New executive orders by President Donald Trump cracking down on illegal immigration and a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a Mexican restaurant in Liberty have some Kansas Citians concerned about future interactions with federal immigration enforcement agencies. Multiple agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of ICE, showed up to El Potro Mexican restaurant at 116 Stewart Court on Friday, Feb. 7, arrested 12 workers and took two boxes of employment documents, Kansas City immigration attorney Michael Sharma-Crawford said last week. The restaurant’s manager, Yadira De La Torre, told The Star that agents did not provide a search warrant before entering private areas of the business or arresting people. Local law enforcement also said federal immigration officials didn’t tell them about any planned immigration enforcement before the raid. In a statement to The Star Friday, an ICE spokesperson said that agents had conducted a “worksite enforcement action” at the restaurant in order to ensure “compliance with federal employment eligibility requirements.” The spokesperson confirmed that those arrested at El Potro are in ICE custody and could be “subject to removal from the United States” pending the required legal process. What rights do Kansas Citians have if they encounter ICE agents? Are they required to answer questions? The Star spoke with immigration attorney Rekha Sharma-Crawford to find out the answers. She is involved in the Liberty case, along with law partner and husband Michael Sharma-Crawford. Are you required to allow ICE into your home or business? Bringing a warrant signed by a judge is one way ICE officers or Homeland Security Investigations agents can enter a home or the private areas of a business. However, it’s possible for federal authorities to legally enter these areas without one, if they get permission from the homeowners or the business. Unless ICE has a warrant signed by a judge, you do not have to allow them inside your home, Rekha Sharma-Crawford said. They’ll need a valid judicial warrant to enter your home. This kind of warrant includes the name of the person being searched for and the address allowed to be searched. ICE may also come to a home or business and present an administrative warrant, which gives immigration officials the right to arrest someone they suspect is a non-citizen who doesn’t have a lawful right to be in the United States. This warrant does not give agents permission to search and seize private property. Why do they need these kinds of warrants? It’s because of the Fourth Amendment. This protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. However, you have fewer protections if you’re stopped in your car. If an officer or immigration agent asks to look inside your car, you can refuse to consent to the search, Sharma-Crawford said. But if police believe that your car contains evidence of a crime, your car can be searched without your consent. Do you have to answer questions from ICE? You don’t answer questions from ICE, just like you don’t have to answer questions from officers on traffic stops, but Sharma-Crawford warns that you’re likely to be detained if you choose to do so. By invoking the Fifth Amendment and not giving them any information, she says, that could be the probable cause officers need to investigate further, which would cause them to detain you. “If they say, ‘what’s your name?’ and you don’t say anything, they’re going to detain you because they don’t know if you’re a safety risk,” Sharma-Crawford said. “They don’t know who you are.” She says her team tells clients to give officers their names and to know the risk they’re facing if they decide to tell officers they want to speak to an attorney after invoking their rights. The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas says that if you are stopped by police, you should not attempt to run away, argue, resist or obstruct any officers. If you believe your rights were violated, the ACLU says you should write down everything you remember, document any injuries you may have acquired and file a written complaint with the agency’s internal affairs division or civilian complaint board. What are your rights if you see ICE? Everyone has basic guaranteed rights in the U.S., regardless of their legal status, Sharma-Crawford said. You have the right to record activity and interactions with immigration and law enforcement officers, so long as you do not impede them from doing their job. If you choose to record any interactions, Kansas City-based Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation has these tips posted on its website: Record the entirety of the incident, and narrate your experience. State the date and time while recording. Document any officer identification, like their agency, badge, numbers, uniform, name. Find the specific address. Capture any language used by the officers. Note any cars and the license plates and agencies if marked. Describe any physical force used. If you’re not involved with the ICE agents’ activity, you also don’t have to do anything and can walk away, which is what Sharma-Crawford said she tells clients. “They’re not coming over to mess with you, then what are you doing messing with them?” she said. “All you do at that point is go about your business and move on.” She said that if you are going to post about an incident online, you should be careful. Most people don’t know what ICE officials look like or what cars they drive. Every time someone sees a dark pickup truck or SUV and runs to social media to say they saw ICE, she said it creates panic and paranoia in communities. “When you start using inflammatory words like ‘we’re going to do the largest raid in history,’ communities are going to be scared,” she said. “You’re getting a human reaction out of something that was created on purpose, which is the hysteria of the largest roundup in history.” Can ICE make arrests without a warrant in KS, MO? ICE agents can only make an arrest without a warrant if they have probable cause that an individual is “likely to escape” before they can obtain a warrant, Sharma-Crawford said. This is because of the Castañon Nava settlement that went into effect in 2018 in states throughout the Midwest, like Missouri and Kansas. The settlement’s background begins in May 2018, when people arrested by ICE in the Chicago area challenged ICE’s immigration sweeps, which resulted in the “collateral arrest of hundreds of individuals through warrantless arrests and pre-textual vehicle stops,” the National Immigrant Justice Center says on its website. Plaintiffs argued that ICE failed to comply with immigration law and the constitution in carrying out these arrests, and the parties reached a settlement in May 2022. Under the settlement, ICE was required to issue a nationwide policy about arrests and traffic stops without warrants and to share and teach the policy to all of its agents. Under the settlement, ICE in Midwest states including Missouri and Kansas must also document all facts and circumstances surrounding a warrantless arrest or vehicle stop in the individual’s arresting documentation, including: The fact the person was arrested without an administrative warrant. Where the arrest took place. If they arrested someone at a business, whether the individual is an employee. If they made an arrest at a residence, whether the person lives there. Any ties the individual has to the community. The specific, particularized facts supporting the conclusion that the individual was likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained. A statement of how the ICE officers identified themselves as ICE and “state[d] that the person is under arrest and the reason for the arrest.” “If an individual is arrested in a manner that violates the settlement in the Chicago Area of Responsibility—which includes Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri— they may be able to seek individual remedies—including immediate release from detention,” the settlement says. The settlement is in place until May 13, 2025.
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