What I Tell My Clients Before Something Happens

Arzoo Connor • April 9, 2026

A practical guide to emergency preparedness from an immigration attorney who has been through the process herself

I don’t walk my clients through emergency preparedness to scare them. I do it because the families who have a plan make better decisions when something actually happens. And right now, not having a plan is not a neutral choice.

Panic is the enemy of good decisions. So let’s go through some things you can do right now, most of them free, most of them taking less than an hour, that could make an enormous difference if ICE shows up at your door, if someone in your family gets detained, or if your situation changes suddenly.

This is not legal advice specific to your case. But it is what I walk my clients through, and if you work with this community in any capacity, please share it.

Know the difference between a warrant, and actually know it

There are two types of warrants: an ICE administrative warrant and a judicial warrant signed by a judge.

An administrative warrant does not give anyone the right to enter your home. Only a judge-signed warrant does.

You can ask to see it through a closed window or a closed door before you open anything. You do not have to open the door to find out. Ask them to hold it up. A judicial warrant will be signed by a judge and list your address specifically. An administrative warrant will not.

This one piece of knowledge has changed outcomes for people.

Do not sign anything on the spot

If someone in your family is detained, ICE may present paperwork. One of the most common documents is a voluntary departure form. It sounds harmless. It is not harmless.

Signing can waive rights you did not even know you had. Once you have signed, it is very hard to undo, and in some cases you cannot undo it at all.

You have the right to speak with an attorney before you sign anything. Say nothing, sign nothing, until you have spoken to someone who can explain what you are agreeing to.

Silence is not the same as lying, and lying is a whole separate problem

You have the right to remain silent. You do not have to answer questions about where you were born, your immigration status, or anything else. You can say, “I want to speak with an attorney,” and leave it there.

But I want to be very clear about this: lying to a federal officer creates a separate legal problem on top of your immigration situation. It can be charged as a federal crime. It gives them something to use against you that did not exist before.

Stay silent if you need to. But do not say something false.

Know your A-number and write it down

Your Alien Registration Number is the number that identifies you in the immigration system. If someone in your family is detained, that number is what your attorney needs to locate them, check their status, and file anything on their behalf.

Do not assume you will have access to your documents when you need that number. Write it down. Put it on that physical card in your wallet. Make sure your emergency contact has it too.

In Texas, you can record. Know the law where you live.

Texas is a one-party consent state. That means you can record a law enforcement interaction without the other person’s consent, as long as you are a party to it.

If it is safe to do so, that recording can matter later. It can corroborate what happened. It can counter a false report.

Check the recording laws in your specific state before you need to know them.

Your rights are different depending on where you are

At home, you have stronger protections. You do not have to open the door without a valid judicial warrant.

On the street or in a public place, the rules are different. You still have the right to remain silent and the right to refuse a search of your belongings, but you cannot walk away if an officer says you are being detained. Ask clearly: “Am I being detained or am I free to go?” If you are free to go, calmly leave.

In a car, if you are stopped, you are required to provide your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. You are not required to answer questions about your immigration status. Passengers are not required to show ID in most states, though Texas has some specific rules around this, so it is worth knowing your situation in advance.

Knowing where you are changes what applies to you.

Consular contact: know when it helps and when it does not

Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, US authorities are required to inform a detained foreign national of their right to contact their home country’s consulate. For most nationalities this means you have to ask for it. For nationals of certain countries that have bilateral agreements with the US, notification to the consulate is mandatory regardless of whether the person requests it. If you are detained and want consular contact, say so clearly: “I want to contact my consulate.”

That said, this is not the right move for everyone, and I want to be direct about that.

If you are an asylum seeker or a refugee, or if you fled your home country because of danger, contacting your home government’s consulate can put you and your family at risk. Your home country does not need to know where you are or that you have been detained. In that situation, do not request consular contact. Tell your attorney first and let them advise you.

It is also worth knowing that enforcement of this right is inconsistent. Courts have generally not allowed violations of consular notification rules to suppress evidence or reverse convictions, so the practical remedy when it is ignored is limited. That does not mean you should not assert it if it applies to your situation. It means you should not count on it as a primary protection. It is one tool, not a guaranteed safeguard.

If you are unsure whether consular contact would help or hurt your specific situation, that is exactly the kind of question to bring to an immigration attorney before something happens.

Have a power of attorney prepared before you need one

If a parent is detained and cannot manage their own affairs, someone needs legal authority to act on their behalf. Pay rent. Access bank accounts. Make decisions for the kids.

A power of attorney gives a trusted person that authority. It has to be prepared and signed before something happens. You cannot do it from a detention facility after the fact.

Talk to an attorney about getting this set up. It is not expensive, and it gives your family options.

The documents need to be somewhere other than your house

If someone is detained and taken from the home, and the documents are inside the home, getting to those documents becomes a problem for the people trying to help you.

Keep copies of your tax returns, lease agreements, birth certificates, your children’s school records somewhere outside your home that a trusted person can physically reach. A family member’s house. A safe deposit box. Somewhere.

The documents cannot help you if no one can get to them.

Make a plan for your kids, and get the right documents in place

US citizen children cannot be deported. But if a parent is detained, someone needs to be legally authorized to take care of them. A verbal agreement with a grandparent or a family friend means nothing in the eyes of a school, a doctor, or a court. Without the right paperwork in place, a well-meaning family member has zero legal authority, and a child can end up in foster care while their parent is fighting their case from a detention facility. That is the outcome everyone wants to avoid, and it is entirely preventable.

There are three documents worth knowing about:

Standby Guardianship Designation is the most important one for this specific situation. It names a guardian for your children that takes effect automatically when a triggering event happens, like detention, deportation, or incapacitation. The parent does not have to be deceased for it to kick in. In Texas this is governed under the Texas Estates Code, and it is specifically designed for situations where a parent becomes suddenly unavailable. This is the document that keeps children out of the child welfare system while a parent’s case is being resolved.
Parental Power of Attorney for Child Care is more immediately usable and does not require going through a court. You sign it now, and it authorizes the person you name to make medical decisions, enroll a child in school, consent to treatment, and handle day-to-day decisions. It does not wait for a triggering event. It is active the moment it is signed. In Texas this falls under the Family Code.
Caregiver Authorization Affidavit is a simpler option if a non-parent relative, a grandparent, aunt, or uncle, needs authority to handle day-to-day decisions for a child without going through a full legal process. Texas has a version of this under the Family Code as well.

These are not complicated documents and they are not expensive to prepare. But they have to be done before something happens. That is the part people keep putting off, and it is the part that matters most.

Make sure your children’s school also has written pickup authorization on file, not just a verbal conversation with a teacher. On file. Updated whenever anything changes.

If your children are old enough, talk to them about what to do and who to call. Keep it calm. Keep it factual. A child who knows the plan is a child who can actually help when it counts.

A physical card in your wallet, not just your phone

Phones get taken. Phones die. Phones get locked.

Keep a physical card in your wallet with your attorney’s number and an emergency contact’s number. Old fashioned, but it works.

Turn on location sharing with one trusted person. If someone is picked up and cannot communicate, knowing their last location matters.

Come talk to someone before there is an emergency

A lot of people in this situation have never had anyone sit down and walk them through their options. Not because they did not care, but because no one ever took the time.

Come in and talk. Even if we cannot help you, we will tell you that directly and explain why. You deserve to understand where you stand before something forces the question.

Arzoo Connor is a licensed immigration and estate planning attorney and the founder of ARC Legal Services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She is a former JAG officer and an immigrant herself. Every person in her office has personally been through the immigration process.

If you have questions about your specific situation, call the office (469) 200-0158.

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His Record Was Expunged. He Thought He Was Fine. He Wasn't.

By Arzoo Connor • March 4, 2026

I've had this conversation more times than I can count. Someone comes in, stressed, and walks me through their situation. They had a run-in with the law a couple of years back. Nothing major, they say. They hired a criminal attorney, took a plea deal, got the records expunged. Their attorney told them they were good. Their family told them they were good. They even found someone in a Facebook group who went through the same thing and came out fine. So they moved on. Until a green card application came up, or a renewal, or a petition for a family member. Now they're sitting across from me. And I have to tell them the thing nobody told them before: expungement means nothing in immigration court. The look is always the same. Disbelief, then the slow weight of what that actually means. Two Systems. Two Very Different Rules. Here's what a lot of people don't know, and honestly, what a lot of criminal attorneys don't fully think about either. The criminal justice system and the immigration system are separate. Completely. What fixes your record in one does not fix it in the other. When a criminal record gets expunged, the state is saying it didn't happen. You can say no on job applications. It won't show on most background checks. That matters and it's a real relief. But immigration law runs on federal rules. And under those rules, that arrest, that plea, that conviction it still happened. USCIS can see it. An immigration judge can weigh it. Depending on the charge, it can affect a visa application, a green card, even whether someone ends up in removal proceedings. It is not a technicality. It is just how these two systems work. And not knowing it can cost someone everything. The Case I Keep Thinking About I'll walk you through a real situation. Details are changed, but the facts are ones I see all the time. A client came to me after being arrested a few years earlier for possession of a weapon. Not a U.S. citizen. His criminal attorney was good, got him a plea deal, record got expunged. Case closed. Nobody brought in an immigration attorney because from the criminal side, there was nothing left to do. Then he went to apply for his green card. That charge came up. And because of how immigration law handles weapons offenses, it created a real problem. One that would have been a lot easier to deal with, maybe even avoidable, if I had been in the room before he signed that plea. This is something I want people to hear: I work with criminal attorneys regularly . When I get involved before a plea is entered, we can sometimes push for a lower charge, or frame the plea in a way that does less damage on the immigration side. Not every time. But enough times that it matters. And that difference is someone staying here with their kids or not. Once the plea is signed, the options get a lot harder. You work with what's there. Why This Keeps Happening I'm not blaming criminal attorneys. Most of them are good at their job. But immigration law moves fast, the rules keep changing, and it is hard to track unless it is all you do. They are focused on the criminal case. That is what they should be focused on. The problem is nobody thinks to ask. When you're scared and just arrested, you call a criminal attorney. That is the right move. But if you are not a U.S. citizen, you need to tell that attorney immediately. And a good criminal attorney, when they hear that, should call someone like me before advising you on any deal. Then there is social media. I cannot tell you how many people come in after reading a post from someone who swears their expungement cleared everything for immigration too. Maybe that person's charge was different. Maybe their status was different. Maybe they just got lucky and don't know it yet. Immigration cases are not the same. What worked for one person can absolutely wreck another. What to Do If This Sounds Familiar If you are not a U.S. citizen and you have a criminal record, even something minor, even something expunged, even something dismissed, talk to an immigration attorney before you file anything. Don't assume it was taken care of. Find out for sure. If you are dealing with criminal charges right now, tell your criminal attorney you have immigration concerns. Ask them to get on the phone with an immigration attorney before you accept any deal. Any attorney who takes their job seriously will do that without hesitation. And if someone in a group chat or a comment thread told you your expungement fixed your immigration situation, please don't treat that as legal advice. Come in and let us actually look at your case. One Conversation Can Change a Lot I do this work because it is personal to me. My family came here in 1996. I became a citizen in the middle of my first year of law school. Everyone in my office has been through their own version of this process. We know what is actually at stake for the people who sit across from us. My consultations run 45 minutes to 1 hour. I go through every option, what it costs, what the timeline looks like, what the risks are. If I can't help you, I will tell you straight and explain why. I turn people away regularly. But at least they leave knowing exactly where they stand. It costs $50 to come in. If you have a criminal matter in your past and an immigration case anywhere in your future, that is a conversation worth having now , not when something has already gone wrong. Ready to talk? Call ARC Legal Services (469) 200-0158 or reach out online. We respond the same day.