Due Process · Debido Proceso

See ICE activity? Start here.

Reporting takes under a minute. No name, no account.

The U.S. Constitution guarantees every person DUE PROCESS — every human being within U.S. jurisdiction.

Report what you see ➤

Watching it happen? Record safely

  • Your safety comes first. Keep your distance — far enough that an agent would have to walk toward you to reach you.
  • Stay calm, keep your hands visible, avoid sudden movements.
  • Follow instructions, and say your compliance out loud while recording: “I'm backing away, officer.” Don't argue — the recording is what matters, and arguing escalates.
  • Never record while driving. Have a passenger record, or use a dashcam.
  • Keep the video as one continuous recording. Capture badges, uniforms, any documents agents show, weapons, street signs, landmarks, and other people recording.

Afterward: protect what you recorded

  • Copy the video to a second device right away so it can't be lost.
  • Never edit the original — not even the file name. Unedited files are evidence.
  • The affected person's family, or their lawyer, decides what gets released. Get the footage to them first. If you can't reach them, a local immigrant rights group can help.
  • Then report here what you saw — it takes under a minute.
Report what you see ➤

The Constitution protects persons — not only citizens

The Constitution uses two different words — on purpose.

“Citizens”

A few rights: voting, holding federal office.

“Persons”

Its deepest protections — every human being on American soil.

Person. Not citizen.

“No person shall … be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

— Fifth Amendment (1791). The Fourteenth (1868) says it again, adding: “any person within its jurisdiction.”

The Supreme Court has read it that way for more than a century — from Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886) to Zadvydas v. Davis (2001): due process protects everyone on US soil, whatever their immigration status, however they came.

Due process means a fair procedure — notice, and a chance to be heard before a neutral judge — before the government takes anyone's liberty. A record of what actually happened is where that fairness starts. That's why this site exists.

Your rights, in short

  • Recording law enforcement in public is legal. It is not a crime, for anyone, whatever your immigration status.
  • Your phone is yours. Taking it, searching it, or deleting anything from it requires a warrant.
  • Your home: agents need a judicial warrant — signed by a judge, with a valid date, saying who or what they're looking for. You have the right not to open the door without one. An “administrative warrant” is not that.
  • If you're stopped: stay calm, don't resist, ask “am I free to leave?” You may remain silent and ask for a lawyer — whatever your status.
  • Knowing your rights doesn't erase risk — officers sometimes retaliate anyway. Document everything and challenge it later; don't fight it in the street.

Where to go for help

  • Legal hotline: (XXX) XXX-XXXX — EDIT ME in strings.py
  • Network contact: (XXX) XXX-XXXX — EDIT ME in strings.py

Full guide: ACLU — Recording and Documenting Police and Federal Agents

Where this information comes from

  1. ACLU of Nebraska, “Recording and Documenting Police and Federal Agents,” Know Your Rights series (updated Feb. 10, 2026)
  2. “Eyes on ICE: Know Your Rights” community training call (ACLU, Indivisible, NDLON, Detention Watch Network), recorded livestream
  3. ACLU of Hawaiʻi, Legal Observer Training slides (March 24, 2024)
  4. US Constitution, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments — full text at the Library of Congress
  5. National Constitution Center, Interactive Constitution — the Fourteenth Amendment

This site is run by a volunteer community network. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the ACLU or any organization named above — and we are not lawyers. The sections above are our plain-language summary of their published guidance and of the Constitution's text. Go to the sources for the full picture, and to a lawyer for legal advice.