A Guide to Meaningful Action

As faith organizations, independent bookstores, crafting groups and sex shops in Minneapolis come together to protect their neighbors from Immigration Customs and Enforcement, communities across the United States are preparing their own networks in the event ICE descends on their cities. From gathering donations and training observers, to coordinating volunteers to bring essential supplies to community members who may need to shelter in place, people across the country are exchanging tips and advice for how to prepare for an invasion.

“When people hear ‘organizing,’ they think ‘protest’ — but that’s not the only way to organize,” Kalaya’an Mendoza, a movement safety and security trainer and co-founder of Across Frontlines based out of New York City tells Truthdig. They point out that meaningful action can be as simple as meeting your neighbors and understanding what their needs might be in the event of an emergency. “Introduce yourself to your neighbors,” they continued. “Bring some cookies — don’t go empty-handed!”

While Minneapolis has been in the news most recently, ICE has become a national threat, particularly as the administration fights to remove temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants and scouts warehouses for its $45 billion plan to expand immigration detention across the country. Across social media, there are calls to “organize,” to prepare for the worst — but what exactly does this mean in practice? 

“It could be an ICE watch in your neighborhood or going to protest the local immigration prison in your area,” Jamila Hammami, a longtime community organizer, member and co-host of the Resistant Communiques Podcast collective, suggests, adding that these are far from the only effective ways to get involved. While national groups like Indivisible set up large group trainings and fundraisers and ways of contacting elected representatives, the best spot to start building a movement can be just outside the front door.

“One thing that everyone can do is to start finding people in their communities that can be family,” Hammami says, sharing that this can be as simple as opening conversations with friends and family members about whether or not they agree with what is going on. If they’re on the same page, that’s as much a reason as any to say: “Let’s go ahead and build before ICE is here doing snatch-and-grabs on our streets, too.” 

Across the country, people are mobilizing to prevent warehouses and abandoned jails from being used as ICE detention facilities. A collective of churches in Springfield, Ohio, has been training to protect the Haitian community in the event that their protected status is revoked. Jewish senior citizens in Miami have even sought to protect their Haitian caregivers, according to an executive at one senior living center.

When it comes to figuring out exactly how you want to plug in to support your community, one of the first things that you should do is assess your own personal risk. “If you’re a passport holder who is born in the United States who doesn’t have any kind of criminal record, you’re going to have a different risk profile than someone who is under-documented,” Hammami explains, adding that the threat level for U.S. citizens has notably shifted since the high-profile killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

It’s also important to think about who depends on you — a single adult with no dependents will have a different profile than a parent or caretaker. Nevertheless, there are plenty of low-risk ways to get involved. 

One of the first places that new or aspiring organizers should look to is groups that are already working with the most directly impacted communities. 

“Our communities have faced this over and over through the generations and it’s important that folks look to the leadership with those most directly affected,” Mendoza says, adding that Minneapolis has been able to mobilize quickly due to the movements that emerged in the wake of the Philando Castile killing in 2016 as well as George Floyd’s murder in 2020, on top of decades of organizing done by unions and faith communities, and by Black, immigrant and Indigenous communities in the state. Residents in other vulnerable areas have tapped into mutual aid networks formed in the aftermath of disasters such as Hurricane Sandy or the Los Angeles wildfires, once again finding common ground through helping one another navigate these growing crises. 

“New blood is critical in organizing spaces,” says Hammami, adding that it’s a more “seasoned” organizer’s job to welcome in new people and be patient as they learn. “Of course, you need folks that are seasoned and have years of experience, but people are going to bring new ideas and new thoughts that you never really thought of whenever you bring in new blood.”

Just this year, the number of constitutional observer trainings has skyrocketed. In Minnesota alone, 30,000 people have been trained to observe federal law enforcement operations and document rights violations. That does not include the numbers that have mobilized to bring groceries to people sheltering in place, translate documents or accompany people to court hearings.

Looking toward other liberation movements also provides essential frameworks to understand the present moment. “The Biden administration tested out what we’re seeing on the ground on the Palestinian student movement, particularly on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim migrant students,” Hammami says, adding that one of those protesters is still in immigration prison. “We need to acknowledge that they were testing out some of these tactics in front of our eyes.”

Donating money is another way to get involved that doesn’t have to involve taking to the streets. Find a local mutual aid fund supporting families who are sheltering in place, or throw a mutual aid fundraiser to bring like minds together and raise money for local families or immigrant bail bonds.

Organizing also brings up digital safety concerns, which have become more urgent as government agents have used social media, email and facial recognition technology to identify and intimidate critics. “If you’re not already on Signal, get on Signal,” Mendoza advises, adding that there are now updated resources with a number of settings and best practices to make the app more secure. 

“Get yourself a ProtonMail account or another encrypted email service,” Hammami recommends, adding that ProtonMail also comes with a virtual private network internet connection service. “If you’re going to organize from those accounts, don’t use your real name.” Data deletion services can also help public-facing organizers quickly and easily delete their personal information from the internet to avoid doxing and stalking. While this advice may seem extreme, the FBI has spied on immigration activists in Signal chats, and data breaches and internet search sites frequently expose Americans’ phone numbers and personal addresses on the World Wide Web.

Taking care of yourself is critical to doing this work in the long term. “We play this fine line of needing to be informed, but risking exhausting ourselves,” Hammami reflects, adding that the activist community has seen dozens of organizers quit movement work due to burnout over the years. “The goal of the Trump administration is to exhaust us. We saw it during Trump 1.0, but this is much more severe in a lot of ways.”  

For Hammami, this looks like placing firm boundaries on social media to avoid “doomscrolling” and prioritizing spending time with friends and family. Time spent connecting with people can build the kind of deep bonds needed in times of crisis and be a part of connecting with the wider community.

“Go to your favorite Mexican restaurant, a local Somali restaurant,” they add. “If their doors are closed, get takeout. Build relationships with these people as a trusted customer — that way if they’re ever in a crisis, you can help.”