Know Your Rights “Red Card” first developed by the Immigration Legal Resource Center in 2007. Courtesy ILRC.
As incidents and fears of mass deportation have grown under the second Trump administration, advocacy organizations have urged immigrants to learn about and “know your rights.” But what does this mean exactly, and where did this idea come from?
The idea dates back to the 1970s when Latino activists Bert Corona and Soledad Alatorre were building a new organization in Los Angeles to protect workers’ rights. Called El Centro de Acción Social Autonómo (Center for Autonomous Social Action—or CASA), the organization pioneered efforts to fight the growing number of deportations and racial profiling of Latino workers. One of the methods they used were educational campaigns designed to inform Latinos of their legal rights if stopped by immigration agents or caught up in workplace raids.
CASA’s message was simple: Don’t say anything; don’t sign anything; demand to see a lawyer. Because immigration authorities had to establish where people were born and how they entered the country in order to deport them, remaining silent would prevent immediate deportation and allow them to have a hearing. Whatever their status, immigrants possessed many of the same constitutional rights as other people in the United States.
To spread this message, CASA organized Know Your Rights workshops and distributed flyers in both Spanish and English. Soon, other organizations in Los Angeles and other parts of country were following their example. Know Your Rights workshops and information sheets became a key strategy among immigrant rights groups as formal deportations increased markedly over the next few decades. Many of these same organizations also began offering legal assistance, which significantly reduced the likelihood of being deported.
Know Your Rights workshops were first offered in the Boston area in 2006 when arrests and deportations surged after 9/11 and a comprehensive immigration reform bill was stalled in Congress. Some of the first workshops were held in East Boston and co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, Centro Presente, and legal organizations. Muslim groups also organized Know Your Rights workshops after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2014, in response to complaints of profiling of Arab and Muslim immigrants. In addition to helping people learn about their rights, the workshops were designed to prevent a sense of panic that was widespread at the time.
Calls for mass deportation under both Trump administrations have sparked a resurgence of Know Your Rights workshops and resources as public fears have grown. One of the most common methods of educating people are the so-called Red Cards created by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. Designed to be carried in a wallet, the free cards provide a concise statement of one’s constitutional rights if stopped. The cards can be silently presented to an immigration official to indicate that a person is asserting their rights. They are available in multiple languages, and millions have been distributed.
Works Cited
Goodman, Adam. The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Expelling Immigrants. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2020.
Jordan, Miriam. “For Fearful Immigrants, It’s the Card They Want Right Now,” New York Times, February 23, 2025.
“Know Your Rights,” Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
McDonald, Christine. “Raid Rumors Strike Fear; Despite Denials, Immigrants Worry,” Boston Globe, February 19, 2006.
Wangsness, Lisa. “New Generation of Muslim Leaders Emerges in Boston,” Boston Globe, July 1, 2015.
