Essential Know Your Rights and Security Info
We keep us safe.
From the West Virginia Coalition for Justice in Palestine:
News was received of multiple visa revocations of West Virginia University students and alumni.
This comes after an appalling increase in nationwide revocations and targeted abductions of international students and workers including Mahmoud Khalil, Dr. Badar Khan Suri, Ranjani Srinivasan, Momodou Taal, Rumeysa Ozturk, and others by DHS and ICE.
We are unsure of why these visas were revoked. We do not know the identity of these students and there are currently no known ties to pro-Palestine speech. However, this is clearly another step of the state sanctioned violence we have witnessed enacted upon our students, especially those who used their rights to free speech to challenge U.S. involvement in the genocide in Gaza.
Non-Citizens
ICE does NOT need a warrant to make an arrest in a public area.
Use the buddy system, try not to walk alone in public.
Share your location with at least one trusted person.
Carry a copy of important documents with you at all times.
Share the location of important documents with a trusted individual and your immigration attorney.
If you do not have a lawyer, DM us.
If ICE Approaches You in Public
Do not run.
Ask, “Am I being arrested or detained?”
If no, walk away.
If yes,
Comply, but do NOT sign anything.
You have the right to remain silent and call your immigration attorney.
You may present an ID with minimal information (such as a student ID) or valid proof of a visa/green card.
If ICE Is at Your Door
ICE needs a signed warrant to enter private spaces.
Do not open the door.
Ask for a warrant to be slipped under the door.
A Warrant of Deportation Form I-205 is NOT enough.
A warrant is only valid if the name and date are correct and if there is a VALID judge’s signature.
Make sure the signature is not an ICE agent signature.
Call your immigration attorney.
Remember, ICE agents can lie!
Citizens
Look our for non-citizens.
Take part in the buddy system by walking with them between classes and home.
Offer to keep them company both in public and in private.
Know your rights and theirs.
Know how to identify ICE.
Know bystander intervention tactics to be an effective advocate.
Practice digital security.
Digital Security for Everyone
Use a VPN (Mullvad is only $5/year).
Use Signal for encrypted messaging.
Remove Touch ID, Face ID, and other biometrics from your electronic devices.
Set strong alphanumeric passwords.
Do not send sensitive information over school email accounts.
They are considered public records and can be subject to a FOIA request.
Additional Digital Security for Non-Citizens
Delete or privatize social media accounts* where political views are expressed.
Do not use your full name on any platform and delete identifying information about loved ones, location, schooling, etc.
When crossing borders, remove apps and chats with sensitive information and offload data to a device left at home.
Clear your recently deleted.
* Multiple US departments announced that they use AI to review the social media accounts of students on visas, new visa and permanent residence applicants, and non-citizen scholars.
Identifying ICE
ICE can lie!
ICE uses ruses to get you to open the door, allow them in, get you outside, or to them.
Ask agents for their names, titles, and departments.
Ask them why they are there.
Look at their attire.
ICE usually wear civilian/plain clothing with black or green bulletproof vests. Their vests often say POLICE or ICE on the front and back.
They may carry firearms, radios, handcuffs, a badge, etc.
They drive government agency or unmarked vehicles.
Bystander Intervention
Document everything.
Legally, you can record, but not interfere.
Focus recordings on the officers.
Document any questioning, searches, or arrests (actions and language).
Document their names, badges, attire, date, time, location, vehicles, license plates.
Report any sightings or incidents.
Do NOT post videos on social media without consent.
We Demand WVU
Publicly condemn the federal government’s intimidation and revocation of its international students’ visas.
Protect its students by not allowing DHS or ICE on campus. Make our campuses sanctuary schools.
Refuse to corroborate student information with DHS and ICE.
Release a public statement with protective policies and measures for international student safety.
FREE OUR STUDENTS! FREE THEM ALL!
The U.S. is Disappearing Students for Opposing Genocide
From the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU):
