Red Cards and Rights Cards
A red card says your rights for you. Under stress, people open doors and answer questions they never had to. A rights card, held up or passed through a window, asserts your rights without you saying a word, in an agent's language even if you do not speak it.
What the card says
A standard red card states that you are exercising your right to remain silent, that you do not consent to entry without a judicial warrant signed by a judge, and that you do not consent to a search. It cites the constitutional rights involved, which belong to everyone in the country, whatever their status.
Get them free
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) publishes free printable red cards in many languages at ilrc.org/red-cards. Print at home, or order stacks.
How to use one
- At your door: do not open it. Hold the card to a window or slide it under. See Your Rights at Your Door.
- On the street or in a car: hand it over or hold it up instead of speaking. Stay calm, keep your hands visible.
- At work: keep it in your pocket, hand it over instead of answering status questions.
Where to keep them
By the front door. In every wallet. In the glovebox. In the break room. In the school office. At the clinic front desk. Anywhere panic might otherwise do the talking.
Spread them
Print a stack for your building, congregation, workplace or market. Pair them with the Family Preparedness Plan and the hotline numbers and you have covered a family's essentials in one conversation.
Honest limits
A card is not a force field. Agents may act anyway. The card's power is that it keeps you from accidentally waiving rights, and it puts your assertion of them on the record, which matters later. Stay calm, document, and follow the situation guides: Your Rights at Your Door, Your Rights on the Street, Your Rights at Work.