Camilla Forte/Borderless Magazine/Catchlight Local/Report for AmericaWhat you should know if federal immigration agents show up at your building or damage your property.
After federal agents raided a South Shore apartment building in September, reports revealed extensive damage to the building and residents’ personal property, including broken doors, damaged furniture and missing personal belongings.
“I feel defeated because the authorities aren’t doing anything,” Dan Jones, a resident of the building, told WBEZ upon returning home from work to find his belongings missing.
Arrests and raids, like the one at 7500 S. South Shore Drive, that are part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” have left community members dealing with damage to personal belongings and the disappearances of friends and family.
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As federal agents use increasingly aggressive tactics, many Chicagoans are questioning the limits of federal authority and whether agents can be held accountable for property damage and potential civil rights violations.
“The difficulty here is that a lot of times the law is here to address a problem that has already happened,” said Ryann Moran, a supervising attorney for the Law Center for Better Housing (LCBH).
Housing rights organizers are encouraging community members to connect with their neighbors and form coalitions to prepare and defend one another in the event of a raid.
“An apartment building can be defended in a way that you can’t defend … people that are on their way to work, going out to the laundromat [or] going to do the daily things they need to do,” said Danny Rosa, an organizer with the All-Chicago Tenant Alliance (ACTA).
Borderless spoke with legal experts and housing rights organizers for tips on how to prepare and respond to interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents, as well as what community members can do if agents damage their property.
Este artículo es sólo para fines educativos e informativos y no debe interpretarse como asesoramiento legal.
Do I have to share my immigration status with my landlord?
Según la Immigrant Tenant Protection Act, landlords are not allowed to collect tenants’ citizenship data. They are also not allowed to discriminate against a tenant based on their citizenship or perceived citizenship.
Unless you live in federally subsidized housing, you do not have to share your immigration status with your landlord.
Moran said landlords may be able to ask you other questions that may help them guess your status, including whether you’ll be able to afford the apartment. But explicitly asking for your status is unlawful, she said.
What can I do if my landlord threatens to call ICE on me?
It is illegal for your landlord to threaten to call immigration agents on you under the Immigrant Tenant Protection Act.
If your landlord threatens to call ICE on you, you have the right to sue for damages in court.
To help build your case, experts recommend that you:
- Document threats made in writing by screenshotting and saving texts or email exchanges.
- Seek out witnesses.
- Verbal threats are harder to prove, but having someone who can corroborate your account can help.
Do not:
- Record conversations with your landlord or other people in your building without securing consent from everyone being recorded.
- Illinois’ current eavesdropping law prohibits recording a “private conversation” without the consent of all parties.
You can also report threats and intimidation by landlords to mutual aid groups or local officials.
- For tenants throughout Chicago:
- Call the Metropolitan Tenants Organization’s hotline: 773-292-4988 (available on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.)
- For Albany Park/Northwest Side residents:
- Call the Autonomous Tenants Union’s hotline: 872-216-5288
- To make a general report of misconduct to city officials:
- Contact your local alderperson: Find them here
- Call 311 to report a landlord violation and access general support if you’ve been displaced.
What are my rights if ICE or other federal immigration agents enter my apartment building?
Common or shared areas, such as courtyards or lobbies, can be more challenging to secure as they are accessible to everyone in the building.
The inside of your apartment is considered a private area, so you have the right to refuse entry to federal immigration officers unless they have a signed judicial warrant with your name on it.
A valid judicial or criminal warrant is:
- Created by a court;
- Signed by a judge; and
- Has your full legal name.
An administrative immigration warrant is not signed by a judge and is created by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or an ICE officer, according to an emailed statement from Jonathan Meyer, former DHS general counsel and leader of the national security team for Sheppard Mullin law firm.
“The easiest way to tell them apart is to look for a judge’s signature,” Meyer said.
There are risks to refusing entry to immigration officers, Meyer added. Officers can wait in the neighborhood to detain someone or launch an investigation into a landlord.
As a landlord, do I have to share information about my tenants if federal agents ask for it?
Meyer said there is no simple answer to whether a landlord must cooperate with a federal agent’s requests. Landlords and tenants should talk to a lawyer or legal expert if federal agents request information from them, he said.
“Generally speaking, landlords have an obligation [to] try to protect the privacy of their tenants to the greatest extent possible,” Meyer said. “But there may be situations where some cooperation is warranted.”
What can I do if federal agents damage my property?
Meyer said there are processes available through both DHS and the courts to obtain compensation if someone’s property has been damaged by federal agents.
Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, you can either:
- File a claim directly to the agency responsible, such as ICE, por sus siglas en inglés or Customs and Border Patrol (CBP); or
- Sue the federal agency responsible for the damages.
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Meyer said these processes can be “complicated and lengthy.” Individuals will likely need legal counsel or support to help their case.
Meyer also added that, while the government should not retaliate against someone for exercising their legal rights, if someone without legal status files a claim against the government, it “draws the government’s attention.”
“Providing any information to the federal government, even when you’ve been the victim … could be used against you,” said Antonio Gutierrez, an organizer with Organized Communities Against Deportations and the Autonomous Tenants Union. “You could be retaliated against for even sharing what the federal government has done to your property or to yourself.”
If federal agents damage property, is the tenant or landlord responsible for paying for the cleanup?
Moran, the attorney with LCBH, said her experience with property damage has mainly been in cases where local law enforcement, not federal agents, has damaged property. In those situations, tenants have typically been responsible for clean-up, not landlords or government agencies.
Whether tenants are required to clean up property damage caused by federal law enforcement is unclear, Moran said, but she would generally presume that the tenant is expected to cover the costs for damages.
Is there any way for tenants and landlords to protect themselves from raids or property damage?
Rosa, with ACTA, said one way tenants can make their buildings safer and better places to live is by creating a tenants’ union.
If community members are interested in getting organized, Rosa said they can start by:
- Talking to their neighbors to get connected.
- Creating a group chat (using platforms like WhatsApp or text group chats) to share information and make security plans.
- Contacting ACTA for support.
He added that unionized tenants can protect their neighbors from ICE threats by:
- Creating security plans in case of ICE presence.
- Designating volunteer community members as security escorts and lookouts.
- Negotiating with landlords to ensure the building’s entrances are secure.
Katrina Pham es la reportera de participación de la audiencia de Borderless Magazine. Envíe un correo electrónico a Katrina a [email protected].
Camilla Forte es becaria de CatchLight y miembro de Report for America cubriendo las comunidades inmigrantes para Borderless Magazine. Puede ponerse en contacto con ella en [email protected].
