San Francisco Immigrant Forum - Regular Meeting

Hello everyone, and welcome to the SF Immigrant Forum webinar. Today is March 25th, 2026, and we're excited that everyone is here to join us today. Before we get started, I did want to share that we have interpretation available in Spanish, Cantonese, and Filipino. The instructions are on the screen on how to join the Zoom interpretation channel. So take a moment if you need to access the channel. All right, welcome in everyone. My name is Jamie Richardson. I use she, her pronouns and I'm the Senior Communications Specialist for the City and County of San Francisco's Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs. And we're so excited that everyone is here today for the regular of immigrant forum webinar. I'm just going to go over the agenda and some introduction slides before we get to our main event, which is a know your rights training for small businesses and nonprofits at the front end. You'll hear from the city departments that make up our steering committee for the immigrant forum. as well as a special guest from the Office of Small Business to share some resources. And then we'll hear from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area with some Know Your Rights information, and we'll follow up with a Q&A. So if you have any questions about the presentation, please use the Q&A function located at the bottom of your Zoom screen. We'll be answering questions at the end of the presentation. And all of these recordings or these webinars are recorded and shared out with participants afterwards. So if you're wondering, I have to hop off early. Is this going to be recorded? The answer is yes. And we'll also share out the slides after Uh, the webinar as well, so stay tuned, um, before we jump into our presentations, if this is your 1st, 5th, or, you know, you've come to every single immigrant forum meeting, you might know this, or this might be new information. But, um, the S of immigrant forum is made up of 3 components, a website, an email listserv. and community forums like what we're doing today. And so our resource website, we really encourage folks to check it out. There's lots of information that's helpful for immigrant service providers to access anything from information on immigration legal help to free food programs, know your rights, and so much more. So check out sf.gov slash immigrants. You can also join our listserv, which anyone can join and post upcoming events. resource information, post questions about, you know, helping an immigrant client that needs something. So we recommend that folks join. You will get sent an invitation if you've joined today to join the listserv if you're not on it already. The instructions are on the screen. And if you need help, you can always email osia at civic.engagement at sfgov.org. And lastly, meetings like the webinar today are intended to convene service providers on specific topics. We hold them by monthly. Um, so today we're focused on know your rights for small businesses, but in May, we're excited to host healthy San Francisco and they'll be talking about, um. healthcare opportunities for San Franciscans regardless of immigration, housing, or employment status. So, please join us for that time. You can learn more at sf.gov slash immigrants and I'll put the link in the chat to register for that as well. Okay, without further ado, I'm going to share some updates from our steering committee and I can start. So, OCIA has some upcoming workshops. We host regular citizenship workshops. The next one is on April 11th. We also have a work permit clinic for asylum applicants. on April 7th as well. I'm going to put the links to those in the chat, but you can find these all on our resource website. And then I'd also want to plug OCIA's DreamSF Fellowship Program, which is a professional development opportunity for immigrant youth, regardless of status. The application is currently open and the deadline is April 3rd. And we're also looking for nonprofit host organizations that are interested in hosting a fellow. So I'll drop those links in the chat, but I want to pass it along to my colleague, Andy, who's going to give an update from the Human Services Agency.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Andy B. Lee-Hegler, and I'm with the San Francisco Human Services Agency. Happy to be here with you all. And just a few quick announcements. The first one is that there will be a public benefits webinar on Thursday, April 30th. And I believe some information about this will be shared in the chat. So this public benefits webinar on April 30th is a virtual event for local community-based organizations and other agencies to learn about the benefits and services that HSA provides. Specifically, it will focus on changes to CalFresh and Medi-Cal coming up in the next couple months. As you know, there's a lot of changes on the federal landscape to our benefit programs, and so you really want to know about these changes, especially if you're currently receiving benefits or working with folks who are receiving benefits. So the topics will include changes to Medi-Cal and dental benefits that are coming in July of 2026, updates on CalFresh immigration status eligibility changes coming in April 2026, and new work requirements coming in June, also eligibility changes for certain individuals based on immigration status, as well as how eligible San Franciscans can apply for or renew their public benefits. So that's the public benefits webinar. Hope you can all attend. And I also wanted to let you know about some of our offices being moved and upgraded. So there's a new service center for folks who are CAP clients. That's for adults without children or adults without minor dependents. In the past, they went to the office on 1235 Mission Street, near the corner of Mission and 9th Streets. But that office has basically been closed. And so the new address is 1460 Mission Street, 1460 Mission Street. And that office is up and running as of yesterday, March 24th. So that's a big change for us. But again, that's only the office for adults without minor dependents. Because if you have kids, you'll typically be a CalWORKs client. And that would continue to be our big office on 170 Otis Street where I work. One other thing I wanted to mention, which is very much on my personal, it's very much something that I'm focusing on, and I did mention it in relation to the public benefits webinar, that there are categories of lawfully present non-citizens, in other words, people who immigrated here and have an immigration status here, who will technically not be eligible for CalFresh starting April 1st. And that's as a result of the House of Representatives Bill 1. You know, it's known as the big, beautiful bill. And so this is something that we're really focusing on right now. And we know that it's going to potentially affect You know, a good deal of people sort of wanted to put this out there that the categories that will be affected then include asylees, refugees, parolees. The one group of parolees that will not be affected are those from Cuba and Haiti. And then other groups that it will affect include individuals with deportation or removal withheld. conditional entrance, victims of trafficking, battered non-citizens. There's always a lot of different categories here, but this is a big change for the CalFresh program, otherwise known as food stamps, because typically those who are receiving cash aid would automatically be receiving CalFresh. But starting April 1st, these categories like asylees and refugees could potentially lose their CalFresh benefits. So it's something that we're very concerned about and we have different plans in place that we're working through to deal with that. But especially if you work with that population or if you are in that population, we definitely recommend that you attend that webinar on April 30th. So that's a little bit more than I usually speak for here, but hope that's helpful. And now I will pass it to my colleague, Christy Dietrich.

I think sandy. So, in addition to the upcoming changes medical changes that Andy mentioned, we know, since January, there were eligibility changes regarding different immigrant immigrants and statuses for medical but. Regardless of immigration status to San Francisco department of public health has a safety net that San Francisco health network. uh 15 clinics that do not turn anyone away for care whether urgent care or primary care and there's 15 clinics across the city and the department does not want any san francisco resident to be afraid to seek health care and these dph clinics partner with human services agency and healthy san francisco to support patients in accessing coverage for their care so real i'm really excited that we'll have healthy san francisco here in may And for anyone who has applied or plans to apply for asylum and arrived in San Francisco in the past two years can receive one-on-one support with healthcare coverage, medical appointments, and other support connections through the Newcomers Health Program's Asylum Seeker Health Services. And Jamie will put a link there. We have a simple referral form on our webpage that asks minimal information. And our Spanish-speaking health worker, Luis, will reach out directly within a day or two. And we also have easy access to other multilingual interpreters when needed as well. And then last, I just want to promote like for those who find themselves cut off from other support programs. As Jamie mentioned, please see the San Francisco Immigrant Forum's webpage on immigrant services and resources.

and if your agency or your services are not listed please reach out to jamie so we can add you to the list for the public all right thank you i'll pass back to jamie thanks christy and andy for those updates and before we transition to our know your rights presentation i wanted to invite marianne thompson from the office of small business to let folks know about city resources available to small business owners take it away marianne

Thank you so much. So I am with the Office of Small Business and we are here to support you as a small business for everything from starting a business in San Francisco, keeping your business in San Francisco and growing your business. We have support for anyone who needs it in room 140 at City Hall. If you are looking to register your business, if you are looking for a little bit of technical support or more information, you can start in our room 140. We also provide support with leasing. So if you're currently in a lease and you'd like to have it reviewed, or if you're looking for a location, we can support you with that. So there's the support for leasing. And then we also provide support for permits. So hopefully you've signed your lease, you love your new location, and you want to get in and you're going to require some permits, our team also will support you with your permits. The thing we really enjoy the most though is celebrating your success with you. So once you have gone through the process of starting your business and moved into your location, we love to celebrate you and we share it on our social media. So we're a one-stop shop that supports everybody in San Francisco, regardless of their status. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Marianne. And, um, without further ado, I want to invite, um, our special presentation speakers. I'll let them introduce themselves more fully, but we have Nikki and Hawa here from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area here to show, share with us invaluable Know Your Rights information. And again, I just want to thank everyone for making the time to attend this meeting and, um, I'll pass it on to you, Nikki. Please take it away. And thank you again so much for being here.

Thanks so much, Jamie. I'm going to share my screen here. Give me a hot moment. And meanwhile, I will let my colleague Hewitt introduce herself.

Thank you, Nikki. And thank you all for inviting us here today. My name is Hewitt Shankut. I use she, her pronouns. I am a co-director. here on our economic justice team with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. As Nikki mentioned, I'm going to kick us off with some introductions and then I'll pass the mic to Nikki to lead us through the Know Your Rights presentation. Our next slide, please. So we want to start off with this disclaimer and just be as clear as possible about the nature of the information that we're offering. here today. We acknowledge, of course, the chaotic and constantly changing and cruel policies implemented by the current federal administration and the changing landscapes that we're operating within. And so all this information, content, and materials that are contained in this presentation is for informational purposes only. And I just direct everyone to this disclaimer to read and review it. reiterating that this presentation is intended to be a general overview of the subjects discussed and does not create a lawyer-client relationship. The information in this presentation is general and should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a qualified and licensed attorney. In addition, this is not a space to ask questions, confidential questions, or any questions really specific to your immigration case. So please don't submit any personal information through the Q&A. And for legal, ethical reasons, we cannot give anything that can be construed as legal advice within this space. Please talk to a legal representative for legal advice about your specific situation. We're going to get into what this presentation is in just a little bit, but I want to clarify that what this presentation is not is an overview of the full expanse of current threats facing immigrants. It does not provide sort of daily changes in the law and policy. We're not going to go in depth on I-9 audits or raids that are, you know, descriptive of more large scale immigration enforcement actions. And we want to also just name that this is really heavy and difficult content that we'll be discussing here today, especially for individuals who themselves or whose families are directly impacted by the current hostility and chaos of the policies that are Reckon habit within our immigrant communities today, and so we just encourage you to check in with yourselves during and after this presentation next slide. And so the lawyers committee for civil rights of the San Francisco Bay area was founded in 1968 it's one of the oldest civil rights organizations on the west coast. at the forefront of dismantling systems of oppression and racism and building a just and equitable society. And we do this work with a focus on three core program areas, the economic justice, immigrant justice, and the racial justice. So our economic justice team is comprised of two primary initiatives, our Legal Services for Entrepreneurs program and our Protecting Racial Equity where we work on issues related to economic empowerment and security and helping local businesses start and preserve and expand their small businesses, as well as working on issues relating to the protection of racial equity programming for nonprofits. I want to note that we've had a very long history in San Francisco, and in 2025 alone, our LLC program was able to serve 148 San Francisco small business clients. And we've worked closely with the city in collaboration with other community-based organizations on offering as well specialized commercial tenant and leasing support. And we've done dozens of clinics and workshops over the years, and we look forward to continuing to do this work for our San Francisco small business communities. A little bit about our immigrant justice team as well. So we have an asylum program that represents individuals in immigration court and assist them with other immigration benefits and applications before USCIS, as well as conducting impact litigation and policy advocacy aimed at protecting and defending the rights of our local immigrant communities. Our racial justice team is focused on impact and policy advocacy, on issues of anti-police violence, as well as advocating for unhoused folks rights and initiatives and high impact litigation at the intersection of civil rights for immigrants and racial justice. Next slide. And so here's our agenda here today. I'm gonna pass it over to Nikki Nikki Valadez, To take us through but we'll be jumping into a know your rights background overview, as well as an employer planning and then have some space for exercising our rights are exploring that that capacity and then resources and Q amp a afterwards thanks Nikki.

Thank you, Hubert. My name is Nikki Ensley, she, her pronouns. I am a senior staff attorney on our economic justice team. All right, the importance of know your rights. This may be redundant for a lot of the folks on this call, but we wanted to take a moment and just reflect on why these kinds of presentations are important. Regardless of immigration status, people who live in the US have constitutional rights that even a president or a federal government cannot violate without repercussion. And in times of uncertainty and escalating fear such as these, sometimes it's best just to focus on what you can control and knowing your rights is something you can control. Information truly is power. Knowing your rights can help people understand and navigate their risks so that they can have more confidence in living their lives and being able to balance the risk of being subject to immigration enforcement with all the other needs, working, bringing kids to school, etc. Knowing your rights can prevent deportations. If someone's constitutional rights are violated, maybe in the moment there's not much they can do. But afterwards, maybe they can file a motion to suppress with immigration court. If that's granted, then maybe evidence that was unconstitutionally collected against that person cannot be used in court. And without that illegally obtained evidence, the government either has maybe a weaker or even no case against that person. If you can show your arrest was not proper, it may even factor into whether you can be detained at all. Knowing your rights can also build community power, brings folks together, like all of us here on this call, for a common purpose. And it can hold the government accountable for violations, either in the court or in the media and public opinion. And in the past, we have seen ICE adjust their tactics in response to people knowing their rights. Immigration enforcement often relies on people being unaware of or even waiving their rights in the makes their jobs easier. Per some studies, most workers find out about these constitutional rights at work. So y'all here have a really key role and responsibility in educating yourselves and your employees and colleagues. We wanted to name that these are very difficult and unprecedented times for small business owners and leaders, nonprofits and workers alike, especially those relying on immigrants. While we present what the law says, we also all know and have abundant evidence that law enforcement does not always follow the law. ICE does lie sometimes. They do violate constitutional protection sometimes, the ones that we'll discuss today. But if your rights are violated, it doesn't mean that you don't have them. The goal of this presentation is to help provide you with some practical tools and strategies to help protect your employees and your colleagues and your organization, even when things don't go as planned. We also want to name that the laws in our immigration systems themselves are structural problems. They have a lot of structural problems. We are violating folks' human rights and their humanity in ways systemic and sanctioned all the time. So our approach is know your rights, but it's also a community defense ethos. If immigration enforcement does come, and regardless of how they act, how can we reduce the harm? Um, how do we urge folks to be as prepared as they can be and everyone must conduct their own risk assessment for the exercise of your rights in this kind of atmosphere. But we believe you can help combat the humanity of the systems by how you take care of each other by planning and organizing and helping protect your communities, your organizations and yourselves. All right, a lot of setup there, but really quickly, you know, we often say ICE, I've already said it in this presentation. We kind of use it as a shorthand, but the reality is more expansive, right? So immigration enforcement is primarily conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS, which ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is an agency of. But there are other agencies, including Custom and Border Protection, CBP. These are often the folks you see at the airports. Other federal agencies, like the IRS or even the U.S. Marshals Service, do act in coordination with ICE or an effective substitute sometimes. Additionally, local law enforcement officers acting under federal authority through deputization or through things like joint task forces, excuse me, can also participate in immigration related enforcement. Within California and often with our local sanctuary laws, it's more usually the ICE who's active in our communities. So we'll sometimes, you know, we'll keep saying ICE as a shorthand throughout this presentation, even if it might mean also agents from other different agencies. So we just want you to keep the full meaning of immigration enforcement in mind. So eyes are sometimes quite visible. They sometimes have signs on their backs, like the fellow in this photo here. But they can be in plain clothes. They also have been known to impersonate police by wearing police badges or tactical gear or by even announcing themselves as police. The fellow in this photo actually says police and it says eyes on his back, which is pretty confusing. Local law enforcement may be easier to identify. They often are wearing a local uniform or carrying a badge that indicates their agency. And generally, California law enforcement agencies are enforcing California and local law and policy, not immigration law, which is federal. So California law enforcement, for example, cannot ask you about your immigration status or arrest you only for having a deportation order. There are gaps in our California sanctuary policies, local and statewide, and there are a lot of efforts to try to close those gaps currently. But we'll just flag some recent legal developments in California that may impact how we see law enforcement showing up in our communities this year. So folks may have seen in the news the ban on face coverings for federal officers that took effect, but it actually was recently struck down in the courts. It might be amended to apply to all law enforcement agencies and reintroduce, but for right now it's not in effect. But there was another recently passed law that was upheld by the same judge, which requires both state and federal law enforcement to wear clear identification showing their agency and badge number. So that is in effect. We'll see in reality how ICE and the federal law enforcement agencies respond. to these requirements, but we wanted to equip you all with that information. All right, so the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution prevents law enforcement, including ICE, from unlawful searches and seizures. And whether a search is allowed depends on whether a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the area being searched. So law enforcement can't just enter your house or somewhere private to you without a judicial warrant or consent. And you can think about the Fourth Amendment rights as being on a spectrum. So the home is really where the Fourth Amendment protections are the strongest. And then meanwhile, public spaces are where those protections are the weakest. Most workplaces or businesses have some combination of public and private spaces. All searches require consent or a search warrant with some exceptions. We won't go into detail what those exceptions are. We're just going to name a few that maybe folks are already thinking of. So some exceptions are searches that are part of inspection for entry at a border or airport, searches of items that are in plain view when evidence is like clearly visible and there's some probable cause there. And under certain exigent circumstances where there's like a belief that an entry is necessary to prevent imminent fiscal harm to officers or other people. Um, you kind of can think of that as like a hot pursuit chase thing. Um, there's been a lot of misinformation recently from ICE about what is required by the constitution. Um, but it does require law enforcement to get consent or judicial or a judicial warrant before entering a private space. Um, folks may remember seeing some things about an internal ICE memo that was leaked earlier this year. saying ICE officers can enter the private space of those who have final orders of removal without consent and using only an administrative warrant. But that memo cited no legal basis for the policy because there's not one. And the ICE memo also does not change the Constitution or override court decisions. All it does is tell us what ICE may be trying to get away with. And there's already at least one lawsuit about that memo. The Fifth Amendment, amongst other things, this right also encompasses a right against self-incrimination. So you can think of this as a right to remain silent generally. You don't have to talk. You don't have to expose yourself. ICE often has no way to establish that a person is deportable except by the person's own statements. All right, public versus private spaces. This relates back to the underlying Fourth Amendment, right? Where do you have a reasonable expectation of privacy? And again, usually there's a mix of public and private spaces at a business or a workplace. Public spaces are really any area that the general public is free to enter and access. So for a business organization, you can think about parking lots, lobbies, waiting rooms, parks, streets, and open field, so anyone, including ICE agents, can enter those public spaces without a need to obtain consent or any warrant. Private spaces, on the other hand, are anywhere the public cannot enter without permission. So think restaurant kitchens, workshops, back rooms, break rooms, store rooms, generally employee-only spaces, right? It might also be a space that is private only some of the day. So for example, maybe there's a period of time during which a space is otherwise closed to the public and used as kind of an employee office or workspace. And you don't have to let ICE into private areas or talk to them or give them any records in a private space. And you or your organization's authorized representative, which we'll talk more about, the authorized representative, should not consent to ICE entering private spaces without a judicial warrant. Under California law AB 450, employers actually may not provide consent to enter private areas of the workplace without a judicial warrant. All right, we've talked a lot about judicial warrants. This is a judicial warrant example. And with these, ICE is allowed to enter certain private areas for specific reasons written on the warrant. If immigration enforcement shows up at your business organization and shows a warrant, you want to verify that it is a judicial warrant, not an administrative warrant. ICE is actually very unlikely to have a judicial warrant. Sometimes they'll have it if they're investigating like a criminal offense, like smuggling, but it is rare. So judicial warrant would have United States District Court or state court usually at the top. as this example shows. You'd want to check that it is signed by a judge, a district court judge, or a magistrate judge. You'd want to check the location there on the warrant, verify that the address on the warrant matches your premises. If it's wrong, even by one number, you don't have to let them in. It's the wrong address. You want to check the scope as well. A judicial warrant can authorize an arrest, a seizure, a search. You'd want to review it to see what areas and things ICE is authorized to do. And you don't have to let ICE into any place that is not described in the warrant. Being wary of the things in plain view, though. You also want to take a look and check out the time, right? Law enforcement must execute a judicial warrant within 14 days. It's 14 calendar days. So you want to confirm that it hasn't been more than 14 days since the date on that signature line there. An administrative warrant, on the other hand, may say, like, US Department of Homeland Security at the top. not U.S. District Court and Magistrate Court. It might even have a title warrant for arrest of an alien. It's signed by an immigration officer, not a judge. There's often no court seal. An administrative warrant is not enough to let ICE enter a private space. If, however, ICE presents with a valid judicial warrant, it is important to comply, but just within the scope of the warrant. Let me make a quick note about subpoenas, which are an entirely different document. Those are legal documents that request specific information or documents that have to be provided at a specific time. And there are immigration ones and there are judicial subpoenas as well. And both kinds can be challenged and an agency has to go to court to enforce a subpoena. The subpoena alone does not allow officers to enter or execute a search and certainly not immediately. So you really just want to keep an eye out for the judicial warrant. So we're looking here at some examples of these private versus public spaces. If you want to use these slides, and we do encourage you to present to your employees or your colleagues at your business organization, this is a good slide for getting folks to interact. You can ask them what you think about these different examples. These, you see like kitchens, right? Back rooms, got an employee area. These are all private. And remember to access a private space, ICE needs a judicial warrant or consent. These examples are all public, so waiting areas, you got like a field here, you have areas for the public to just spend time in like a shopping floor. This is an example of a sign that employers or organizations compose to designate a private space. It's always better to have a clearly designated private space that's clear to everyone what is and is not private. This is another example. A note about these kinds of signs, you know, sometimes community members and workers alike feel safer when they see private or no entry signs, as these materials can signal that the employer or the organization is welcoming to immigrants and that it has a plan if ICE is present. All right, some general know your rights dues. You wanna stay calm, don't run. Running can give them probable cause. You wanna defer to your workplace authorized representative. Um, so anyone amongst the staff who is not an authorized representative, all their folks would basically say, I can't give you permission to enter. If I shows up, you have to speak with my manager or whoever that authorized person is. And then otherwise you would just remain silent. Now, we, we do say, you know, you have the right to remain silent, but also we suggest that you can ask these things. You can confirm that. Generally, though, what we mean is you don't want to talk more than necessary. You don't have to answer ICE's questions. You don't have to volunteer any information to ICE. You can say that you want to remain silent until you speak with an attorney. If you think about it, you know, if everyone in the workplace remains silent, it would make it harder for ICE to sing out people who are at higher risk of harm. So it's really protective of everybody. You can show a red card. We recommend that folks keep, these are like know your rights red cards. They're available from the ILRC, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. We have a link to those on our resource page at the end of this presentation. Comes in 14 languages. You can keep them by the door of your business or your organization at all times. And that red card explains your constitutional rights. It goes over fourth, fifth amendments. And that you don't have to open the door. You can just show it to ICE so you don't need to speak. It's always an option. You can ask if you're free to go. And if they say yes, leave. If you're told no and you're asked for any immigration documents, for example, you can still, again, remain silent. And you can show a red card if you have one. Generally, you also would want to announce before recording. You have generally a right to record as long as you're doing so in a visible public space. If it feels safe, it could be useful to document with photos or videos in case there's a violation of rights. If it doesn't feel safe, You can just try to make a mental note of key details, like if the officer is wearing a badge and has a name or agency written on their clothing. You can write those things down that occurred afterwards while it's still fresh in your mind and maybe share those. with a trusted legal representative to see if there's a possible challenge to anything that occurred. We have a link in our resources slide that includes some best practices for recording, but I'll just make a note orally now that it's important to make sure not to physically interfere with law enforcement during any recording. So often like over 10 feet of distance is recommended. Even verbally saying that you're trying to deescalate the situation, I'm taking a step back. I'm just documenting, not interfering. Sometimes that's not enough. And everyone has to think about their own risk assessments there. But again, you want to check out the link in our resources. Slide for some information on best practices for safely recording, including thinking about the safety of your device. For example, if it was taken by law enforcement, which does happen. If you're detained, you can ask to speak with an attorney or make a phone call. But again, assert that right to otherwise remain silent. It's often recommended that folks memorize or carry the phone number of someone that would call in an emergency. Memorizing is more ideal than carrying. Ideally, this person that you would call would be someone who can put your plans and wishes into place. Maybe they could call an immigration attorney if you have one, or they know where you store your important documents. Under SB 294, which we'll talk about in a moment, employers should have an emergency contact for employees, and they are required, employers are required to contact that emergency contact if an employee is arrested or detained while working. Some general know your rights, do not. Most of these are just the inverse of the earlier slide of dues. So you do not, on behalf of yourself or any employees or colleagues, want to physically resist or run. You don't want to let ICE in to private areas without a valid judicial warrant. Again, under AB 450, employers may not provide consent to enter non-public areas of the workplace. Immigration agents have to have a judicial warrant to enter those spaces. Do not say your immigration status. Law enforcement or ICE may ask. You don't have to confirm. And you can and should decline requests to identify other individuals, employees, colleagues by immigration status or nationality. Do not say your country of origin or show documents showing you were born in another country, even if you're asked. Much of this amounts to basically remain silent, right? Again, if all the colleagues in our workplace remain silent, it makes it hard for law enforcement or ICE to single out people. So if you take nothing else away from this presentation, remaining silence is your right, and it's often good to exercise that right, especially in a chaotic atmosphere. You do not want to provide others documents without a warrant. Again, under California law, an employer cannot share employee records with immigration enforcement without a valid judicial warrant or I-9 raid paperwork. You never want to provide false documents or lie. You don't want to sign documents either. You have the right to refuse to sign anything before you talk to a lawyer. So do not sign anything you don't understand or agree with. It could eliminate your right to speak with a lawyer or have a hearing in front of an immigration judge. Folks also do not need to and should not sort or line up according to immigration status. Even if they're asked, you do not need to comply. So, all workers, regardless of immigration status are protected by employment laws, various employment laws. As of this year, this includes SB 294, and this is applicable to all employees, regardless of industry and the number of employees. I'm sorry, all employees, regardless of industry and number of employees. This includes a written notice requirement, so it requires employers to give workers a separate So like a standalone written notice explaining the workplace rights, includes workers' rights under labor laws and their constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement. at work or during work hours. There was a deadline of on or before February 1st of this year. The employers had to give this notice to all current employees. And the law requires that employers continue to do this every year. And new employees have to receive this notice when they are hired. An employee's representative must also receive the notice each year. So that representative means like an exclusive collective bargaining representative. There are templates, we have some linked here on the California state government website available in English and Spanish already and soon in additional languages, I believe as well. The law requires that the labor commissioner posts updated template notices. Again, see these links. Some other notes really quickly that we'll flag about this particular act. The notice has to be provided in a manner that an employer normally uses to communicate employment related information. So that could be An email or a text as long as it's received within 1 business day, and then records should be kept of compliance for 3 years. Something written like an email would make that easy to do. The notice also has to be provided in the language the employer usually uses to communicate with the employee. There is an exception if the template available on the labor commissioner website is only available in is not available in that language, then the notice can be provided in English. The second main part of this act is it requires employers to contact an employee's emergency contact if the employee is arrested or detained at the workplace. If the arrest happens while the employee is working but not at the workplace, the employers have to notify the emergency contact if they know about the arrest. So folks should definitely, if you're not aware about that new law, check out this slide later for the links. Some employer planning essentials. Definitely want to learn up yourself as an employer or leader in your business or nonprofit. You being here is a big part of that. You want to make sure you understand your constitutional rights to privacy, your responsibilities under SB 294, the Know Your Rights Act, for I-9 audits, and that you have a plan generally for compliance. right you want to prepare a safety plan and designate authorized persons that is really key to to limiting the harm that ice can cause we really recommend a written safety plan for if law enforcement visits and that your workplace practices it like a fire drill you want to designate and then train specific staff to be the authorized persons we've mentioned this throughout this presentation an authorized person right for interacting with immigration enforcement including you know that person's role would include requesting and verifying warrants you want to make sure that you know all these shifts are covered for when your business organization are open it's really important to have folks who can confidently and calmly engage with immigration enforcement if they appear so that there's like one person with one voice who's speaking not a bunch of people And that they're really, you know, having one person at least for every shift ensures that there's someone who's trained on what to look for and how to ask the right questions and knows how to have this conversation, right? And it may be a way of slowing down ICE from entering even public areas if only certain authorized folks are allowed to let ICE in. And then all other staff could say, I can't give you permission to enter. You must speak with the authorized person. There's a lot more information in the written materials that we'll share and in the resources that we have linked in the, I keep referencing this resource slide that we have at the end, but it has wonderful information. So definitely check that out. Another important part of this employer planning is identifying, marking, and securing those private areas. So we showed some examples of signs that could help designate the private spaces. Again, a clearly marked area with a sign, maybe there's even a lock on the door, provides the best protection. While you can't make up private areas per se, you can consider how you can expand your private area. Maybe there's a VIP system for certain clients. Maybe only certain people meet certain criteria that can enter the lobby or sign in or receive a badge or a sticker or something like that. You can think about if there are outer doors, gates, or barriers that can be easily closed, that again would maybe slow down ICE if they're trying to enter, if that's the first access point. Other key part of this is educating your employees. If you've developed a plan, but it's not communicated, then it's pretty useless. It's really important to share these guidelines early and often. Make sure that you're talking to staff and your colleagues so that they understand what the safety plan is and what to do if they're approached by immigration officials. Don't forget that SB 294 compliance as well. And then you'll just practice. Again, practice it like a fire drill because if and when law enforcement shows up, it's really another ballgame to do this, you know, in the context of a presentation like this versus if someone is armed and standing in front of you and intimidating and asking to be let in, right? I know we're running short on time, so I'm just going to reference the templates that we're going to provide you in the resources slide again. We have a wonderful one from Betcetic. It has a model policy that you can use and adapt for your organization, your organization's needs. It covers like everything on this slide and in the previous slide essentially. And again, you're very welcome and encouraged to tailor your policies for your specific organizational context. So for example, if you're a healthcare provider, you wanna make sure that you address patient confidentiality things. If you serve unhoused folks, you wanna make sure that you're thinking about the vulnerability of your populations. 1, clear key thing I'm just going to flag on this slide is to make sure that the safety plan is written and that's because it helps repair staff for unexpected situations. It reduces fear provides clarity during stressful situations. helps create organizational consensus, and also just allow staff to reference the policy when they're declining requests. So your staff could tell law enforcement, our policy states, I'm not allowed to let you enter, only the authorized representative is allowed to let you enter. And it can also be a tangible example that immigrants are welcome and safe if you have a written safety plan like this. And it should include a lot of the essentials on this on this line, a clear scope, staff roles and responsibilities. You know, you can think about people's roles beyond the authorized representatives, front desk, reception, security. Is there a different situation when events happen? We want to think about communication framework. Who will be the one to contact an employee's emergency contact if an employee is arrested or detained? Do you have a communication plan for notifying each other if federal agents arrive? Private and public space designations are also a key part of the safety plan, as is sensitive information management. If you have thorough security protocols that are consistently implemented and enforced, it's less likely that there'll be inadvertent release of information to immigration agents. So think about non-essential data collection limitations, secure storage and retention protocols, disclosure procedures, all of these things. And you'll want to think through every part of the business and organization that you might have, that employees or colleagues might have to encounter immigration enforcement. So that's at entrances, including like the requesting or verification of warrants. Inside, including limiting searches to just what's in the warrant. And then documenting enforcement encounters, there's recommendations in this guide here from Pet Sedeck and also protocols for post enforcement encounters, including providing support resources to impacted employees, clients, and any other stakeholders? If staff members or clients are detained, do you have a procedure about determining where they're being taken, how to connect them with legal resources? If an enforcement action reveals unauthorized workers, What is the process for, you know, considering offering leave or processing final payments if termination is necessary? All these things, including, you know, an employee debriefing session, are included in this guide. Highly recommend that folks take a look at it and that they get consensus from, you know, the important folks like maybe your board needs to be involved or there's directors at your organization. And you're going to share it and train employees on that safety plan and make sure that you're refreshing things regularly, taking a look and making sure that it's up to date. We mentioned already that we're not gonna cover I-9 audits. There's some specific information here and a link of if you need more information. I-9 audits are official reviews to verify your workforce's employment eligibility and they can be, or it can be selected for audit randomly or based on specific information. Flag that folks should take a look here at this National Immigration Law Center guide. And also just flagging that this thread of prosecution under harboring or aiding and abetting and obstruction of justice has become Something that we see more of recently, so these are federal threats of prosecution under these specific crimes that have also specific penalties. Just so folks are aware, it is a crime to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection a person with knowledge or in reckless disregard of their unlawful status. It is complicated. There's some examples on what courts have ruled to be harboring versus not. The important part there is to think about the purpose to conceal. For example, if you think about the right to remain silent, it's riskier to tell people don't answer their questions, don't talk to ICE, but it's lower risk to tell someone. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to ask for an attorney. That's just reminding folks what their rights are. Obstruction of justice is kind of what it sounds like, obstructing an officer in the performance of their official duties. Maybe that's physically blocking ICE agents or providing false information and again these things carry penalties and we just want folks to be aware of some of the ways the federal government has been attempting to to come after others who may be trying to be protective of undocumented folks we don't have time to go into detail into that unfortunately but there are things you can do even when ICE is not following the rules something that we flagged earlier in this presentation You know, I can lie and does lie, but regardless of how they behave, you still need to act appropriately, protect yourself, put yourself in the best situation to challenge. If there is an illegal arrest or detention, you can continue to reassert your constitutional rights. Um, there are things you can, you can say, you know, I do not get my consent to enter. I do not consent to a search, things like that. You may want to consider documenting, um, telling them if there are vulnerable folks present, but Of all the things, we want to remember your right to remain silent above all, right? And you can always seek legal counsel afterwards. All right. We'll leave this in the slides because sometimes, you know, we know we wouldn't have time to go through it. But it often, again, it can be really overwhelming once you actually encounter immigration enforcement. So it's good to practice saying some things out loud. moving through these motions of asserting your rights with your employees, with your colleagues. So here are, when you have the slides sent from OCEA, here are some things you can think about practicing with your, again, your employees or your colleagues so that folks feel more prepared. Asserting, again, that right, that key right to remain silent. All right, here's that resources slide we mentioned many times. So, the PEDCETIC guide is the one that we talked about having a lot of the model policies you can think about pulling from. And there are a lot of other wonderful resources here. We also know that the SF Immigrant Forum website has a lot of great resources as well. All right, and here we have some of the rapid response numbers for the different Bay Area counties. Rapid response broadly refers to organizing and advocacy practices intended to mobilize a community to help individuals or groups of people who have been arrested by immigration enforcement actions. So each of the Bay Area counties has their own number. They do great work. All right, and wrapping, and you know, it's not really easy to hear a lot of this information. It's very stressful, some more for others. Um, and we really rapid fire went through a lot of information that information truly is power. And, um, you know, if problems sometimes seem too big, like there's too many of them in this world to do one little thing, like, and it's not even a little thing by helping your business, your organization be a place where constitutional rights are known and where community defense is exercised and where employees feel and are, and actually are safer. That is a wonderful thing to do. And, um, You're standing in solidarity with your community. We really hope you feel more empowered and prepared to defend yourselves and your employees and your colleagues moving forward.

All right. Sorry, Jamie, we went way over. No problem. It was such valuable information. Thank you so much, Nikki. And I saw some claps in the screen and they're well deserved as is that drink of water. Thank you for taking the time to provide such helpful resources. I have a few questions if folks can stay on for a few minutes and if you can answer them, Nikki. Just before we do jump into the Q&A, I want to remind everyone that we will be sending these slides out and they will be translated as well into Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino so folks can share that with their employees and colleagues. And we really encourage folks to take this back and, you know, create a plan if you don't already have one with the valuable information that was shared today. And this recording will also be shared. So, if you weren't able to get that, you know, take a picture of the slide. That's okay. It's coming your way soon. So, we just have a few questions. I'll start with this one. If ICE has a judicial warrant for a building, does that automatically include all of the offices in the building and employee break rooms?

Good question. So it wouldn't automatically, so you're saying if there's a judicial warrant, it just has like a street address and there's just a giant office building there. Um, from my understanding, you would need to have like the specific, it's not just like every business in that, in that, at that address, it would need to have like the unit number, right. Or the apartment number. Um, you can't just generally search 200, you know, whatever offices, for example. Um, and again, it is very just folks should keep in mind. It's very rare that there would be a valid judicial warrant in the 1st place. And that is what would allow you into something like an employee break room. Right?

Thanks for tackling that 1. the 2nd question is, if an individual is detained and taken into a detention center, is it recommended that they remain silent until an attorney is present?

If the individual who's detained and is going through all the processes of being transferred to detention center and everything like that, at any point in that process, frankly, like anything you say could be used against you, right? So we do recommend that folks remain silent until they're able to speak with an attorney. Yeah.

Thanks for that. And our last question is a little bit more broad. Are there tenant rights with this? If the immigrant isn't the owner of a home, maybe they're a renter, can the landlord open their door for ice to come into their residence?

That's a good question. So a residential landlord definitely cannot. I'm actually not sure in the commercial. I would imagine in the commercial lease space as well that that would apply because the property right has already been transferred. I wouldn't quote me 100% on that, though. So we can follow up via email and try to find... a more solid response to that. But definitely in the in the residential context, a landlord cannot allow entry to law enforcement, just because it's technically their property. The tenant still has rights to refuse. Yeah.

Thanks for answering that as well. I think those are all of our questions. There's some great feedback about, you know, the content here, and you've included your email at the end of the slide, so folks are, you know, able to reach out to you with any follow-up questions after this. So thank you for providing that, Nikki, so much, and Hewitt also for the introduction and all of LCCRSF's presentation today, and just want to thank you so much. again yes all the hearts in the corner um thank you so much thank you jamie thanks everyone right that concludes our sf immigrant forum today i just want to reiterate um my thanks and appreciation for everyone attending today i think you know if this is your first time we hope to see you at a future immigrant forum meeting and if you are interested in participating in the future please check out sf.gov immigrants there's a sub page of resources for service providers where we link all of our information from these webinars so please do check that out and thanks once again have a good rest of your afternoon everyone really appreciate it