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"Know Your Rights" workshops in NYC packed amid uncertainty about Trump's immigration policies

NYC organizations host "Know Your Rights" workshops for immigrants
NYC organizations host "Know Your Rights" workshops for immigrants 02:20

NEW YORK — With all of the confusion and uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration's immigration policies, groups in the Tri-State Area are trying to provide answers and other resources.

CBS News New York's Ali Bauman got an exclusive look at one of these "Know Your Rights" workshops.

"The fear is anyone"

The organization Make the Road New York has been trying to keep up with the demand for these workshops over the past couple weeks. There was barely enough room for all the immigrants who crowded into a Brooklyn classroom Wednesday night to learn about their rights if immigration agents come knocking.

"Are you seeing a sense of urgency in the immigrant community here?" Bauman asked. 

"There's a sense of fear," Make the Road New York Deputy Director Natalia Aristizabal said. "And the fear is not only by people who are undocumented. The fear is anyone."

Sonia is a 54-year-old street vendor in Brooklyn, who came to New York from Mexico three decades ago. She did not want to share her immigration status.

"How have you felt going to work on the street the past few weeks?" Bauman asked.

"My fear is that if they ask for an ID and even if I can give them one, I still fear that they can take me, and my children not know where I am," Sonia said in Spanish. "That's my biggest fear – to be taken by myself, I work by myself, and with no one knowing that I was taken by ICE."

Sonia says she plans to share what she learned in the workshop with her neighbors.

"We also have power if we know our rights," Sonia said in Spanish.

8 arrested in NYC ICE raids had no criminality in U.S., authorities say

While New York is a sanctuary city, the NYPD can work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest an undocumented immigrant if they are suspected of a violent crime, as was the case with at least one of the 20 people arrested in an ICE raid Tuesday in the Bronx.

"The NYPD will always work with our federal and our local partners to take down international gangs," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Authorities said eight of the people arrested in those raids had no criminality associated with their existence in the United States other than entering the country illegally.

"Those people should have, at some point, said, 'I have the right to remain silent. I need to see the warrant under my name,'" Aristizabal said. "And only after a warrant has been passed under the door can they actually open the door to law enforcement."

"Do you think most people who come here know that?" Bauman asked.

"That's our job. We're training them," Aristizabal said.

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