Some residents of Omaha, Nebraska, are incensed after an unknown person began posting signs around town that urge citizens to report “any and all illegal aliens” to ICE.
The signs began appearing on Tuesday pasted on walls and phone poles causing some residents to rip them down for being “racist,” CBS reported.
The signs informed residents that it is their “civic duty” to report illegals to the proper authorities.
The signs read, “A Notice To All Citizens In The United States of America It Is Your Civic Duty To Report Any And All Illegal Aliens To US Immigration and Customs Enforcement They Have Broken The Law.”
But some residents are calling the signs racist. Dalila Rios, for one, told KMTV that the signs are “stereotyping.” She feared that legal residents would end up being harassed. “Let’s say me for instance—I’m not illegal, but others will say I must be illegal, let’s report it,” she said.
“There’s actually a lot of people here who have IDs and green cards and want to live their lives here,” Dalila Rios added. “Having a sign like that, a post like that out in public for everyone to see, it’s not OK.”
An immigration attorney even claimed that reporting illegals might itself be a crime. “The only way you can find out if a person has proper documentation to be here is to impersonate a federal official, which is illegal,’ attorney Tom Campbell told the media.
How just asking someone if they are legal is necessarily an “impersonation of a federal official,” Campbell did not say.
But Campbell also added that some immigrants who are going through the immigration court system to determine their status do not have documentation until the process is over.
Despite the attorney’s proclamations, a page on the website of the Department of U.S. Customs and Border Protection informs of multiple ways to report illegal activity. The sections include reporting illegal aliens and child exploitation.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.