As the threat of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on farms and farmworkers looms, it’s important to have a plan in place before ICE strikes, says Vanessa Frank, an immigration attorney working in Ventura County, Calif.
Much like farms prepare for food safety recalls and audits, growers need to take the same level of care and preparation for a potential ICE audit.
“Once ICE is at your site, and if you don’t already have a plan in place, it’s a little too late,” she says.
A good step to start is to determine what part of your operation is private property and what part of the property would ICE need a warrant to enter. Are there signs or ways to distinguish that it’s private property? Next, who is the owner on record of the property?
“There shouldn’t be any uninvited guests on private property,” Frank says. “I can imagine some folks might consider putting in fencing if that’s practical, but it’s not always.”
Then, it’s important to have a plan in place of who workers and crews can call and what steps employees would take if ICE attempts to enter a property. It’s important to designate crew members informed of the policy and trained on what a valid warrant looks like and what that warrant specifies.
“It’s well and good to say, ‘Nobody’s allowed here without a warrant,’” she says. “So that means that people who are on the ground, physically there, need to be able to know what is a legitimate warrant.”
Frank says it might make sense to train a few employees, so if ICE comes, the employees can connect with an immigration lawyer to verify the validity of any ICE documents. One detail she makes sure to add is that warrants should be specific.
“It could be like we have a warrant to search for Michael Jones at this work site, which means they can question Michael Jones, but not everybody,” she says. “And same with, like in a living situation or in a building, where they can have the right to enter the building to search for something specific. And there are multiple offices in my building, so they are entitled to enter the building to go into office No. 8, not office No. 6 or 13.”
Frank recommends ag businesses seek out training from a criminal defense attorney or a criminal prosecutor with experience in unlawful search and seizure rules as well as the right to representation.
She also says it’s important for ag business owners to consider communicating when a potential or official ICE raid takes place. Is a grower comfortable sharing it within the community? How about the media? What about to representatives and legislators?
Questions, Frank says to consider in creating a plan for a potential ICE raid are:
- To what extent do we demarcate our land as private?
- Who is going to be on site to receive those requests for entry?
- What criteria will we use to grant entry?
- Who is authorized to make that decision, taking into account your own physical space, your own workspace, your staffing and your employee situation and your own risk profile?
