Democrats in one Massachusetts city have purchased thousands of red cards intended to remind immigrants of their constitutional rights if approached by ICE or related agencies.
The Medford City Democratic Committee, based about six miles northwest of Boston, has already bought 4,000 cards, intended for use by citizens and noncitizens alike.
The cards list their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights: protecting them from warrantless searches, seizures, and having to speak to authorities without legal counsel.
They are printed in English on one side, with translations in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Haitian on the other, Medford City Councilor Matthew Leming notes on the committee’s website.
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Democrats in Medford, Massachusetts, have 4,000 red cards in various languages ready to distribute. Four-thousand more are reportedly on the way. (WFXT)
Four-thousand more cards have also been approved for purchase, he said, writing, “Red cards are like helpful business cards that a holder can hand to an officer if they approach in public.”
The cost of the initiative was $826, according to WFXT, a Boston FOX affiliate.
Leming told Fox News Digital that taxpayer funds are not being used to subsidize the program. Rather, he said, the Democratic City Committee footed the bill.
“We’re just trying to find things we can do that are feasible to resist what’s happening at the federal level,” Leming told WFXT. “It’s a way to protect our immigrant communities from the actions of the current administration.”
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“The cards list basic constitutional protections that apply to everybody, and everybody in the U.S. should be aware of their constitutional rights,” he further noted when asked by Fox News Digital.
The legal complexities of such an initiative are apparent — and whether constitutional rights apply to illegal immigrants can be a hot point of debate among legal scholars.
Medford City Councilor Matt Leming, a proponent of the red card initiative, asserts that it’s reminding people of “basic constitutional protections that apply to everybody.” (WFXT)
Leming hopes to take the initiative even further.
“What we’re trying to do is find nonprofits who would be willing to sign up and give us a receipt for finance purposes so we can mail them out,” he said. “A lot of our actions are restricted by campaign finance laws.”
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The Medford “red card” initiative comes amid widespread pushback by blue-state officials regarding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown — including visits by members of Congress to El Salvador to protest the detention of suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and recent court rulings attempting to restrict Border Patrol agents’ ability to detain suspected illegal immigrants.