In late June, a Colombian father in College Point, Queens was driving his wife and 6-year-old daughter home when unmarked cars boxed them in. Masked immigration agents ordered him out of the vehicle while his daughter cried in the backseat. He had no criminal record, a valid work permit, and an upcoming court date, but he was still detained for three weeks. He believes agents targeted him because his car had New Jersey plates, according to reporting by The City Reporter.

He is not alone. Advocates say cars with out-of-state license plates have become one of the biggest risk factors for a stop, because federal agents can run those plates and cross-reference an owner's immigration status, a workaround to New York's law limiting ICE's access to DMV records for New York-registered vehicles. In College Point, where most residents don't have subway access and rely on cars to get to work, church, and school, that pattern keeps repeating. "Taking people out of cars, that seems to be the pattern," said Sister Ruth Lautt, a nun who lives in the neighborhood.

Families deserve to know who is stopping them and why. Agents have been showing up masked, in unmarked vehicles, without producing real warrants, in at least one case writing a name in pencil on a blank sheet of paper only after someone had already handed over their license. Whatever your view on immigration enforcement, people should be able to expect that agents identify themselves and show a valid judicial warrant before pulling someone from their car.

Sign this petition to demand that ICE require its agents to visibly identify themselves and present a judicial warrant during vehicle stops, so families in College Point and beyond aren't left guessing who has stopped them or why.