Local News

Medford Democratic Committee to distribute ‘Know Your Rights’ cards

The committee said the cards are to respond to increased law enforcement presence and deportation risks in Massachusetts.

An ICE badge pictured during a protest in Rhode Island. Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP, File

May 1, 2025

2 minutes to read

The Medford Democratic City Committee announced Tuesday they purchased “Know Your Rights” red cards to distribute to at-risk communities in the wake of increased law enforcement presence and deportation risks in the state.

The committee got approval from the Office of Campaign Finance to buy 8,000 red cards that have the 4th and 5th amendments written in English and one of four languages: Arabic, Haitian, Portuguese, or Spanish.

“We’re concerned about what’s happening here in this country,” committee co-chair Bruce Kulik said. “[People] don’t always know what their rights are … so we wanted to make sure that people were aware of what their rights were.”

The goal of the cards — which list the right to unreasonable searches and the right to due process — is to have readily available information that people can carry with them in case of an encounter with immigration enforcement. Kulik said the committee will lobby Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and the City Council to pass a resolution to make similar information more available.

Matt Leming, a Medford city councilor and the committee secretary, said the committee has purchased 4,000 cards — 1,000 in each language — with approval to buy 4,000 more.

He said the committee made a form for nonprofit organizations to fill out if they are interested in receiving the cards and handing them out to their members.

Leming said some public interest is already growing.

“I’m hoping that it will get some awareness out about this initiative so that, if folks know about any community organizations that might have access to vulnerable communities, they could start to give these out,” he said.

The effectiveness of these cards is something that Kulik said is “hard to judge,” but he believes everyone should know their rights, especially in times where lawful people are being detained.

“That kind of information is the bedrock of our society here in the United States,” he said. “The ability to distribute truthful information like that, you know, is something that shouldn’t be hindered.”

The committee is in the early stages of getting interest from the nonprofits and receiving the remaining 4,000 cards to distribute. Leming said this action from the committee is a “concrete way” to respond to the actions coming from the Trump administration.

“I don’t think it’s nearly enough,” he said. “But we are, as local political organizers and local elected officials, trying to do everything we can to ease this sense of fear in the community.”