Student Association Hosts ‘Know Your Rights’ Event

On March 4, the SUNY New Paltz Student Association (SA) hosted a “Know Your Rights” event to discuss recent changes and executive orders regarding immigration law, and how students can protect themselves and others. 

This event hosted five panelists from a range of positions regarding immigration law and protection. The key focus of the discussion was to help students understand immigration law in a highly politicized climate.

“Know Your Rights” events have become increasingly popular on college campuses as part of a wide-spread movement to educate communities in the wake of heightened Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity under the second Trump administration. 

These events consist of training individuals to be aware of their rights under the Constitution and other laws that can empower them in a confrontation with immigration law enforcement — when referring to federal law, these largely rely on the Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In response to students’ concerns about ICE, their presence in Ulster County and the recent executive orders from The White House, SA formed a six-member panel to offer expert insight to the campus community.

The six-member panel featured Reverend Liz Estes, a Pastor of Old Dutch Church of Kingston and clergy spokesperson for the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network; Navil Infante, a Regional Immigration Assistance Center (RAIC) Staff Attorney; Robert Horne, the Managing Attorney of the RAIC Lower Hudson Valley; Andrew Kossover, a Chief Public Defender of Ulster County; and Sheriff Juan J. Figueroa of the Ulster County Police Department. Victoria Kossover, an attorney at SUNY New Paltz’s Student Association, was present but did not speak on the panel.

Horne spoke on the “priority policy” which presidents set for addressing removal. A priority policy states the groups or qualifications that an administration will be targeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which enforces immigration law. Previous administrations, including Trump’s first, had stated policies, but it currently remains ambiguous what the policy now is.

Horne and Infante spoke about Trump’s executive order to “combat anti-semitism” which calls for DHS to work with the Department of Education (DOE) and the Department of State (DOS) to potentially remove “perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.” Infante explained that “visas could be revoked for virtually any reasons,” including involvement in certain clubs or protests. 

New York’s Protect Our Courts Act (POCA) prevents ICE from making civil arrests in and around courthouses in the state. POCA was signed into law by former Gov. Cuomo in 2020 to ensure everyone, including non-citizens, have equal access to courthouses.

Andrew Kossover, who with Victoria Kossover legally represents SA in protecting the rights of students, mentioned that in Trump’s first term, before POCA, ICE was active at the Town of New Paltz Court. 

Figueroa, who is named in a class action lawsuit for his role in the arrest of over 130 students and community members on May 2, 2024, was invited to speak. SA Vice President of Programming Ben Snazelle explained that he is uniquely qualified to speak on immigration issues. Figueroa has been vocal about his support for immigrants’ rights, stating that “immigration law is not our job.”

SUNY Chancellor John B. King in a memo to campus presidents on Jan. 28 discussed SUNY’s reaction to Trump’s initial executive orders surrounding immigration. In this he mentioned the “sensitive areas” policy, a doctrine that prevented ICE from going into schools, hospitals and places of worship, and stated that it has been rescinded as of Jan. 20.

Any document that is not signed by a judge does not provide a legal mandate for arrest, these include the administrative warrants often used by ICE. Sheriff Figueroa stated that “It’s got to be signed by a judge and the judge’s name has got to be clearly printed at the bottom for this office [Ulster County Police] to be involved.”

Infante also stated that “even if it is a judicial warrant, you do have to examine it very carefully, because there are many things that could be wrong with it,” because they have to be very specific to time, place and person.

Sanjay Basnet, a fourth-year history major and immigrant, expressed the stress he has felt since the November election. Basnet stated that the “event was an eye-opening experience, providing critical insights into the current immigration climate and the steps immigrants and students like me can take to protect ourselves. In these uncertain times, knowing your rights and being prepared can help protect you and your future.”

Each level of police forces from state to county to town are independent of each other and can operate separately. New Paltz Police are bound by a sanctuary policy, but campus administration has not adopted an official sanctuary status policy.

To learn more about your rights and protections under the Constitution, visit www.ilrc.org.