The NLG San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (NLGSF) and independent producers April Martin and Lucia Palmarini released the first installment of a new multimedia toolkit called We Know Our Rights to equip communities with critical information to help protect themselves in their interactions with law enforcement.
We Know Our Rights provides practical tools that are effective and legally sound and helps prepare vulnerable communities to fight back against intimidation by law enforcement. This series is being released at an important political moment when our civil rights, particularly for immigrant communities, are under serious and sustained attack by the Trump administration.
Derechos, the first installment of We Know Our Rights, is designed to explain the rights of immigrants when they are being confronted or questioned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“NLGSF is committed to providing legal support to immigrants who have been subjected to State repression and violence,” said NLGSF Executive Director Jay Kim. “We Know Our Rights is an important step in resisting the current Administration’s racist anti-immigrant policies and protecting the due process rights of immigrants.”
“Our hope is that this series will help as many people as possible, especially people who face these attacks on a regular basis,” said April Martin, Co-Producer of We Know Our Rights.
The three short vignettes in Derechos depicts scenarios based upon actual encounters with ICE agents. Filmed with a cast and crew that is 80% Latinx, the vignettes portray tense interactions with ICE agents and illustrate how to best respond when faced with intimidating and/or threatening situations. “These situations can be very difficult to navigate, even when you know your rights,” said Derechos Director David Martinez. “It was important that we show the discomfort that can arise when exercising our rights and also the power that can come from it.”
We Know Our Rights is designed as a multimedia toolkit that can be used as an organizing and educational tool. “We welcome any and all community or home screenings, legal training workshops or other public presentations featuring We Know Our Rights,” said Co-Producer Lucia Palmarini. “We were intentional in creating a multimedia toolkit that is easy to use and accessible to all communities.”
More information about the films and on how to host a screening is available at: www.weknowourrights.com