(soft music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

I'm Paris Jackson.

Mass deportations by the Trump administration have created fear and confusion in Washington.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Washington has seen an influx and requests from immigrant rights organizations requesting Know Your Rights information.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration says, enforcing the nation's immigration laws is important to national security and public safety.

ACLU Seattle based attorney, David Montes, shares what you need to know when dealing with law enforcement.

(soft music) Let's begin and ground our conversation with the constitution.

Who does it apply to?

- The constitution applies to everyone who's in the United States.

The Bill of Rights, the fourth and fifth Amendment say person, they don't say citizen, and so they apply to everyone who's in the United States regardless of immigration status.

- If a person is approached by a federal immigration officer or law enforcement, what are their rights?

- That really depends on the situation.

Sometimes a law enforcement officer or federal immigration officer is going to have a warrant, and that warrant will have a specific place on it.

It'll have a specific person.

That allows law enforcement or immigration officers to go into that place and to arrest that person.

That doesn't mean that the person has to talk to them.

They still have the right to remain silent, and the other people that are there are also not required to talk to them.

The second situation is if a law enforcement officer or an immigration officer has what's called reasonable suspicion, which basically means they know someone has violated the law in some way.

So if an immigration officer knows someone has a prior order of deportation, they can arrest them if they see them out in public, but just that knowledge without a warrant doesn't allow them to go into private places.

The third situation is a law enforcement officer, a federal immigration officer, are allowed to walk up to people on the street and talk to people.

People are under no obligation to talk to that officer and can ask, "Am I free to leave?"

And that will tell you where you are, whether they have a warrant, whether they have reason to detain you or whether they're just talking to you and you can go along your way without talking to them anymore.

- Let's kind of break down that private area versus a public area for someone that may not be aware the difference between the two because there is a difference.

- Unless a law enforcement officer or an immigration officer has a warrant, the way I would say it is the same rules apply to them as apply to anyone else, and that applies to your home, to places of work, to schools, churches, anywhere, the same rules apply to immigration enforcement or law enforcement as applied to anyone else unless they have a warrant.

- Is there anything else that you think would be relevant to what we're discussing about folks knowing their rights that you want the public to know about?

- The one other thing I would say is if someone sees something that doesn't feel right to them, they think a law enforcement officer or an immigration enforcement officer is violating someone's rights, you have the right to record that.

Take out your cell phone, record it.

You have the right to find other witnesses to that, and we really hope that people, if they see something that doesn't feel right to them, will record that and will provide that information to organizations like the ACLU because we really do want to make sure that law enforcement and immigration enforcement are respecting these rights.

(soft music) - To learn more, head to aclu.org.

(upbeat music) The April 22nd special election is days away.

You should have already received your ballot in the mail.

The Secretary of State says a special election includes measures related to critical services and infrastructure.

Voters must return their ballots by 8:00 PM election day.

You can also return your ballot by mail, in an official county dropbox, or deliver in person to a voting center.

Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by election day.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit northwest news.

Go to cascadepbs.org for more great local coverage.

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