Skip to content

Know Your Rights

Know Your Rights If The FBI Comes Knocking

February 21, 2025 Schuyler Mitchell, Truthout. , , , , ,
Mara Sapon-Shevin always wondered if she had an FBI file. For more than 40 years, the Syracuse University professor has been a political activist for Palestinian liberation, first organizing with New Jewish Agenda and later with Jewish Voice for Peace. On October 10, 2023 — in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel and amid the rapid escalation of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza — Sapon-Shevin got her answer: An FBI agent was on her doorstep. He unfolded his badges from his wallet and asked for her by name.

In Detroit, Broad ‘People’s Assembly’ Forms To Guide Movement Against ICE

February 9, 2025 Brian H. Silverstein and Tristan Taylor, Left Voice. , , ,
As the Trump administration ramps up its assault on the immigrant community, people across the country are asking how they can keep their neighbors safe and how to defend against ICE raids. Teachers, nurses, and neighborhoods are forming committees to discuss how to respond when ICE shows up at their door. Students are sharing Know Your Rights flyers and attending anti-ICE rallies. In Chicago, when teachers thought ICE was trying to get in, they denied them access. Likewise, the Chicago Teachers Union has been forming “sanctuary teams” and has called for a “walk-in” to protect their students.

How Chicago Is Frustrating ICE’s Campaign Of Fear

January 31, 2025 Sarah Lazare and Rebecca Burns, In These Times. , , , ,
“Tom Homan said Chicago is very organized,” Margarita Klein, director of member organizing for Arise Chicago, proclaimed gleefully in Spanish to a room of 80 people at an immigrant rights training, many of whom laughed and clapped in response. Klein was calling back to a CNN appearance two days earlier by Trump’s handpicked border czar. “Sanctuary cities are making it very difficult,” Homan told anchor Kaitlan Collins of the administration’s immigration sweeps. ​“For instance, Chicago … they’ve been educated on how to defy ICE, how to hide from ICE.”

New Guide Helps Journalists Know Their Rights When Police Knock

September 10, 2023 Seth Stern, Freedom of the Press Foundation. , , ,
When police applied for a warrant to raid the Marion County Record, they didn’t bother mentioning the Privacy Protection Act of 1980 — a federal law that largely bans newsroom seizures. They claimed afterwards that they knew about the PPA but didn’t think it applied (we have our doubts). And the judge who issued the warrant was apparently clueless about the law. Authorities in Marion are far from the only ones to ignore the PPA. We noted earlier this year that police in Asheville, North Carolina, neglected to mention it when they applied for a warrant to search a journalist’s phone. And federal prosecutors are struggling to explain how the FBI raid of journalist Tim Burke’s Florida home could have complied with the PPA.

When The Police Knock On Your Door

November 11, 2020 Crimethinc. , ,
In cooperation with legal counsel, our comrades have prepared a poster explaining how to handle visits from law enforcement. This includes any agent from any law enforcement agency, regardless of whether they are local, state, or federal, including the FBI, ATF, and ICE when they are working as law enforcement, uniformed or not. Consider putting a copy of this poster by the doors of your residence and familiarizing yourself with the information. These days, no matter who you are or what you’re doing, you never know when you might receive an unwelcome visit.