Practical Steps to Protect your Neighbors
A Moment of Grief and Overwhelm
If you're reading this, you're likely feeling it too—the weight of watching families torn apart, the helplessness as militarized raids target our neighbors, the grief of witnessing constitutional protections shredded in real time.
2025 was the deadliest year for people in ICE custody in two decades, with 32 deaths—many preventable with appropriate medical care. In just the first weeks of 2026, at least four more people have died in detention. Over 1,700 children are currently in custody since family detention centers reopened in 2025–many of whom are reportedly suffering in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
In Minneapolis, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, on January 7. Video contradicted federal claims that she "ran him over," showing her car turning away when he fired. Days later, Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old Veterans Affairs ICU nurse who stepped between agents and a woman they were pepper spraying. Video verified by The New York Times shows Pretti holding a phone, with no visible weapon. After agents took him to the ground and removed his legally permitted firearm, two other agents opened fire, shooting him in the back. In Los Angeles, an ICE officer shot and killed Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old Black father of two and U.S. citizen, on New Year's Eve outside his apartment complex.
More bad news. It can be tempting to give in to overwhelm and disengage. But there’s too much at stake right now to do nothing. Hope requires action.
Practical, Steadfast Resistance
Minnesotans are showing us what practical, nonviolent resistance looks like. Thousands have taken to the streets in subfreezing temperatures. Neighbors document ICE operations. Legal observers monitor federal agents. Faith leaders disrupt services to protest ICE officials. Governor Walz mobilized the National Guard to protect residents from federal agents. Educators and community members are organizing massive mutual aid efforts—delivering groceries and medicine to families too scared to leave their homes. On January 23, tens of thousands joined a statewide general strike, with hundreds of businesses closing in solidarity. About 100 clergy members were arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport as they knelt, sang hymns, and called for ICE to withdraw.
Let’s follow in Minnesota’s footsteps.
You Don't Have to Do Everything
Not everyone can take to the streets. Some of us have vulnerabilities—immigration status, disabilities, caregiving responsibilities, jobs we can't risk. Some of us are simply too exhausted, too scared, or too depleted. All of that is okay.
Resistance takes many forms. The goal isn't to do everything—it's to pick 2-3 practical things you can sustain and do them consistently.
Take Action
1. Build Community Networks
Join or create neighborhood communication channels to coordinate protection and support.
Join your neighborhood Signal chat If one doesn't exist, start one—even just with neighbors on your block.
Coordinate with your local Rapid Response process to report ICE sightings.
For Washington State, Deportation Defense Hotline by WAISN. This hotline (1-800-RAID-REP) is a key resource for helping community members report ICE activity in their communities. Calling it triggers efforts by rapid-response volunteers to verify and document the raid or other situations. If ICE activity can be verified, rapid responders are dispatched to the scene to assist with community self-defense against deportations. The hotline also serves to connect family members who have a loved one detained to services and to dispense Know Your Rights information.
Make sure you Know Your Rights and share this information. ACLU has educational videos in 8 languages. You can request Know Your Rights training for your community group.
2. Donate to Legal Defense
Legal representation is the single biggest factor in whether someone avoids deportation. There's no right to a lawyer in immigration court.
National Immigrant Justice Center – Provides direct legal representation in detention and deportation cases, litigates against abusive detention and due process violations, and does policy advocacy. They explicitly fight ICE detention expansion and mass arrests.
Immigrant Defense Project – New York–based but nationally influential organization fighting the criminalization of immigrants, challenging ICE–local police collaboration, and providing direct legal support to people facing deportation.
Impact Fund (Immigrant Rights Portfolio) – A public interest litigation funding organization that makes grants to groups bringing class actions and impact cases on immigrant detention, due process, and civil rights; donating here supports multiple frontline legal teams via litigation support.
Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee - A Minnesota-based immigrant rights mass-movement organization. MIRAC fights for legalization for all, an end to immigration raids and deportations, an end to all anti-immigrant laws, and full equality in all areas of life.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project - a Washington State-based non-profit organization that provides direct legal services, advocacy, and education to low-income immigrants. Founded to defend the rights of asylum seekers, it focuses on issues like deportation defense, citizenship, and supporting survivors of violence.
3. Call Your Representatives
Use 5 Calls for scripts and direct connection to your elected officials. Demand they:
Condemn unconstitutional raids
Support state/local policies limiting ICE cooperation
Fund immigrant legal defense programs
Investigate deaths in ICE custody
Tell Senators to block funding for DHS / ICE
4. Vote With Your Wallet
Use your financial power to enact positive change. ICE relies heavily on the private sector to carry out its destructive operations.
Companies with ICE contracts you can boycott or divest from, per this article from The Nation:
UPS & FedEx: Have delivery contracts expiring March 2026
Home Depot & Lowe's: AI license plate readers feed ICE surveillance, parking lots are raid sites
ATT/Dell/Motorola Solutions: All have communication and technology contracts with ICE
Amazon: provides ICE with digital backbone through Amazon Web Services for data and surveillance operations; Ring cameras share footage with Flock surveillance network that ICE uses
At the local level: hotel franchises that rent rooms to ICE provide lodging for ICE agents
Beyond Divesting from publicly traded companies with direct ICE contracts, you can screen your portfolio to make sure you are not invested in private prisons. Check out As You Sow’s Prison Free Action Toolkit. Ask your financial advisor to invest your portfolio in alignment with your values. You can also screen your investment funds to check for alignment against your values here.
5. Get Trained for Street-Level Support
If you're planning to document ICE activity, attend protests, or be present during enforcement actions, proper training is essential for your safety and effectiveness.
ACLU Protest Safety & De-Escalation Training: Learn your rights during protests, practical de-escalation techniques, and how to support others safely. The ACLU offers training regularly—check your state ACLU chapter website or aclu.org for upcoming sessions.
Legal Observer Training: Learn to document law enforcement and ICE conduct, record badge numbers and license plates, track use of force, and provide information that can be used in court. Contact the National Lawyers Guild or your local rapid response network for training.
Know what to document: Number of agents, whether warrants are displayed, any violence or use of force, orders given, visible badge numbers, vehicle license plates, whether body cameras are recording.
Your role: Legal observers don't stop ICE activity—you document it to help lawyers in court and deter illegal conduct. Your presence alone can sometimes encourage restraint.
6. Document & Expose
Stay at a safe distance and assert your rights.
If asked to step back, comply while saying: "I am exercising my right to record and document"
Protect your phone with a passcode (not thumbprint or face recognition)
Record continuously—narrate what you're seeing, state the date and time
Focus on ICE officers: number of agents, badge numbers, vehicle plates, whether warrants are displayed, any use of force
Do not go live on social media for the privacy and safety of people being detained
Use whistles or honking to alert neighbors when ICE is present
Share footage with local immigrant rights organizations and your neighborhood group chat
Report ICE activity: Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network at 844-724-3737 (Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm)
7. Take Care of Yourself
The chaos is deliberate. Authoritarian regimes use what researchers call "the firehose of falsehood" —overwhelming us with relentless crises designed to exhaust and demoralize. When we're depleted, we stop resisting. That's the goal.
This is why caring for your health isn't selfish—it's strategic resistance. As Audre Lorde wrote: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."
Recognize burnout early: chronic fatigue, difficulty sleeping, withdrawing from connections, feeling numb or overwhelmed, cynicism. Don't wait until it's severe.
The basics matter: Sleep, food, water, movement, time outside. Set boundaries on news consumption. Rest without guilt.
Joy is resistance: Laugh, dance, spend time with people who fill you up, pursue hobbies that delight you. These sustain you for the work.
Community care: Create pods of 3-8 people you can rely on. Check in on each other. Share resources. Let yourself receive care.
We can speculate about Trump's midterm strategy—why he's sending ICE to blue, urban centers and who is profiting from the chaos. It’s important to analyze the bigger picture. But Minnesota has shown us that protecting our neighbors is at the heart of the resistance.
Small, sustained actions are how we fight back. Documenting ICE operations. Delivering groceries to families too scared to leave home. Calling representatives. Switching where we shop and what we invest in. Legal observing. Mutual aid.
You don't have to do everything. Pick 2-3 things you can sustain. Take care of yourself and your neighbors.
