Know Your Rights
At the Center for Security, Race and Rights, we are committed to educating the public – especially those from vulnerable communities – about their legal rights in various contexts. We invite you to read and watch the resources and videos below intended to provide an overview of legal rights in various contexts.
Immigrants and International Students
Professor Raquel Aldana, a leading legal scholar on transitional and immigrant justice, will provide training for attorneys to become better informed of the legal rights of students who were subject to visa revocation as part of the Trump administration’s effort to quell the student-led anti-war movement for Palestinian liberation. Under fear and threat of deportation, this has caused many international and undocumented students to question their involvement in protests for fear of retribution by the Trump administration. Now more than ever, it is critical for lawyers and the students they represent with varied immigration statuses to understand how the law can protect them.
Watch the Know Your Rights Workshop here.
Digital Security and ICE Encounters
This Know Your Rights training is geared to educate and train students on the current threat landscape, to teach students how to understand the different degrees of vulnerability, encourage and instruct on digital hygiene and security, and how to approach confrontations by ICE. Join CSRR and Muslim Advocates for an in-depth conversation about the rights and protections you have, and how to be allied with students under threat of state-sponsored kidnapping.
Watch the Know Your Rights Workshop here.
College Activism on Palestine
Students and faculty across the country who engage in college activism on issues pertaining to Palestine are facing myriad attacks on their rights by university administrators as well as external special interest groups. This Know Your Rights workshop equips college students and faculty to defend their right to academic freedom, speech, and assembly.
Watch the Know Your Rights Workshop here.
Education
Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) children often experience barriers to receiving a quality education. These might include harassment, intimidation, and bullying, not speaking fluent English, absence of translations of official forms in Arabic, Urdu, and other languages, and ensuring their children are not treated differently by their teachers because of their race, ethnicity or religion. Fortunately, you have rights under federal law and New Jersey law that guarantee your children’s access to a quality education in schools.
Housing
Members of the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) communities experience discrimination by landlords and property owners. The law protects you from racial, ethnic or religious discrimination and gives you ways to file complaints with the government. If your landlord does not make repairs to your apartment or house, there are laws that give you rights as a tenant. And if your landlord wants to evict you, you should also know your rights in these situations.
Government Accountability
As Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) communities face surveillance and harassment by the government, you should know how to defend your constitutional rights. Some of the most powerful tools you have are Freedom of Information Laws. These laws give you the right to get government records that are not already given to the public. With these records, you can expose when the government violates your rights, and push the government to change the way they treat you.
