August 13, 2020

Contact:

Brooklyn Defender Services: Daniel Ball, dball@bds.org

WITNESS: Matisse Bustos-Hawkes, matisse@theotrolado.com

RAICES: Lucia Allain, media@raicestexas.org

Variant Strategies: Abby Goldberg, abby@variantstrategies.com

***For Immediate Release***

IMMIGRANT ADVOCATES PREMIERE VIDEO ON HOW TO DOCUMENT ICE ARRESTS AND ABUSES

(NEW YORK, NY) – Tuesday August 18th, join Brooklyn Defender Services, WITNESS, and RAICES for the live premiere of “We Have Rights: When Documenting ICE Arrests”, a know your rights video on documenting immigration enforcement abuses and arrests, featuring narration from Fiona Apple and Erika Andiola. The premiere will feature a panel discussion with advocates from BDS, WITNESS, and RAICES on the raids ICE has resumed on the border and in the interior of the US, the effectiveness and dangers of video documentation, and essential information on how to safely and ethically document ICE arrests and abuses.

WHEN: Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 2 PM Eastern

WHO: Erika Andiola, Chief of Advocacy, RAICES TEXAS

Gabriela Domenzain, Senior Advisor, Brooklyn Defender Services

Nyasa Hickey, Director of Immigration Initiatives, Brooklyn Defender Services

Palika Makam, US Program Manager, WITNESS

WHAT: Premiere of “We Have Rights: When Documenting ICE Arrests” and panel discussion on ICE enforcement and documenting immigration enforcement abuses and arrests.

• In collaboration with the immigrant communities they represent, Brooklyn Defender Services partnered with WITNESS to develop a new, bilingual English and Spanish, know your rights animation on how to safely and securely document ICE arrests and abuses in a way that maximizes accountability. The story-driven short animation (<4 minutes) is narrated by Fiona Apple in English and DREAMer and Chief Advocacy Officer at RAICES Texas, Erika Andiola in Spanish. The goal of the video is to empower both immigrants and bystanders with the tools to challenge and document ICE arrests.

WHERE: Register for Zoom webinar here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UBp7xWGtRryBcdgE75YphQ

Or watch on Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/BrooklynDefenderServices/

WHY: Whether catalyzing a countrywide movement in defense of Black Lives, or revealing the presence of immigration enforcement on the streets of Portland, the importance of bystander videos today cannot be overstated. Simply put, capturing police and immigration enforcement abuse is critical to the dismantling of the racist systems of oppression around us. While ICE raids diminished after COVID hit, ICE is now back full force to abducting immigrant loved ones from their homes, places of work, court, and even protests, in spite of the continued global pandemic, and locking them away in immigration jails. ICE openly uses nefarious tactics known as “ruses” to arrest, detain, and deport individuals, many of whom have lived their entire lives in the U.S. Cell phone footage and other documentation of ICE abuses is more important than ever to hold these actors accountable. People, regardless of their immigration status, have a right to document ICE’s human rights abuses and must learn the best practices to follow while doing so.

Background on the We Have Rights Series: In 2018, in response to the fear and demand for more information for immigrant communities about how to safely defend themselves against ICE, Brooklyn Defender Services along with the ACLU and other partners launched We Have Rights, a series of four animated films in seven languages to help immigrants know what to do when confronted by ICE in the most common situations. The films have been seen over 20 million times, are used in trainings and know your rights events throughout the country, and are embedded in United We Dream’s Notifica App.

###