Ray’s TV Interview about ICE Protests

The Albany, NY affiliate for ABC, WTEN10, recently interviewed our own Ray Wood about local ICE protests, and the Do’s and Don’ts:

“We want boring. We want everything to go smoothly. So we’re not going to agitate,” said Immigration Attorney Ray Wood. “We’re not going to have them go to protest.”

Wood tells his clients who are immigrants and want to protest to not bring their actual green card, but a copy of it.  He says their alien number will be on the copy, which the law enforcement officer can look up to verify your status.
 
“Look it up and say, hey, this person’s here legally, he has status. Because you have status, even if you don’t have your green card, even if it’s expired, you have status,” he said.

He said another reason not to bring a green card is that you’re in a crowd and, should you lose it, it costs $400 and can take up to two years to replace. He suggests just carrying a license and credit card. He says it’s okay to cover your face, but don’t bring things like a knife, mace or bear spray.

“In the criminal world, intent is everything,” Wood explained. “If you were arrested, the last thing you’d really want is for them to say, listen, they came here intending to cause a problem rather than, oh, it just happened.”