House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is informing immigrants they don't have to answer the door during planned ICE raids that begin Sunday unless authorities can furnish a valid warrant.
With a planned round-up of up to 2,000 immigrants being sought for deportation, she was among several powerful Democrats instructing migrants of their rights – including the right not to open the door for a search that isn't backed up by a specific warrant.
'An ICE deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant,' Pelosi said Thursday. 'If that is the only document ICE brings to a home raid, ICE does not have a legal right to enter a home.'
'An ICE deportation warrant is not the same as a search warrant,' said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a notice to immigrants who may be subject to ICE deportation raids beginning Sunday
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighted in on Twitter, urging people to share Spanish-language guidelines such as 'toma fotos y videos' – meaning take photos and videos.
'Por favor comparte,' Clinton wrote, or please share.
They were taking a cue from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also urged people to 'know your rights.'
'Check your neighbors & know your rights,' she tweeted earlier Thursday.
'Remember: no one can enter your home without a *judicial warrant.*' she advised. She also wrote that 'Sometimes ICE will try to show other papers to get in your house. Judicial warrants are from a court.'
They were among Democrats in Congress Thursday who demanded that President Donald Trump protect families and children ahead of expected immigration raids this weekend.
People rally in June in Los Angeles against a Trump administration plan for the Immigration and Customs Enforcment agency to use an Oklahoma military base as a detention center for detained migrant children
IN THE CARDS: Pelosi read from a card with information about how to handle ICE raids
In this Oct. 22, 2018, photo U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surround and detain a person during a raid in Richmond, Va. ICE's enforcement and removal operations, like the five-person field office team outside Richmond, hunt people in the U.S. illegally, some of whom have been here for decades, working and raising families
Hillary Clinton urged Twitter followers to share Spanish-language guidance
People were urged to remain silent, get a lawyer, and take videos
Hillary Clinton entered the fray via Twitter
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. issued her own guidance about the ICE raids
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also urged people to 'know your rights'
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will launch sweeping deportation operations on Sunday as the administration expands its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the New York Times reported.
ICE has obtained court orders for the removal of about one million undocumented migrants, according to a senior administration official, but the initial raids will target some 2,000 across at least 10 cities, the Times said.
Democrats lashed out at the plans, saying they threaten people who have lived in the United States for many years and built families that include US citizens.
Pelosi called the ICE plan 'heartless raids on families' and said Sundays are when many Hispanic immigrant families are in church. She said families feel very 'threatened and scared' by the raids.
'These families are hardworking members of our communities and our country. This brutal action will terrorize children and tear families apart,' she told reporters.
'Many of these families are mixed-status families,' she added, referring to families who include members in the United States legally and illegally, such as migrants with children born inside the country.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday that ICE has nowhere near the resources needed to pursue the full one million cases.
'They are absolutely going to happen,' he said of the raids, however.
The ICE raids come after a delay in an earlier planned roundup
The removal orders can be issued on the completion of court cases involving the migrants, whether for minor civil infractions or their own citizenship or asylum cases.
Fearing arrest and deportation, migrants often don't show up for cases and judges summarily rule against them.
Senate Minority Leader Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer warned the Trump administration that ICE should not split families with young children if it carries out the raids.
'Stop separating children from their families. Tell your agencies, do not separate a single child from their parents,' he said.
ICE hasn't commented on the raids, which would come with Trump seeking to demonstrate toughness on immigration amid a still-strong influx of migrants across the border with Mexico.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said 104,344 migrants were detained after crossing the border in June, down 28 percent from May's 13-year record high but still an extremely high figure, some 60,000 more than the same month last year.
While migrant flows usually ebb in the hot summer, DHS said initiatives with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where most of the migrants come from, and a joint crackdown with Mexico, whose territory most must transit, had contributed to the downturn.