Know Your Rights Event Informs Trinity Community on ICE Encounters

Helena Likus ’26

News Editor

On Oct. 15, 2025, a Know Your Rights workshop took place in Trinity’s library. The event was focused on informing the Trinity community on how to behave in encounters with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The event’s participants numbered around 30, most of whom were Trinity faculty and staff, including several joining by Zoom, among them the event’s speaker. 

The event was co-organized by Professor of American Studies Jordan Camp, in the capacity of secretary of the Trinity chapter of the American Association of University Professors and co-director (with Professor Christina Heatherton) of the Trinity Social Justice Institute. The second co-organizer was Gabriel Espinosa-Ramos, an immigration lawyer practicing in California and a founder of Espinosa-Ramos Law. The workshop was co-sponsored by the Trinity library, the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, the American studies program and the departments of political science and sociology. 

After a short introduction from Camp, Espinosa-Ramos gave a 40-minute address followed by a Q&A session. The entire event lasted 90 minutes. 

In an introductory statement, Camp stated, “The Trump administration’s project of mass deportation has become one of the most important political issues of our time. While mass deportation did not appear all of sudden with his return to the White House, his administration’s policies have led to escalating mass arrests and deportations, and a targeting of international students and faculty.” Camp continued, “That is why we were delighted to host Gabriel Espinosa-Ramos’ workshop to highlight ways that the Trinity campus community can support international faculty, staff and students.” 

Espinosa-Ramos’ presentation began by asserting that everyone in the United States has the right to be free from unwarranted searches and seizures, and the right to due process according to the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution. It dispelled the misconception that those rights only apply to U.S. citizens. 

Espinosa-Ramos warned that ICE agents tend to lack proper training and do not know how to conduct arrests in a constitutional way. They often do not read detainees their rights, therefore it is important to remember that everyone who is detained has the right to remain silent and a right to a lawyer. 

Moreover, he added that any bystander has the right to record somebody being detained by ICE. However, a person recording should remain calm and assess their own safety. Additionally, it is always legal to loudly ask ICE agents whether this person is under arrest, if the person detained can call their attorney and to request ICE officers’ name and badge number. 

Espinosa-Ramos provided guidance on the best course of action after someone is detained. The fastest way to get people out of a detention center is to file habeas corpus, he said, which is a criminal defense principle that grants every person a trial. Therefore, it is important to find an immigration lawyer who knows how to file it. Knowing the Alien Registration Number of a detained person is the easiest way to find out in which detention center they are held. 

Espinosa-Ramos emphasized that Trinity is in a particular position because it has a private campus. This means that if ICE doesn’t have a warrant, they can be removed from campus. For a warrant to be valid it needs to be signed by a judge. Espinosa-Ramos mentioned that it is, however, a common practice for ICE to carry warrants without valid signatures. 

Trinity’s current policy on dealing with ICE officers entering campus is that everyone who encounters them should immediately call Campus Safety, who will then escort them to Trinity’s general counsel to determine the validity of their court orders. This guidance applies to an encounter with any law enforcement agency.