© 2025 WLRN
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Advocates in South Florida remind immigrants of their rights amid Trump crackdown

A Venezuelan woman who has humanitarian parole status and preferred not to be identified by name, embraces her Colombian father, who she feared had been detained, as he emerges many hours after entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office for his first ICE appointment since crossing the southern border to request asylum in 2023, in Miramar, Fla.. Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.
Rebecca Blackwell
/
AP
A Venezuelan woman who has humanitarian parole status and preferred not to be identified by name, embraces her Colombian father, who she feared had been detained, as he emerges many hours after entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office for his first ICE appointment since crossing the southern border to request asylum in 2023, in Miramar, Fla.. Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025.

President Trump's crackdown on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally has some immigrant families wondering if its safe to enter a church or their children's school.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would allow federal immigration agencies to make arrests at schools, churches and hospitals, ending a policy that had been in effect since 2011.
 
Immigrant advocacy organizations in South Florida are reminding people of their rights, regardless of immigration status.

 "Everyone has the right to remain silent under the 5th amendment. Everyone has the right to refuse to answer questions about their immigration status, everyone should print and carry a copy of the Know Your Rights card," said A.J. Fernandez Anderson, the  director of the Pro Bono Program at Americans for Immigrant Justice.
 
Fernandez said that some of those rights include asking for a lawyer before signing any document and a Fourth Amendment protection against  unreasonable searches and seizures of people and their property.

"An immigration officer cannot detain you without reasonable suspicion. If you are detained, you have the right to ask why, and what's the basis for the reasonable suspicion," Fernandez said.
 
Meanwhile the Florida Immigrant Coalition said it plans to ramp up services. This includes holding drives for assistance with Temporary Protected Status and citizenship applications.

READ MORE: President Trump's suspension of asylum marks a break from U.S. past

This is a News In Brief report. Visit WLRN News for in-depth reporting from South Florida and Florida news.

Sherrilyn Cabrera is WLRN's PM newscast and digital producer.
More On This Topic