As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts intensify, clashes between federal agents and community members are becoming increasingly visible nationwide.
Those scenes of violent arrests and conflict between agents and protesters have heightened fears in many communities, including in Maine.
In Portland, some parents have been holding their children out of school, fearful of potential actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the past week, protesters have gathered across the state to call for action against ICE after an agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.
Here’s what you need to know about your rights when interacting with immigration officials.
Q: Do I have to talk to an immigration officer?
Similar to interacting with local police, you have the right to remain silent when interacting with an immigration officer. This means you don’t have to discuss your immigration or citizenship status.
If you are not a U.S. citizen and an immigration agent asks for immigration papers, the American Civil Liberties Union recommends showing them if you have them with you.
But at the border, you must answer questions about your identity and citizenship. You don’t have to answer if U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents ask you about your personal beliefs or travel plans, according to ACLU experts.
Under Maine law, people must identify themselves to any law enforcement agent if an officer has probable cause to believe that they have committed or are committing a crime.
Q: Do immigration agents need a warrant?
Everyone in the country is protected from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
This means all law enforcement agencies, including federal immigration authorities, need a warrant before searching someone’s private property or arresting someone. But they don’t need a warrant to detain someone in public.
Most immigration arrests are carried out by internal documents called administrative warrants, which authorize the arrest of a specific person but don’t let officers enter private homes or spaces without consent. Only criminal warrants signed by judges allow that.
That means people can refuse to let immigration agents onto private property if the agents only have an administrative warrant, according to the ACLU.
Q: When is an immigration agent allowed to detain someone?
Immigration agents can detain people under “reasonable suspicion” that they are living in the country illegally, as well as people crossing the border. The ACLU advises people who are detained to ask an agent to explain their basis for reasonable suspicion.
Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and former federal prosecutor, told NPR in an interview Thursday morning that the most important question to ask if you are stopped by law enforcement is, “Am I free to go?”
Law enforcement officers don’t necessarily have to tell you whether you can leave, Butler said, so sometimes people think they have to cooperate, even if they don’t want to.
Q: What is the difference between ICE and Border Patrol? What are their limitations?
Both ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection part of the federal Department of Homeland Security. Both agencies enforce immigration law, but Border Patrol agents are limited to working by U.S. ports of entry, the country’s international borders and the area surrounding them.
In Maine, Border Patrol agents have long been allowed to operate in the interior parts of the state because the entire state falls within its 100-mile border zone.
Agents at the border have more authority to ask specific questions about citizenship, as well as search electronic devices without probable cause.
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
