Understanding Your Rights When Encountering Law Enforcement Training Session

Emilio Del Torre highlighted the importance of being prepared while interacting with law enforcement officers, when speaking during a ‘Know Your Rights’ training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union. “Law enforcement can lie to you, but you can not lie to law enforcement,” Del Torre expresses to the crowd of about 50 people. The representative from the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin focused on how law enforcement would do and say anything to get an admission of guilt.

With deportation becoming a prevalent issue among many internationals living in the United States, the fear of going to sleep and being awoken by officers entering your home is high.

“Law enforcement have to present a warrant, signed by a judge to enter your home, “ Del Torre states as he prepares people with a visual of what an authentic warrant looks like. Often officers of the law will use administrative warrants, which are essentially fakes, to enter a resident’s home.

The best way to fight a system trying to remove you from the country is to be prepared. Have a strong relationship with a trusted attorney, specifically an immigration attorney, someone who can help you overcome obstacles such as understanding legal documents not in your first language. Two heads of the Department of Homeland Security Del Torre recognizes as law enforcement agencies people need to be prepared to encounter are Customs and Border Protection, the CBP, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.

“I had invited Emilio here a few years ago after Trump’s travel ban had been announced to do a similar sort of workshop and he was kind enough to come again to deliver this vital information,” says UW-Milwaukee graduate student and Academic Senator for the UWM Student Association Reed Heintzkill.

President Donald Trump’s third version of his Executive Order 13769 was upheld by the US Supreme Court in June 2018 creating restrictions related to immigration and Visa retention for immigrants from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and North Korea. As recent as January 2020 President Trump expanded this Order with Visa restrictions hitting immigrants from Nigeria, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Sudan and Tanzania according to a story written by the WION Web Team.

At the same moment fear of war between the United States and Iran was growing and Heintzkill could feel this stating, “I couldn’t imagine how terrifying it must be to be pursuing a PhD in a foreign country and be faced with the possibility that your host country might go to war with your home country”

Jurisdiction of the CBP starts at the border and extends 99 miles in land and from mile 100 and beyond ICE takes over. It is the duty of the CBP law enforcement to determine whether someone should be allowed to enter the country which often leads to secondary searches and interviews on people who they deem suspicious.

“You can say no to police when stopped, but not to law enforcement at the border,” Del Torre warns the crowd, many whom travel internationally, and it is in these situations a trusted attorney is needed.

Del Torre discusses how the CBP will take you into a secluded room, create a stressful situation by making you wait for hours before using strategic interrogation methods against you. They’ll do this to have a person sign documents voluntarily deporting them from the country and a trusted attorney will help a person be prepared to combat these situations.

Though Del Torre expressed the importance of having people around you whom you can trust with important copies of immigration documents as well as family information for when things go wrong. He ended the seminar with an assurance that there are people who want to help, who are willing to help and sometimes to have to be prepared to accept that help.

“I think Emilio summed it up best in his closing words last night.  That even when it seems that things are backwards, and when there is racism and discrimination in the world, it is so important for our friends born overseas and living their best life here in the United States to know that the majority of us (US Citizens, Wisconsin/Milwaukee residents) not only harbor no ill wishes toward them, but appreciate and respect those who contribute to the American Story through their work, study, and cultural contributions,” declared Heintzill.

This training was co-sponsored by the UWM Student Association and the Persian Cultural Association to help prepare international students with the knowledge of their rights. The Wisconsin and UWM chapter of the ACLU also contributed and will continue to fight for all rights of Wisconsin residents.