Newburgh officials are escalating a campaign to educate the city's large immigrant population about the threat of Immigration and Customs Enforcement stings in the community, while also shooting down numerous recent false rumors that ICE arrests are already happening.

Business owners told News 12 Friday online that misinformation is hurting their shops as much as verified reports of ICE operations would.

Azuzena Garcia, owner of Hermanas Garcia on Washington Street, has been trying to educate her customers about their 4th and 5th Amendment rights: They do not have speak to ICE agents and they do not have to consent to a search of their persons or their homes if the agents do not have a judicial warrant.

"I have all these little cards," Garcia said in Spanish, showing News 12 a red business card with a list of constitutional rights. "I haven't given them out much today ... Unfortunately, look, this morning there are no customers and it's not just here. Other shops are affected too."

She said the sudden dip in traffic at businesses that primarily serve Spanish speakers was likely due to an online post warning that ICE agents were operating near City Hall and south of Broadway.

"The rumors on Facebook and [other] social networks about ICE — I don't know if they're true because they're only rumors," Garcia said. "It is scaring customers from coming here."

City and county officials told News 12 Friday that none of the recent posts warning of ICE operations were true.

A photo shared early Friday that warned of ICE agents actually showed members of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Posts earlier this month incorrectly claimed ICE agents were operating throughout the city, including at local schools.

City officials told News 12 around the time of those incorrect posts that New York State Police investigators were executing several warrants in the city.

Several immigrant rights advocates and elected officials told News 12 they have been receiving panicked phone calls from business owners concerned not just about an absence of customers but also an absence of employees who might be wary of commuting to work.

Orange County Legislator Genesis Ramos, who represents the Newburgh area, has been trying to ease those fears and encourage people — documented or not — to exercise their rights.

"We've seen reports across the country of ICE using deceptive tactics to ultimately arrest people ," she said. "It is so critical that we inform people in the community of their rights."

City Council Member Ramona Monteverde said a group of city leaders would be visiting with business owners this weekend to dispel the false rumors and to prepare them for future ICE activity, which they expect to happen eventually.

Before the change in presidents, an ICE spokesperson told News 12 the agency prioritizes removals of undocumented immigrants with histories of violence over those without histories of violence.

Officials with the current administration said they are targeting "criminals" and have repeatedly said in other interviews they are looking for "the worst, first."