Know Your Rights
You have rights. Know them, especially if your employer is not prepared to handle ICE.
Practice the scripts. Share with coworkers and community alike.
Adding Spanish, Somali, Hmong translations.
Let us know what other languages would help you.
Most ICE warrants don't let them enter private property. Learn to tell what does - and especially what doesn't.
This is the only warrant that lets ICE into private areas:
If they show one, you can read it. You can ask for a copy. You can object to anything outside what's listed.
If they show a judicial warrant:
"I don't consent to anything beyond what this warrant specifies. I am exercising my right to remain silent."
For the named person if ICE finds them in public:
This does not let agents push into a back room, kitchen, stockroom, office, or any space not open to the public.
If they show an administrative warrant:
"This is an administrative warrant. It doesn't authorize entry to a private area. I don't consent to your entry."
In May 2025, ICE issued an internal memo claiming wider authority to enter homes and workplaces on administrative warrants alone. Federal courts have rejected that reasoning for decades.
The law is on your side. ICE may still - as it often has - try to push past it. What you know matters, because the law alone won't stop agents about to step through your door.
Federal agents at the door. What to do if you're working a shift, not running the place.
Don't try to handle agents on your own. Don't answer their questions. Don't open any door past the public area.
Say it once:
"Let me get the manager."
Stay calm. Walk back. Find the manager.
Don't run - running gives ICE legal pretext for probable cause.
Public areas are open to anyone, including ICE. The lobby, dining room, parking lot, waiting area. They can stand there. They can wait there.
Private areas are different. Kitchen, back office, stockroom, employee break room, walk-in. ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter. An administrative warrant is not enough.
If they try to push past you:
"This is a private area. You need a judicial warrant signed by a judge. I'm not authorized to let you in. Please wait while I get the manager."
An agent walks up to you. They want to ask you questions or look at your ID. You have rights here that don't depend on your status.
You don't have to answer questions about where you were born, whether you're a citizen, or how you entered the country. You don't have to show ID. You don't have to consent to a search.
Silence is your right. Using it is not a crime. It's not evidence of anything.
Practice saying these out loud:
"I am exercising my right to remain silent."
"I don't consent to a search."
"Am I being detained, or am I free to go?"
If they say you're free to go, leave calmly. Walk, don't run. If they say you're being detained, ask for a lawyer.
If you're detained:
"I want to speak to a lawyer. I am exercising my right to remain silent."
Lying to a federal agent is a separate crime. Staying silent is not. Any document you carry can be used as evidence.
You're being detained. Possibly handcuffed and escorted from the building. Your rights still apply.
You have the right to a lawyer. Ask immediately. Ask again. Ask every time someone questions you.
You have the right to a phone call. Use it for a family member or a lawyer.
Say it and keep saying it:
"I want to speak to a lawyer. I am exercising my right to remain silent."
Your phone may be taken. Memorize a number for someone who can act fast. A family member who can call a lawyer. A lawyer directly. A trusted coworker who knows who to call.
Don't rely on your contacts list. Memorize at least one number you can dial from anywhere.
ICE pushes paperwork early, often before anyone has talked to a lawyer. Some of it gives up your right to a hearing.
Specifically don't sign:
If they push paperwork:
"I won't sign anything until I have spoken with a lawyer."
Try to remember:
This information helps your family and lawyer find you.
Something happened - to you, to a coworker. What you do over the next hours is critical.
Write down every detail you can remember while it's fresh. Memory fades faster under stress.
Capture:
Save any video, photos, voice recordings, or messages. Don't delete anything.
Ask the agents directly where they're taking the person. They may not answer. Ask anyway.
Use the ICE detainee locator - you'll need either their A-Number or full name and country of birth.
Contact their family. Tell them what happened, what you saw, and where ICE said they were going. Give them every detail you wrote down.
Contact a lawyer. ILCM, AHR, and ACLU-MN can help or refer.
Compile a written record together - the combined memory of every eyewitness is stronger than any one account.
Minnesota organizations that can help you, your coworkers, or your family.
Rapid response in Minnesota:
Free legal services for low-income immigrants. Direct representation, consultations, and rapid response after detention. Offices in St. Paul, Worthington, Moorhead, and Austin.
Pro bono legal services for asylum seekers, refugees, and detained immigrants in Minnesota and beyond. Twin Cities-based with national reach.
Civil liberties advocacy and Know Your Rights resources. Workplace-specific guidance, printable rights cards, and tear-off sheets in English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali.
Latino-led grassroots organization with rapid-response infrastructure across the Twin Cities. Community defense networks, deportation defense, and incident response.
State-level guidance from the MN Attorney General. Includes how organizations can respond to ICE at sensitive locations - clinics, schools, shelters, and houses of worship.
More organizations as we verify them.
Know one we should add? Let us know!
Keep one on you always. Print or request many to share. Make sure you won't blank out at the worst possible moment.
Wallet-sized constitutional rights cards in 56 languages, including Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Karen, Oromo, Amharic, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai. Print your own or order in bulk. Free.
Workplace-specific Know Your Rights cards from the ACLU of Minnesota. English, Spanish, Hmong, and Somali. Printable for easy sharing.
Yes. The Constitution applies to people on U.S. soil regardless of immigration status.
The right to remain silent, the right to a lawyer, the right not to consent to a search - they're yours. ICE will try to talk you out of using them. Don't listen.
Federal law doesn't require employees to assist ICE in raids or detentions.
Refusing a warrantless search and staying silent are constitutional rights, not grounds for termination. If you're fired or punished for using these rights, contact an employment lawyer or the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
Your rights don't depend on your manager's instructions.
If your manager tells you to open a private door for ICE without a judicial warrant, you can refuse. If they tell you to identify a coworker by status, you can refuse. A manager cannot legally require you to give up your constitutional rights.
Yes. Any space not open to the general public is private. That includes bathrooms, break rooms, kitchens, stockrooms, employee-only hallways, walk-ins, and back offices.
ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter any of them.
A photo and a name are not a warrant. An administrative warrant with your name on it is still not a judicial warrant.
Don't acknowledge whether the photo is you. Don't go with them voluntarily. Stay silent. Ask for a lawyer.
A warrant they won't show is not a warrant you have to honor.
Ask to see it. Ask to read it. If they refuse, refuse to consent to entry. Tell them you'll wait for the manager and the lawyer.
No. Silence is a constitutional right. Using it is not evidence of any crime or violation.
ICE may try to make silence feel suspicious. It's not. The opposite is true: what you say can be used against you.
Yes. ICE has detained, injured, and killed U.S. citizens in Minnesota over the past year.
Two Target workers in Richfield, including a 17-year-old, were pinned to the ground and detained. Hmong-American ChongLy "Scott" Thao was taken from his St. Paul home in his underwear. Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by ICE agents. Citizenship does not stop an ICE encounter.
Translate the basics if you can: "Stay silent. Ask for a lawyer. Don't sign anything."
If you can't translate in the moment, write those three sentences in their language ahead of time and keep it on your phone or in your wallet. ILRC Red Cards print these phrases in 56 languages. Carry one yourself. Help your coworker carry one too.
Other questions we should answer? Tell us.
Your employer can do far more. They can post signs at all entrances and private doors. They can train all staff members. They can create a response plan for everyone to follow. They can sign the pledge.
Show them the 4th Amendment Workplace pledge. The materials are free. The training is free. Translations into your staff's languages are free.
Your rights protect you. Your workplace can protect your rights.