Can These Signs Actually Stop ICE From Kidnapping Workers?
I was walking into Rainbow Grocery a couple days ago to peruse their incredible cheese section when I saw the above sign.
While it gave me yet another reason to love Rainbow Grocery, it also made me realize that I needed to use my platform to get the word out about these signs. Every single business in the United States should have these posted. What the Trump administration and ICE are doing to our immigrant friends, neighbors, and coworkers is just about the most vile thing I can imagine. Nobody deserves to be kidnapped by unidentified masked men, thrown in the back of a van, and then deported to a country they’ve never even been to or sent to horrific places with nicknames like Alligator Alcatraz.
From what I can tell, the signs were originally created by the United Farm Workers with the heading “NO ICE Access in This Office”. Since then, Redditor orangelover95003 has changed it to read “No ICE Access in This Business” so it’s adaptable to every kind of company.
Here’s the new version. It’s much clearer then my photo from above:
You can download and print copies for your business right here
That said, I had to find out how effectual these signs actually are and if they could genuinely keep ICE from kidnapping people. So I reached out to a friend of mine who was an attorney at the Department of Justice for a decade. While they are no longer at the DOJ, I’m keeping their identity anonymous for safety reasons.
Broke-Ass Stuart: Do these signs actually carry any weight?
DOJ Attorney: The short answer is “yes”. The more complicated answer is that when masked ICE agents force their way in like a bunch of thugs, the recourse is pretty limited. But I absolutely encourage business owners to put up signs just like that, make sure everyone understands the policy, and follow it.
BAS: What else should folks know?
DOJ A: If ICE forces their way in anyway over the objections of management, local law enforcement should be called as quickly as possible, those present should record the events to the fullest extent possible, and everyone else should sit quietly and exercise their right to remain silent.
BAS: This sign says “office” but does it count for restaurants too?
DOJ A: Yes, as to nonpublic areas. If the restaurant is open for business ICE can enter same as any member of the general public can, but they can’t go into the kitchen or other areas where customers aren’t allowed. And management can ask them to leave.
I also contacted a friend who spent a number of years as an immigration attorney. This is what they had to say:
“Technically it’s good to go but all it takes is a warrant or exigent circumstances or them saying they are in hot pursuit. So it’s actually easy to break. They could say they have a warrant for a person who is running to hide inside and that’s enough.”
As my DOJ attorney friend also points out:
“There’s a difference between a judicial warrant and an administrative warrant. What ICE usually has are administrative warrants that are simply pieces of paper generated internally, directing agents to go arrest someone. They carry no legal weight at all, and don’t give ICE any authority to enter a place they are not otherwise legally entitled to enter (unlike a judicial warrant, which must be based on probable cause that the person named has committed a crime, and signed by a federal judge or magistrate).
There are lots of reports of ICE agents waiving administrative warrants around and banking on people not knowing the difference.”
So the verdict is that these signs are good to have up but are far from perfect.
They give customers and workers an awareness of their rights and they let ICE thugs know that they are entering a situation where the people are not naive to the limits of ICE’s power. That said we’re still dealing with scum whose biggest successes come when citizens and non-citizens alike don’t know their rights. So it’s vitally important that everyone where you work know their rights and what ICE can and cannot do.
You can find out how to protect yourself during an ICE encounter right here.
Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
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