If you would report an undocumented immigrant to ICE you would have reported me to the Nazis and I donāt fucking trust you
A note:
I live in a state where you āhave toā report anyone you suspect of being undocumented (that wonderful hellhole of Arizona). Now in practice this law has fallen far short, thank goodness. But if you live in such a place and they start enforcing it, here is how you get around it:
Assume everyone who doesnāt speak English is visiting.
Never ask about their job, because if they tell you they work here then you know theyāre not visiting. You see them a lot for several weeks or months? Hm. Someone in the family must be ill. Thatās terribly tough. They always dress in old, ratty laborersā clothes? I feel you, my dude, I canāt afford new clothes either, and my dad has the fashion sense of an aardvark, so sometimes itās not even about āaffordingā them. They say theyāve been here for years? You must have misunderstood. Spanish isnāt your first language, after all. First and last name? It never came up, or you donāt recallāyou meet a lot of people.
And then, if youāre asked: no, you havenāt seen anyone residing illegally in the United States. Just people visiting.
Very good very important addition
Essentially, this is the civil society version of a work-to-rule strike.
Donāt do more than is expressly asked of you, and do what you are asked with such an intense attention to protocol that not asking you at all becomes more effective than even bothering.
In this case:
āHave you seen an illegal immigrant?ā
āCould you describe an illegal immigrant, officer?ā
*officer describes a person who is in the country without appropriate paperwork, or who has crossed the border illegally*
āNo, sir, I havenāt seen any illegal immigrant.ā
And this is correct. You have NOT seen an illegal immigrant, because you have no way of knowing if Jose Fulano is here legally or not. And since you canāt see his paperwork (or lack thereof), and did not personally see him cross the border illegally, you are only answering precisely the question asked.
Iām not American, and I have like, three followers, but this is important.
So, Iām a lawyer, who deals with immigration though does not specialize in it. But hereās the thing(s):Ā
1) Even someone whoās working could be here on a migrant (or other sort of) visa (hey, there are a few thousand per year, and *someone*ās got to get them, right?) or could be waiting for their case to resolve in immigration court, after having come to America to join a born or naturalized American family member.Ā
2) Even people who are working improperly could have come into the country legallyĀ ā and just overstayed their visa or be violating the conditions of their visa, and you have no idea what the niggly little regulations that govern that might be.Ā
3) If a law enforcement officer asks you about a neighbor/friend/etc., take this moment to remind them that, unlike them, you cannot ask a random person off the street for their ID and be entitled to a response.Ā
4) Even if someone has told youĀ that they are undocumented, you still donāt know, do you? Humans lie all the time. How could you know for sure? You canāt, because they canāt prove that they have a lack of papers. Just because you havenāt seen papers doesnāt mean they donāt exist!Ā
5) Donāt ever talk to cops in general. Why are you talking to a cop? Stop that, as soon as it is safe and feasible.Ā
Love,
a very tired public defender
