Fear on the Streets

Los Angeles immigration lawyer Navid Dayzad was leading a “know your rights” presentation to employees of a company he represents—a growing part of his practice meant to calm people’s nerves about immigration investigations at work—when someone asked him what recourse they have if at the airport they’re singled out because of the color of their skin.

“It breaks my heart that in America people have to worry about this,” says Dayzad, who’s an immigrant himself. He was a toddler when his mother brought him to the U.S., fleeing Iran for safety at the outbreak of the revolution. 

“The insecurity and fear was palpable in our house,” he recalls. “We fled a country that did not recognize basic rights. There were thousands of religious minorities and dissidents that had come to America to save their lives and their deportation to Iran could mean a death sentence or imprisonment. Today there is fear in too many households in America of being uprooted.”

The airport question caused Dayzad to pause and become emotional. This was last autumn, just after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the restraining order on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ practice of targeting raids in Los Angeles based on race, language and location. 

“Almost 100% of the clients I represent do have legal status, but they’re not immune to these fears and profiling,” he says.

Dayzad’s legal practice focuses on representing companies that apply for work visas for employees, and families sponsoring one another for green cards and U.S. citizenship. Now he’s having to warn clients to take precautions such as carrying hard-copy proof of their immigration status, so they never have to hand over a phone and all the information it contains to an ICE agent; and not traveling with their smartphones at all—or wiping data from their phones—so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers can’t look for evidence to unlawfully prevent them from entering the country.

“What really upsets me is this false narrative focusing on immigrants as criminals, immigrants as a drain on society, immigrants as unskilled—this narrative is pushing out and discouraging all the foreign national scientists, engineers and doctors that have also been critical to America’s rise,” he says.

To Carry or Not to Carry

Dayzad himself is a naturalized citizen, but he’s having to remind people—including his own family members—to take precautions because: “We’re brown; racial profiling is real.” 

“Always have with you your government-issued photo ID and proof of your lawful status. Very reluctantly, I do. It’s in my wallet,” he says. “I’m reluctant because American citizens should not have to do this, and I’m reluctant because it feels like I’m conceding to the government’s harsh hand.”

Another LA immigration attorney, Sabrina Damast, chooses not to carry her passport or a passport card in her wallet. Whether or not to do so is a topic of debate in legal and advocacy communities, she says.

“For U.S. citizens, it’s a question of whether you choose to recognize the privilege of citizenship and protect yourself in this crazy environment or whether you want to take a philosophical stand for everyone’s rights and say, ‘I’m not carrying them, and that doesn’t mean I do or don’t have them; I’m just not carrying them.’”

Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen but has other lawful status in the United States is, however, legally obligated to carry proof of that status. Historically, such registration requirements have not been enforced, but agencies have been directed to do so since the start of the second Trump administration.

“Immigration is one of the areas of law in which political policy is as impactful as actual statutes and regulations,” Damast says. Not everyone married to a U.S. citizen gets legal status, but it was rare in the prior administration for the spouse of a U.S. citizen with children and employed with no criminal history to be “dragged off to ICE jail,” she adds.

“That level of discretion is not being exercised in any way. We’re seeing so much more on-the-ground, street-level enforcement. It feels in your face. There’s a lot of fear.”

Damast says immigration attorneys are front-line workers now, with her office literally scheduling clients using a triage system so that anyone without an emergency is being seen three or four weeks out. In the meantime, Damast is working with churches, synagogues and even a school PTA committee concerned about raids in the neighborhood, to educate community members on what they can do during an ICE encounter.

Warranted & Unwarranted

“When it comes to knowing your rights, understanding the difference between a judicial warrant and ICE warrant is top of the list,” Damast says. “One of them is signed by a judge and has actual legal authority to force you to open the door to your home, and one of them does not. And it’s the one that does not that ICE officers almost always have, which is why you’re not obligated to open a door to your home or any private space. 

“I know a lot of churches and community organizations,” Damast continues, “are having these discussions about, ‘Are they a public or private space? And if they’re a private space, who should you open the door for?’ Unfortunately, these are the kinds of things we have to talk about these days.”

At Damast’s office, there’s a picture reference beside the locked glass door separating the lobby from the offices so that anyone on staff, especially her legal assistant who is most likely up front, can ask an officer to hold a warrant up to the glass and deny them access if it’s an administrative warrant.

“Those are the things I think are most important to reinforce: You don’t have to answer the door, and you don’t have to answer questions,” she says.

Dayzad gives guidance to companies on internal policies for preserving their rights when ICE agents come to the workplace, including knowing to look for a judicial warrant before allowing officers into nonpublic areas.

When face-to-face with an ICE officer on the street, Dayzad advises asking, “Am I free to leave?”

“If they say yes, you walk away calmly,” he says. “If they say no, then the officer must have a good reason for stopping you. If you are not free to leave, then you have the right to a lawyer, and you have the right to remain silent.”

In the workplace, ICE may ask employees to move into groups according to immigration status. If this happens, Dayzad says employees have the right to remain silent in solidarity by refusing to move, thus avoiding singling out their co-workers.

“My angle is not, ‘Let’s find ways to violate the laws and have people be illegal in the United States’—that is not the point,” he says. “The point is to hold the line of what the Constitution says and what our laws say.”

And while you do not have the right to obstruct an investigation or interfere with an ICE officer interacting with someone else, Damast says refusing to open the door is not interfering; nor is recording video to document an ICE encounter. When she speaks to religious groups about how they can support their community members and protect their private spaces, Damast suggests being good witnesses.

“I encourage those people to quickly try to write down everything that happened: what the officers say, how did they behave, what paperwork did they show, if any, how did they respond when they were told, ‘We’re not voluntarily letting you in.’”

This is not without risk. Damast has heard many reports of bystanders saying they were merely taking video, only to be accused of assaulting an officer. “There’s all kinds of unfortunate calculations you have to account for when you decide how to act, which is a scary thought,” she says. “It should be for everyone, that people are weighing whether or not the exercise of their Constitutional and legal rights is going to incur harm to them or someone they love.”

Where to Turn—and Where Not To

For anyone who has questions about their immigration status, Damast says immigration lawyers can speak specifically to the possibility of obtaining legal status if they don’t have it and what they can do to mitigate risks if their status is in jeopardy. In addition to being patient with the supply versus demand for immigration lawyers right now, she suggests vetting to make sure the person you hire is a licensed attorney. 

“The immigration lawyer community has historically ‘competed’ with unscrupulous individuals, ‘notarios,’ who pose as having the ability to advise and file immigration applications for people,” she says.

She suggests asking in which state(s) they are licensed. Since immigration law is a federal practice, an attorney in California might be licensed in a different state, but every state has a database of licensed attorneys available that you can search by name.

“Another piece of this is word of mouth,” Damast says. “Generally speaking, if you have a person you trust, a friend or relative who has something good to say about their experience with an attorney representing them, that’s a good starting place. For folks that don’t have the financial means to meet with private attorneys, there are a number of wonderful immigration nonprofits in Los Angeles. Of course, they are stretched even thinner than the private attorneys, so getting in to see them can also be very challenging, but these are all skilled, reputable honest community organizations that have immigration lawyers on staff.”

Damast urges people to hold out for sound legal advice rather than take what they hear from political figures on the news at face value.

“We’re so accustomed to seeing elected officials as people of authority who make decisions that impact us, and that’s not wrong. But they are also at this moment waging a war of words that is intended to create confusion and fear in our community, even if it’s not actually the law, or the way things work,” she says. “The fact that it’s now being accompanied by this very aggressive street-level enforcement makes it feel much more credible. Even if I sit here as a lawyer and say, ‘That’s not actually how it works, this person can in fact apply for immigration status,’ it’s hard to acknowledge the truth of that if ICE is out there arresting that person anyway.” 

Editor’s Note: These interviews took place in fall 2025.

Recommended Local Nonprofits 

• Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project esperanza-la.org
• Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights chirla.org
• Public Counsel publiccounsel.org
• Immigrant Defenders Law Center immdef.org
• Bet Tzedek Legal Services bettzedek.org