When ICE Comes Calling, Rapid Community Responses Can Make a Difference

Heartbreak and fear are already spreading through the U.S. as Donald Trump acts on his racist campaign promises to systematically crack down on immigrants and expand deportations. He’s signed a host of draconian executive orders, some of dubious legality, that include ending birthright citizenship, enlisting the military against the “invasion” of immigrants and declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border. Under Trump’s direction, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been arresting thousands of immigrants across U.S. cities. Trump is ramping up a deportation machine inherited from former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Fear is increasing in immigrant communities.

But immigrant communities and their allies also have strong traditions of defending against these kinds of attacks. From Chicago to Atlanta to Seattle, thousands of people are organizing to resist Trump’s deportation agenda through rapid response networks and empowering communities through Know Your Rights trainings. Students, workers, retirees, people of faith, health and legal service providers, and many others are meeting and mobilizing to protect immigrants through collective solidarity. Much of this is occurring at the local and regional levels. These efforts are having an impact: Trump “Border Czar” Tom Homan has already said that Know Your Rights education is “making it very difficult” to arrest people.

Truthout spoke to three organizers across generations and geographies about their local rapid response and deportation defense efforts. María Carrasco is a long-time volunteer with Derechos Humanos, a grassroots organization supporting migrant rights in Tucson, Arizona, and she is closely involved with the group’s rapid response work. Haydi Torres is an organizer with Cosecha New Jersey, part of Movimiento Cosecha, which organizes for the permanent protection, dignity and respect for all undocumented immigrants. The interviewee identified as “NYIC Organizer” (who requested that their name be withheld) works as an organizer for the New York Immigration Coalition and is closely involved with advocacy and rapid response efforts in the Buffalo, New York, area.

Derek Seidman: To start, what should readers know about your city or region?

Maria Carrasco: None of this is new for us. Tucson is less than 100 miles from the border, so we’re really militarized. We’re in the middle of the desert here. In the 2000s, Derechos Humanos was one of the first groups to start counting migrant deaths in the desert. Nobody was doing it. We’ve been bombarded with so many laws against our communities. They pass the really bad anti-immigrant laws in Arizona and then take them across the country. I’ve been volunteering since 2003. For 22 years, I’ve been fighting against the same things and trying to protect people. It’s already really bad, especially if you live in Arizona, and with Trump, it’s going to go from bad to worse.

NYIC Organizer: The Buffalo area is within a 100-mile radius from the border, which means immigration enforcement is more frequent, especially by Border Patrol. Batavia (around 40 miles east of Buffalo) has the only federal detention center for immigrants throughout the state, and it’s right in our backyard. Buffalo is a huge resettlement city. We have lots of refugees. I think it’s a misconception that refugees are not impacted by deportation or detention. If you’re an immigrant, no matter what status you’re in, you can be targeted by immigration enforcement, and there is still fear in the community regarding that.

Haydi Torres: The main question we face in New Jersey is how we cut all the tentacles from police collaboration with ICE. New Jersey has passed laws that improved how undocumented workers exist here. Winning driver licenses in 2019 was a huge relief for many immigrants, and New Jersey banned private immigrant detention contracts in New Jersey 2021. But we still have one detention center, the Elizabeth Detention Center (EDC), and they’re trying to open three more, run by private prison corporations, that will add around 2,500 beds. New Jersey communities said “no more detention centers,” but the federal government is still trying to open them in the state.

Seidman: How are you approaching this moment, including rapid response organizing?

Carrasco: There are a lot of people from different activist groups coming to meetings every week. We’ve been in different communities developing committees for the protection of migrants. There are a lot of church people involved with rapid response. One Presbyterian church in Tucson has a worker center and they try to protect migrants there. There’s a committee for churches talking about what to do if there’s a raid, and protecting people inside the churches.

There are a lot of people and different approaches. Some are going to be more political. They’re going to talk to the governor. They’re going to hold meetings with different audiences to try to protect our communities. And there are a lot of students who come to our meetings. Some of them are Dreamers. There are all kinds of people, old and young, who are trying to protect themselves and their families and our communities.

We’re also training people who want to be observers around the city. We have some lawyers in the group. It’s important to have connections with lawyers. We are also developing paperwork and packages on how to protect your family — Know Your Rights material, and talking to your kids about what to do. We’re talking about starting a website of racist police officers that documents abuses by police and Border Patrol.

We have a hotline. Our allies are going to swap meets and giving out cards saying, “If you need anything, just call us.” A few of us are answering the phones. They’re preparing the county jails for migrants now, so maybe I’m not going to sleep. I’m 64 years old and I’m retired, so I’m going to do as much as I can.

We’ve done direct action in the past. We’ve surrounded cars that Border Patrol was stopping. We haven’t talked about it, but we know we might have to do it, especially if there’s a raid. Some people who have worked with us for many years, who are really old now, are saying they’re willing to put themselves under the wheels to save our people. There’s also a big group for Palestine here in Tucson. Around 100 people went to protest at Raytheon, where they make the missiles. They laid down all over the place for hours, until the police came. I know they’ll come to help us.

NYIC Organizer: We had an immigrant solidarity rally in Buffalo last October organized by more than 40 people from different organizations who want to be involved in the movement. We discussed our priorities after the rally and formed committees.

A top priority has been to pass a local New York for All resolution and get our elected officials to see how making New York a sanctuary state is a Buffalo issue. The New York for All Act would make New York State as a whole a sanctuary state. It would stop state agencies from colluding with ICE. That would mean so much for our Buffalo communities, especially for Black and Brown communities where people are at risk of being stopped by police. There was a general fear of deportation and a need for a New York for All even before Trump, and now the fear is increasing.

Rapid response is obviously a big priority. We are working with our member organizations doing Know Your Rights presentations for impacted people. We’re coming up with a “Train the Trainer” program. After the election we had an enforcement training in Batavia where we spoke about rapid response being one of the ways we want to empower our community. We discussed recruiting allies who can navigate with or talk to law enforcement to support a layer of separation for impacted communities.

We’re also approaching rapid response from a community lens. How can we build communities to be able to protect each other? We’re organizing a community bail fund. We’re making sure families get food and support if a breadwinner is deported. Accompanying people to appointments or giving people rides can be very empowering. A lot of people have shown up.

Torres: Deportations and raids have always happened. Community members who have been here 20 years will tell you about raids, about their cousins, or aunts and uncles, who were deported under the Biden or Obama administrations. All of this information is stored in the community. So, when we do Know Your Rights trainings, we’ve been doing those in person. We have been supporting Know Your Rights and basic deportation defense, and sharing infographics with the community. On February 9, we’re teaming up with local community members who are notaries to do power of attorney and help families set up an emergency plan. We have a community center in Elizabeth now, so in the next month we’re going to start doing more workshops and trainings and make those accessible online.

We need to talk about Know Your Rights so people feel empowered to fight back. A lot of people at the trainings came to New Jersey in recent years and don’t understand raids. They haven’t seen ICE agents coming around their neighborhoods, so they are very scared. We’re worried about what’s going to happen to people with active cases who have been detained or let out on parole, and how to protect people most at risk.

It’s going to be difficult under this administration. It will be harder to delay or stop deportations, so we have to get creative to better protect people. We need solidarity. We need to talk to other organizers. I’ve been texting people I met in trainings to ask about movement lawyers or contacts inside DHS, or just brainstorm ideas on how to protect our community. And we also need to understand how ICE works. A lot of the tactics ICE uses are changing. We won some protections in New Jersey, so there’s some hope about new things we can do.

Seidman: Can you talk about the role of grassroots, community-level organization in deportation defense?

Carrasco: Grassroots organizing is important because we are from our community. When you work with the community and who is affected, you get more effective change. You organize at the bottom of the community affected by injustice and racism, and you build up, and that’s how we change things. My mom used to say, “The one that carries the sack on their back, knows how heavy it is.” If you are affected by these laws, then you’re going to do whatever it takes to change it.

NYIC Organizer: I get hope from community. Immigrant communities and communities of color have a culture of tight knit community that takes care of each other, community that heals together and is not individualistic. This is really what organizing is. It’s coming together and supporting one another and standing as allies in solidarity of whatever community gets attacked.

Torres: Go work in your communities. See how ICE operates in your community, so you can be ready. That’s the thing about rapid response. If anybody gets detained, you can have people that can go to the place, connect with the family. We do need lawyers, and those are hard to access. I also think it’s a perfect moment for people in the movement to do legal work, to do more organizing and fundraising and canvassing with the community.

Seidman: In this difficult moment, what motivates you and keeps you going?

Carrasco: Our morgue in Tucson has a capacity for more than 300 bodies. Most of them are migrants from the desert. There are many bodies whose identities are desconocidos, unknown. I wasn’t prepared for that the first time I went there for a training. There were corpses of very young people, people who were my kids’ age. It’s horrible. I got really depressed. I started taking medication. When Trump won, I was very discouraged. I cried so much.

But when somebody tries to put you down, you have to gain strength and get up again, you know? We started reaching out to our community. What are we going to do about it? We cannot get discouraged. We have to keep fighting. I started looking at young people. They are in the university. A lot of them are Dreamers. Their parents don’t have papers, but they do. They want to change and keep fighting for their parents and their families. Not only in my community, but in communities around the United States. That’s what gives me hope.

Torres: There’s been so many inspiring moments throughout my time organizing. Other organizers and community members definitely keep me inspired and grounded, especially people who have been doing this for a really long time. Also, we’ve had a lot of huge victories in the past several years. New Jersey won licenses during the first Trump administration! We want to empower people and remind people of our wins.

We have to be bold and courageous. I’ve learned this from the Palestinian youth who are organizing right now. We need courage. There’s a chant in Spanish, “¡Estado Opresor, Pueblo Luchador!” which means something like, “In an oppressive state, the people will fight back!” I think we’re past the point of just doing civil disobedience. How do we use our economic power as workers? This country depends on our labor and the labor of undocumented workers. I try to remind people of the importance of immigrants and our power.

NYIC Organizer: Being inspired and staying hopeful is one of the strongest defenses. The people spreading hateful, racist agendas against immigrants are only one side of the story. I’m inspired by folks who are willing to go to Albany and fight for our rights, to rally together and have in-district meetings. I’m inspired by allies who might not be affected but want to do rapid response.

I also want to invite people in. If you want to help, there’s room for you. If you want to engage in rapid response, if you want to learn how to organize, if you want to be a buddy to someone at the DMV, there’s so many ways to be there for our community. We survived the first Trump administration, and we’ll do it again. We will continue to fight and stand by our communities. We’re not giving up our rights. Solidarity is the most powerful tool for our community to not just survive during this moment, but to thrive and make history.

Note: These interviews were conducted separately and edited into a roundtable format afterward. The interviews were conducted shortly before the Trump administration started ramping up ICE raids and arrests. Since then, Carrasco has told Truthout that workplace raids are increasing in Tucson and that her hotline has been much busier. Truthout reached out to Torres in New Jersey, where ICE is making arrests, including a workplace raid at a seafood distributor in Newark, where three workers were arrested. Two of the workers have been released, and Torres sent this video of an interview with them from the Elizabeth Detention Center.