii, conduct your papers with you at all times. If you lot don't take them, tell the officer that you want to remain silent, or that you want to consult a lawyer before answering any questions.

What to practice in such an run into

  • In some states, you lot must provide your name to police enforcement if you lot are stopped and told to place yourself. Merely even if y'all give your name, you don't accept to answer other questions.
  • If you lot are driving and are pulled over, the officer can require you to show your license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance, just yous don't have to answer questions almost your immigration status.
  • Customs officers can ask about your immigration status when inbound or leaving the land. If you lot are a lawful permanent resident (LPR) who has maintained your status, you only take to answer questions establishing your identity and permanent residency. Refusal to answer other questions volition likely cause delay, but officials may not deny you entry into the United States for failure to answer other questions. If you are a non-citizen visa holder, you may exist denied entry into the U.Due south. if yous turn down to answer officers' questions.

Additional resource

  • If you demand more information, contact your local ACLU chapter.
  • National Clearing Law Center: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Immigration Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resource Center
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association
  • ACLU VIDEO: What to do if stopped by police force or Water ice

In other languages

  • (Arabic) العَرَبِيَّة‎
  • 中文(简) (Chinese)
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  • Português (Portuguese)
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  • Español (Spanish)
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  • (Urdu) اُردُو‎
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
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  • (Traditional Chinese) 繁體中文
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I've been stopped by constabulary or ICE

How to reduce adventure to yourself

  • Stay calm and do not resist or obstruct the agents or officers.
  • Do not lie or give false documents.
  • Prepare yourself and your family unit in case you are arrested. Memorize the phone numbers of your family unit and your lawyer. Make emergency plans if you accept children or take medication.

Your rights

  • Yous have the correct to remain silent. If y'all wish to exercise that correct, say and so out loud. (In some states, you may be required to provide your name if asked to identify yourself.)
  • Yous practise not have to consent to a search of yourself or your belongings, simply police may pat down your article of clothing if they doubtable a weapon.
  • If you are arrested by police, you have the right to a government-appointed lawyer.
  • If y'all are detained past ICE, you accept the right to consult with a lawyer, but the regime is non required to provide one for you. Y'all tin ask for a list of free or low-cost alternatives.
  • You do non have to respond questions about where you were born, whether yous are a U.South. citizen, or how you entered the country. (Separate rules apply at international borders and airports, and for individuals on certain nonimmigrant visas, including tourists and business organisation travelers.)

What to do if you are arrested or detained

  • Say y'all wish to remain silent and ask for a lawyer immediately. Don't give whatever explanations or excuses. Don't say anything, sign anything, or make any decisions without a lawyer.
  • If yous have been arrested by police, you lot take the correct to brand a local phone call. The police cannot listen if yous phone call a lawyer.
  • If you lot accept been detained by ICE, you take the correct to contact your consulate or have an officeholder inform the consulate of your detention.
  • Remember your immigration number ("A" number) and requite it to your family unit. It volition help family members locate you.
  • Keep a copy of your immigration documents with someone you trust.
  • If you lot are a non-citizen: Ask your lawyer about the event of a criminal confidence or plea on your immigration status. Don't talk over your immigration status with anyone simply your lawyer. While y'all are in jail, an immigration agent may visit you. Do not answer questions or sign anything before talking to a lawyer. Read all papers fully. If you lot do not understand or cannot read the papers, tell the officer you need an interpreter.

If you believe your rights were violated

  • Write downwards everything y'all retrieve, including officers' badges and patrol car numbers, which agency the officers were from, and any other details. Go contact data for witnesses.
  • If you're injured, seek medical attending immediately and have photographs of your injuries.
  • File a written complaint with the agency'southward internal affairs sectionalisation or civilian complaint board. In most cases, you lot can file a complaint anonymously if you wish.

Boosted resources

  • If y'all need more information, contact your local ACLU affiliate.
  • National Immigration Law Middle: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Clearing Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resources Center
  • American Clearing Lawyers Association
  • ACLU VIDEO: What to do if stopped by police or ICE

In other languages

  • (Standard arabic) العَرَبِيَّة‎‎
  • فارسی (Farsi)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • (Urdu) اُردُو‎

Police or Ice are at my home

How to reduce risk to yourself

  • Stay calm and keep the door closed. Opening the door does non give them permission to come inside, merely it is safer to speak to Water ice through the door.

Your rights

  • Yous have the right to remain silent, even if officer has a warrant.
  • You practise not have to let police or clearing agents into your home unless they have certain kinds of warrants.
  • If police have an abort warrant, they are legally allowed to enter the home of the person on the warrant if they believe that person is inside. Simply a warrant of removal/deportation (Form I-205) does not allow officers to enter a abode without consent.

What to do when the police force or Water ice arrive

  • Enquire if they are immigration agents and what they are there for.
  • Ask the agent or officer to bear witness you a badge or identification through the window or peephole.
  • Ask if they have a warrant signed by a judge. If they say they do, ask them to slide it under the door or concur it up to a window so you lot can inspect it.
  • Don't prevarication or produce whatsoever false documents. Don't sign anything without speaking with a lawyer first.
  • Exercise not open your door unless Water ice shows yous a judicial search or arrest warrant naming a person in your residence and/or areas to exist searched at your address. If they don't produce a warrant, keep the door airtight. State: "I exercise non consent to your entry."
  • If agents force their way in, do non resist. If you wish to exercise your rights, state: "I exercise not consent to your entry or to your search of these premises. I am exercising my right to remain silent. I wish to speak with a lawyer as shortly every bit possible."
  • If you are on probation with a search status, police force enforcement is allowed to enter your abode.

Boosted resources

  • If you need more information, contact your local ACLU affiliate.
  • National Immigration Police Center: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Clearing Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resource Heart
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association

I need a lawyer

Your rights

  • If y'all are arrested by the police, y'all have the right to a authorities-appointed lawyer, and should ask for one immediately.
  • If arrested, y'all have the right to a private telephone call within a reasonable fourth dimension of your arrest, and constabulary may non heed to the call if it is made to a lawyer.
  • If y'all are detained by Water ice or Border Patrol, you take the right to hire a lawyer, but the government does non take to provide i for you. Ask for a list of free or low-price alternatives.
  • If y'all are detained, you have the right to call a lawyer or your family, and y'all have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. Y'all have the correct to have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration gauge.

Additional resources

  • If you need more data, contact your local ACLU chapter.
  • Here is a list of contact information for legal organizations that aid immigrants.

I've been detained nigh the border by Border Patrol

How to reduce risk to yourself

  • Stay calm when interacting with immigration officials. Exercise non lie or provide fake documents.
  • Never flee from an immigration checkpoint.

Your rights

  • You have the right to remain silent. You lot tin can also tell the amanuensis that yous'll merely answer questions in the presence of an attorney, no thing your citizenship or immigration condition.
  • Yous practice not accept to respond questions about your immigration status. A limited exception exists for people who have permission to exist in the U.Due south. for a specific reason and for a limited corporeality of time (a "nonimmigrant" on a visa, for example). These individuals are required to provide information about their immigration status if asked.
  • By and large, a Border Patrol agent cannot detain you unless they have "reasonable suspicion"  that you are committing or committed a violation of immigration constabulary or federal police.
  • An clearing officeholder cannot abort y'all without "likely cause." That means the amanuensis must have facts about you that make it probable that you are committing, or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law.
  • At immigration checkpoints, agents practise not need any suspicion to terminate you and ask you questions, but their questions should be brief and related to verifying immigration status. They can also visually inspect your vehicle.

What to expect

  • People who have entered the U.South. without inspection by an clearing official may be discipline to expedited removal from the U.S. based on certain criteria. If you are told that you lot are subject to expedited removal, inquire for the stated reason. Also, if y'all fear persecution if returned to your land of origin, you should immediately inform the agents of your fear.
  • At border crossings, federal regime exercise not need a warrant or even suspicion of wrongdoing to justify conducting what courts have called a "routine search," such as searching baggage or a vehicle.
  • If an amanuensis asks you for documents, what y'all demand to provide differs depending on your immigration status. U.Due south. citizens practise not have to carry proof of citizenship if they are in the U.Southward. If you have valid immigration documents and are over the age of 18, the police requires that you lot to carry those documents with you. If you lot are asked by an immigration agent to produce them, show them to the agent. If you are an immigrant without documents, you can refuse the officeholder's asking, although an amanuensis may then inquire you more questions.

Additional resources

  • If you demand more data, contact your local ACLU affiliate.
  • National Immigration Law Eye: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Immigration Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resource Center
  • American Immigration Lawyers Clan

I was stopped by constabulary, ICE, or Edge Patrol while in transit

How to reduce take chances to yourself

  • Stay calm. Don't run, argue, or obstruct the officeholder or amanuensis. Keep your hands raised where they can see them.
  • If you are in a car, pull over in a safe place as quickly as possible. Plow off the engine, turn on the internal calorie-free, open the window function way and identify your hands on the wheel. Upon request, show police your driver'due south license, registration, and proof of insurance.
  • If you are not a U.S. citizen and an clearing agent requests your papers, yous must prove them if you lot take them with you. If you are over xviii, carry your immigration documents with yous at all times. If you practise non take immigration papers, say you desire to remain silent.

Your rights
In a car:

  • Drivers and passengers take the correct to remain silent. If you lot are a passenger, you can enquire if you are complimentary to leave. If the officer says aye, calmly go out.
  • If an officer or immigration agent asks to look inside your car, you can refuse to consent to the search. But if police generally believe that your car contains prove of a crime, your machine tin be searched without your consent.
  • In addition to police force, Edge Patrol behave "roving patrols" around the interior of the U.S., pulling over motorists. Border Patrol must have reasonable suspicion that the driver or passengers in the car committed an clearing violation or a federal offense.
  • Whatsoever abort or prolonged terminate past Border Patrol requires probable cause. You may enquire the agents nearly the basis for probable crusade, and they should tell you. In this state of affairs, both the driver and whatever passengers have the right to remain silent and not answer questions about their clearing status.

On an aeroplane:

  • A airplane pilot may turn down to wing a rider if he or she reasonably believes that the passenger is a threat to flight safety. A pilot may not, nevertheless, question yous or decline to allow y'all on a flight considering of bias based on your religion, race, national origin, gender, ethnicity, or political beliefs.
  • If you believe you are mistakenly on a "no-fly" list, you should review our guidance on No-Wing lists here.

On buses and trains:

  • Border Patrol agents may board buses and trains in the 100-mile border region either at the station or while the double-decker is on its journey. More than one officer usually boards the bus, and they will ask passengers questions about their immigration status, ask passengers to show them clearing documents, or both.
  • These questions should be brief and related to verifying ane's lawful presence in the U.S. You are not required to answer and can just say yous do not wish to practice then. As ever, yous have the correct to remain silent.

If you believe your rights were violated

  • Write downward everything you call back, including officers' badges and patrol car numbers, which agency the officers were from, and whatsoever other details. Get contact information from witnesses.
  • If you lot're injured, seek medical attention immediately and take photographs of your injuries.
  • File a written complaint with the agency's internal diplomacy division or civilian complaint board. In most cases, you tin can file a complaint anonymously.

Additional resources

  • If you need more information, contact your local ACLU affiliate.
  • National Immigration Law Center: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Immigration Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resources Center
  • American Immigration Lawyers Association

I am detained while my immigration case is underway

I've been arrested and need to challenge a deportation order

Your rights

  • You have the right to a hearing to challenge a deportation society, unless you waive your right to a hearing, sign something called a "Stipulated Removal Social club," or take "voluntary deviation."
  • You take the right to an attorney, but the government does not have to provide one for you. Inquire for a listing of free or depression-cost alternatives. If you have no lawyer, ask the court to allow you time to discover one.

What to exercise if you are arrested

  • If you are told that you do not have the right to run into an clearing judge, you should speak with a lawyer immediately. There are some cases in which a person might not have a correct to see an immigration guess. But even if y'all are told that is your state of affairs, you should ask to speak to a lawyer immediately because Clearing officers will not e'er know or tell you nigh exceptions might apply to y'all.
  • If you fearfulness persecution or torture in your home country, tell an officer and contact a lawyer immediately. You have additional rights if yous have this fearfulness.

Additional resources

  • If you need more than information, contact your local ACLU chapter.
  • National Immigration Law Centre: Know Your Rights
  • A Toolkit for Organizations Responding to Mass Worksite Clearing Raids
  • Immigrant Legal Resources Center
  • American Clearing Lawyers Association