What Documents Should You Carry?

Many questions coming in on what documents citizens and noncitizens alike should carry given the aggression of recent I.C.E. enforcement operations. First, it's critical to read my previous post regarding those actually affected by the recent I.C.E. surge. 

Regarding U.S. citizens, if your activities do not include those listed, nothing regarding who you are or what you do currently fits the pattern of ICE arrests. See previous post explaining the current pattern. 

That said, you are welcome to keep a color, hard copy of your U.S. passport ID page on your person for comfort, and/or several in places like your car, workplace and/or with others. You can even carry the actual passport, knowing there's some risk of loss. This advice, however, is for your emotional comfort, not based on facts or law. But, emotions still matter, so by all means do so if you wish.  

Indeed, everyone should have color copies of their passport ID pages printed out and preserved in at least a fireproof safe at home, along with a digital image accessible on a cloud platform. Family should know where those are located and trusted ones have access. This advice applies universally to all important documents. See my previous post on preserving important documents.

Also, if you truly fear being picked up by I.C.E., then the next rational action is to secure a Power of Attorney (POA) to designate someone to handle personal affairs if you're in detention or cannot act for yourself for some reason. Here's a great explanation on Powers of Attorney. Again, everyone should have a POA anyway, so this is a prudent move, especially noncitizens.

My office is happy to produce a properly executed Power of Attorney for you, or you can grab a version that is SPECIFIC TO YOUR STATE off the internet somewhere. If you have affairs in different states or countries, you absolutely need a Power of Attorney specifically recognized by that state or country.  Make sure there are multiple copies accessible the way I described above.

In sum, any “papers” you carry are worthless if they don’t correctly establish your status. And if your status in the U.S. is secure, except for the scenarios in my previous post, then this is really a personal comfort question (not be minimized of course--the government is going out of its way to make communities fearful).  Nonetheless, most everyone arrested in the last few weeks have never seen an attorney despite the delicacy of their status and were instead waiting for something to "happen" first.  Very bad approach, albeit most were given bad advice by nonlawyers on entry, and are now suffering terrible consequences.  You can help improve this problem with certain steps described in this previous post.

So, find out from a lawyer if you’re safe from I.C.E.  If a lawyer says you are, then you don’t fit the current pattern of ICE detentions and you've prevented the actual problem for which you are worried. 

If you have different information than what I've described, which is verifiable and not simply from social media or third hand, please inform me immediately and I am happy to change my advice. What I've described is based on my licensed, professional experience assessed by fact, law, and current observations. If you're not, then you've taken the most important step to solving the problem before deportation, not after.

For the record, I do not carry my U.S. passport with me.  ALSO, for the record, those who do fit in the current pattern of enforcement are seeing significant due process violations, making the situation extremely serious for America's rule of law. Moreover, human dignity is being disregarded at every turn by government leaders and law enforcement. As such, there is no more important time in American history for supporters of democracy to make their voice heard.