Most of your choices are not black-or-white; you may experience both positive and negative effects/risks from your choices. 

What a leader at a cultural organization chooses to do or not to do may incur risks from the federal administration and its allies, but may also improve your connection with your community, boost public trust in organizations you represent, increase support from donors and ticket sales, improve staff loyalty and morale, and contribute substantially to a wider effort of protection and defense of your community's rights and wellbeing, which may in turn protect your community’s economy and your own revenue. 

As an individual speaking out about your employer’s business dealings, you may risk the ire of someone capable of firing you or harming your professional reputation, but if handled well you may find that your manager has the same misgivings. You could gain more respect from your colleagues, and you might change company policy to cause less harm.

Identify the mission-driven, long-term goals of your institution, including the individuals you represent, or your personal ethics and vision for the future, and determine how taking a stand through either action or inaction can affect these goals. Prioritize giving your attention to the risks that have the highest likelihood of occurring and/or causing the most harm if they do. Keep in mind that just because a risk of something terrible exists doesn’t mean it is likely to happen. Try to gauge realistically if a risk has a low probability of materializing, and factor that into your decision.

For example: What is the risk of the federal government increasing scrutiny of your organization or conducting retaliatory inspections or punishments in arenas other than immigration?

It is true that if you catch the attention of certain federal officials, those officials could call for retaliatory action, but there is a larger context to consider. Many federal agencies have been hit with significant funding cuts under this administration, and the administration has not yet replaced decision-makers throughout all federal agencies with allies aligned with presidential priorities. Under-funded agencies have to prioritize their efforts. Leadership or staff who are opposed to directives to retaliate or engage in activities contrary to their professional ethics, or the intended functions of their agencies, may drag their heels. In short, not all agencies are ready to act on the whims of the administration, so your risk of retaliation in these spheres is mitigated because of these factors.

Here are two specific examples that involve under-funded agencies (the IRS and OSHA):

• Would the government pursue punitively revoking your nonprofit status over free speech, even when it risks losing a lawsuit about it? 

  • • Perhaps—museums and universities in general have been explicitly threatened with this by the President and some cabinet officials. It may be more likely if you are a big fish like an Ivy League school, allowing them to make a prominent example out of you.
      The risk of the status change happening and surviving a legal challenge does not currently seem to be especially high for many organizations. However, the consequences for your organization may be devastating, especially if you occupy valuable real estate and would suddenly be on the hook for high property taxes at the same time that you become ineligible for nonprofit grants and your major donors lose their tax write-offs. 

It would be good to mitigate risks so you are prepared to stand your ground. 

• Would the administration sic OSHA on you? 

  • • That doesn’t currently seem to be a priority, but you can take steps to mitigate that risk anyway.

Some risks are clearly too high and cannot be tolerated, but often it is harder to calculate the balance of intangible principles and risks with physical or monetary harm. If you are evaluating risks that seem to have high stakes and you don’t know what to do, consider seeking expert advice outside of your organization. You can consult attorneys, insurance companies, state agencies, civil rights advocacy groups, immigrant rights advocacy groups, policy experts, PR firms, and networks of your peers. For anything with possible legal repercussions, licensed attorneys who are experts on the subject are a good choice. Legal advice and representation can be expensive, but you can look for pro bono attorneys through law associations or well-funded civil rights advocacy groups.

We may be in an unprecedented national situation, but the specific threats have many precedents in American history—particularly the targeting of marginalized racial, ethnic, religious, or gendered groups and their allies in the past by government and non-governmental entities—and in the history of other countries. 

Risks may be incurred both by taking actions and not taking actions, for or against immigrant rights or other topics.

Risks for organizations to anticipate may include: 

• legal repercussions of various kinds for both not complying and complying with federal agents (highly dependent on your location and particular situation; consult a lawyer)

• disruptions to your business operations 

  • • loss of staff 

    • increased absenteeism

    • strikes (which may not be targeted at you but rather at curbing federal overreach)

    • leadership shakeups 

• damage to your organization's reputation 

• loss of donor support or grants

• decrease in community patronage/visitors 

• boycotts 

• unplanned monetary costs, including emergency expenses and legal costs

• staff hours diverted to risk mitigation or crisis management

• increased stress

• damage to staff morale

• straying from your mission and professional ethics, i.e., loss of moral integrity

• retaliation, coercion, and harassment from ICE (e.g., immigration enforcement actions performed primarily as retaliation, surveillance, or scrutiny) or the federal government (e.g., actual or threatened rescinding of grants or nonprofit status, or frivolous lawsuits)

• malicious actions by community members aligned with the federal administration's goals, including spurious poor reviews, harassment, threats of violence, or other illegal actions 

• physical harm to your staff, premises, or visitors from ICE or supporters of the administration’s policies

• indirect harm felt by your community (if your purchase choices, deals, voluntary compliance, or anticipatory obedience enable others to do harm, or if your organization attracts malicious attention to the community) 

• cultural organizations and related agencies wholly or partially controlled by the federal government may experience direct or indirect orders of:

  • • censorship

    • policy changes

    • programmatic changes

    • alterations of existing agreements such as collections loans or contracts with performing artists

    • changes counter to the mission of your organization

as well as coercive pressure on leadership to comply with administrative priorities via threatened or actual:

• • • firings

    • replacement of leadership with the administration’s loyalists

    • funding losses

    • disestablishment of the entire organization

Risks for individuals to anticipate may include:

• many of the above, plus:

• loss of employment and income:

  • • due to business disruptions

    • due to firing from your job in response to your speech or political activities (some states have protections, but many do not)

    • because you must prioritize personal or family safety and feel you cannot safely go to work

    • because you resign or are fired for refusing orders on principle

• damage to your professional or personal reputation

• loss of the authority to steer your organization or its actions in a positive/ethical direction

• loss of self-respect

• targeting by ICE of civilians, of you personally, or your loved ones

Once you have identified a risk, you may have many paths to reduce the risk: eliminate or reduce your vulnerabilities, take additional actions that change the nature of the risk, and/or make a decision that avoids a particular risk altogether, which will likely come with its own separate risks. Here are some examples:

If you anticipate damage to your reputation for taking a public stance, you might: 

• talk with a PR firm or lawyers beforehand for advice about a messaging strategy and controlling the narrative before you go public. 

• Ask about how and when to communicate with your community stakeholders and major donors to gain buy-in and solidarity for your plan. 

If you are concerned about staff and property safety from physical threats by ICE or civilian supporters of ICE:

• increase your security staff and change your protocols to make your premises better secured or surveilled by your own team or contractors. 

• make sure all staff have appropriate, sufficient training about what to do in these situations.

• review and adjust your insurance coverage.

• If you have received threatening messages from any source, report them to your local law enforcement and ask for their support.

If you are worried about increased government scrutiny as retaliation for speaking out against illegal government actions:

• make sure you are scrupulously adhering to your regulatory requirements. (E.g., make sure your I-9 forms are completed correctly and you aren’t violating OSHA safety regulations.)

• particularly if your state is friendly, you might ask for a consultation from related agencies. Agencies have an interest in helping you comply with regulations and protect your workers, so they may come at your request to give you a confidential consultation to help you identify and correct issues without the risk of citations or punitive actions. 

• make sure your staff are properly trained and certified to perform their duties and there isn’t a valid concern that would prompt a whistleblower event to occur.

If you are worried about your nonprofit status being revoked and want to speak up anyway, you might: 

• make sure you know exactly what nonprofits and their leadership are allowed to say and do, and make sure you operate within those bounds.

• make sure you are compliant with all requirements for nonprofits, including the frequency and conduct of board meetings or elections, financial dealings, and the handling of essential documentation.

• consult a lawyer for advice on legal action you can take, potential risks to your status, and your current state of compliance.

• in case you are challenged, develop a plan and funding for a crisis PR campaign and legal battle to defend your freedom of speech.

This is definitely a question of weighing your risks, and the general answer is that it is not a good move. It is likely to be less safe for your organization, your staff, and your community members to have ICE agents in your private spaces or accessing your records— and in some cases, it may be illegal!

Some state and local laws may restrict corporations or employers from complying with ICE administrative demands without a court order, in part because it may be a violation of the privacy of the people you are responsible for. See the next question for information on ICE's authorization and warrants.

Additionally, even if you think you are compliant with regulations, employers frequently make errors on complicated paperwork, so inviting ICE in for an unnecessary and unauthorized inspection may result in you being cited for a violation even if you are acting in good faith. If you or your employers misspeak or offer information voluntarily, it could be used against you in unexpected ways.

Finally, if ICE is acting beyond the bounds of their legal authority or being hostile or aggressive, you and your employees may experience distress and physical harm, and staff members or visitors may be accosted or detained by ICE regardless of their immigration status or whether ICE has a warrant. This can result in long-term physical and mental health consequences, serious harm to your employees’ families and community, and effects on staff morale and trust of your organization.

Many lawyers conclude that it is safer for everyone only to comply when and how you must, and not to provide anticipatory obedience.

See our Annotated Resources sections For employers, managers, and safety committee members and Know Your Rights to learn more.

Generally, no, it’s not illegal, it is within your fundamental rights—with a few important exceptions.

Firstly, you have fundamental rights regardless of your immigration status: 

Your privacy as an individual or a business is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which protects everyone from unreasonable searches and seizures. Only the courts have the power to determine if a search is reasonable. You may refuse to provide any personal identification, proof of citizenship, payroll documents, testimony, devices, or any other evidence or statements if ICE does not have a judicial warrant or court order.

You also have the protection of the Fifth Amendment, which allows you to remain silent and not incriminate yourself. Even if you and the people around you did nothing wrong, this right protects you because even seemingly innocuous things said by innocent people may give law enforcement more latitude and power in searches, seizures, and prosecutions. You can refuse to speak with ICE officers or provide them with any information.

If you are an employer, your staff have fundamental rights. Note that in some locations it is actually illegal for workplaces to comply with some ICE demands because of stronger state protections.

If you are not the employer at a place of business, you do not have the right to give ICE or other law enforcement access to the employer’s private/restricted areas or information unless deputized by the employer to do so. Even if you don’t have an explicit workplace policy about this, if ICE claims to have a warrant, you can communicate that you are not authorized to interact with ICE on behalf of the employer and that ICE must speak with whoever is currently managing your site. Then communicate appropriately with that person. (Employers, this is why policy and staff training are essential!)

You are required to cooperate with ICE in limited situations only:

• ICE can execute judicial warrants and subpoenas without your consent. 

• ICE is allowed to act on administrative/immigration warrants and subpoenas without your consent only if they are backed up by a separate court order. 

• ICE can enter public spaces, including public areas of your property, without your consent to conduct their business, including acting on administrative/immigration warrants. 

Attempting to stop ICE in any of these circumstances may be considered obstruction of justice, a crime. However, you have the right to verify warrants and subpoenas or challenge them through legal means. 

Don’t take ICE agents’ word for it that they have a judicial warrant or court order—you have the right to review the document and check its authenticity. Be prepared to exercise your rights, even if the agents are intimidating or acting coercively, and call an attorney for advice.

If they have proper documentation, do not obstruct the agents. If you are concerned or have reason to think the documents are invalid or being used improperly, or the agents conduct their operations beyond the specified parameters of the warrant, you still have recourse. Document everything the agents are doing, as well as their names and badge numbers, to the best of your ability. Afterward, collect witness statements and physical evidence. Consult an attorney. While you cannot obstruct the execution of a judicial warrant, you and your attorney can challenge it in the courts and file a motion to suppress any evidence obtained as a result of that invalid warrant.

For more information about warrants, subpoenas, your rights and obligations, see the guide’s section on ICE and your rights, as well as the Know Your Rights section of our Annotated Resources.

The above information is not to be construed as legal advice for your particular situation. Consult an attorney.

It’s not illegal, as long as you aren’t impeding ICE agents in any way.

Legal in public, within reasonable limits:

• Observing

• Shouting, whistling, or honking at ICE

• Following in a car at a safe distance

• Recording

Don’t:

• Touch

• Assault

• Forcibly resist, oppose, or interfere

• Impede (get physically in the way of or arguably too close to ICE agents)

• Threaten or intimidate

So why is ICE arresting and pressing charges against so many people? Intimidation.

ICE agents have arrested and charged hundreds of people with impeding or interfering with federal law enforcement in cities that have seen enforcement surges. However, many of the charges of civilians for “impeding” ICE officers have been dropped and others have been dismissed in court because they are without merit or are even based on provably false testimony, because this kind of nonviolent resistance in public that does not materially interfere with their work is constitutionally protected by the First Amendment— it's exercising freedom of speech.

If you'd like to know what will make being an observer of ICE more effective, see "What actions can I take as a bystander, eyewitness, or legal observer?" in the next section.

To protect ourselves and our democracy, we must become prepared to sustain a long period of uncertainty, sacrifice, vigilance, and action. This extended commitment can bring with it feelings of fear, hopelessness, or burnout. We can build up our resolve and protect our physical and mental health by building and strengthening community and solidarity. We the people are strongest when we can partner together to uplift and empower us all. We can organize for mutual aid and community defense, continuing to insist on truth, accountability, and justice, and together find a way to sustain those commitments indefinitely. We need to outlast together.

We encourage you to surround yourself with those who build you up, make you feel safe, and recognize the importance of diversity and inclusiveness in building a better nation. Explore your strengths and limitations, and consider what you can contribute to the common good. Also, recognize your comfort level with participation and risk-taking. There are many ways to support your community both in person and from your own home.

To make this work sustainable, it helps for everyone to focus their efforts on a limited number of issues or projects they care about. It is okay—and encouraged!—not to act on everything you care about as long as you are doing something. Trying to do everything inevitably results in dropped commitments, feelings of guilt, and burnout. One of the good things about living in such a large country is that there are many millions of people who care and can take action. If everyone contributes to protecting something they care about, we can rest assured that many issues will be covered. Encourage others you trust to support a cause they care about.

Whatever you are doing, work in partnership with others as much as possible. Even if you are a complete introvert and want to do what you can from your couch, find a group you can work with, support, and check in with remotely. Working together gives you strength from a diversity of skills, knowledge, perspective, and advantageous connections. It also is a tremendous source of encouragement, and it gives everyone an opportunity to “pass the baton” to a friend if you need to take time to address urgent personal matters or simply need a break to recharge. Communicate your availability and needs, and come to this work with compassion and gratitude for your partners, and they will do the same for you. 

While tactics are changing rapidly, some overarching patterns remain true: 

• Nonviolent resistance: Over a sustained period, this is by far the most effective way to win support and develop mass public pressure against unjust behavior by government and business entities. Nonviolent resistance is a broad category that includes advocacy, protests, rallies, and other visible demonstrations, noncooperation (including boycotts), civil disobedience, noncompliance, lawsuits, and direct intervention. Studies show that sustained nonviolent resistance efforts are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging at least 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change. Do everything you can to keep your community defense efforts and protests nonviolent.

• Community-building: This is the critical first step to successful, long-term community protection and resistance to oppression. Organizing to sustain the effort takes mutual trust and time.

• Rejecting unlawful actions and infringements on your rights: Authoritarians have a consistent and historically demonstrated strategy for building their power: exercising powers they aren't supposed to have until they face a challenge, and then trying something else, until they have consolidated enough de facto power that they can’t be stopped. The only way to address this strategy is to call it out and push back on every infringement with lawsuits and public pressure, such as boycotts, refusing to cooperate, and insisting on accountability and your own rights.

Refusing to obey in advance is a major component of this strategy. It is important not to agree to the unlawful demands of authoritarians who infringe on your rights or the rights of others, nor to anticipate the displeasure of authoritarians and choose not to do something you have the right to do, whether for expediency, personal gain, or risk reduction. This matters for both individuals and corporations. While standing up to pressure may be expensive, stressful, and risky on a personal level, anticipatory obedience eventually erodes everyone's power. 

The most tight-knit communities have the best chance of sustaining resistance to oppression over time. Knowing and trusting neighbors, growing a sense of solidarity, building networks, and establishing patterns of mutual support are all-important. Both individuals and organizations can get involved in supporting each other.

There are many tips out there about building all kinds of communities, so start with a browser search and work out what your goals are. Building a community can be organic through gregarious neighbors and caring actions. It can also grow from a deliberate effort to create a sense of solidarity and mutual appreciation. Most importantly, start with a generosity of time.

If you are striving to grow a community that you hope will eventually embrace sensitive organizing for mutual aid or community defense, and you’re not sure how to begin to build those trusted relationships with neighbors, look into guides for labor or tenant organizing as a starting point. Labor organizing, which has become sophisticated over centuries of fighting for worker rights, has many good lessons to teach about conducting conversations to reach and identify potential allies, and building up solidarity, strength, and boldness while facing more powerful and entrenched opposition. Tenant organizing may be especially useful for finding tactics to bring people in close physical proximity into alignment for a cause.

Note that if your goal is to have an organized effort for a specific cause you care about, at this point you probably don’t need to reinvent the wheel— and shouldn’t. The process of organizing for a cause may require a significant investment of time simply to set up logistics: communications, schedules, and managing volunteers’ engagement, not to mention coordinating outreach and fundraising—and then you make time for the actual good work you are trying to do. There are many organizations out there already doing an unbelievable range of good work. Do your due diligence to find out who is already organized in your area or about your cause, and see if you can support their work or expand upon it from within their organization. 

If you feel the need to start something from scratch, consider starting a neighborhood-based/hyperlocal chapter of a local activist organization with the express purpose of building community first, and meet regularly in person. That way you may get support and legitimacy from the larger organization and can feed into their network. If you still feel like you need to strike out entirely on your own for your particular idea, roll up your sleeves and be prepared to contribute 80% of all planning and labor indefinitely until you have sufficient buy-in to redistribute the load to invested and conscientious teammates.

If your organization is sensitive or involves vulnerable groups (for example, if you are engaged in mutual aid and deliver groceries or materials to households afraid of being targeted by ICE), it is safest to organize and expand through word-of-mouth, person-to-person connections and vouched-for relationships, rather than advertising your activities broadly or sharing invitations open to anonymous respondents. In response to organized resistance efforts, ICE has been changing its surveillance to include infiltrating community organizing, which is easier to do in settings of relative anonymity.

Mutual aid is a form of grassroots community organizing in which people work together to meet each others’ immediate needs, such as food, housing, or care. Aid is generally given with no strings attached, with the assumption that recipients truly need it and will likewise participate in this form of community support if and when they are able. 

In the context of immigrant solidarity and mass immigration enforcement operations, many mutual aid efforts help immigrants and people of color who are likely to be targeted by ICE (regardless of immigration status) to stay under the radar by eliminating necessary, vulnerable trips out. Some efforts help people who have been detained or support their families. These initiatives can be run or supported by informal and formal networks, including faith organizations, labor unions, nonprofits, civil rights activist groups, businesses, or groups of neighbors. 

Some relevant examples of mutual aid services:

• Delivering groceries, food pantry collections, meals, or other needed items

• Driving neighbors to work, medical appointments, or court hearings

• Providing laundry services

• Taking pets to the vet

• Raising money to cover rent or essentials for home-bound immigrants don’t feel safe leaving to work

• Employers finding ways to allow immigrants to work from home

• Language translation services

• Providing remote education or enrichment activities

• Pro bono legal work

• Towing and repair services for cars abandoned during abrupt and violent detentions

• Taking care of children, vulnerable relatives, and pets of detainees

As a bystander or witness of ICE agents and their activities, you can do many things:

• Summon others

• Alert the surrounding community to ICE presence

• Deescalate the situation, maybe

• Deter unlawful behavior, maybe

• Get critical information about and from anyone being detained or victimized by ICE

• Document exactly what is being done and by whom

• Share your documentation with lawyers and aid groups

• Report ICE sightings, vehicles, and actions to ICE watch apps so the broader community can respond appropriately 

Making sure agents' activities are witnessed by many and well documented serves important functions: 

• Conspicuous witnesses can act as a deterrent to unlawful behavior and show the embattled community members that they have support.

• Multiple eyewitness accounts and documentation provide evidence to hold ICE officers accountable for crimes and abuse and help their detainees and victims.

Eyewitness tactics can be coordinated and involve training, which helps you reduce your risks and learn how to be more effective. Be sure to read our next question about training.

Here are some specific tactics you can use:

• Carry a whistle with you and learn “ICE whistle” whistling patterns to alert others in the area about ICE activity. 

  • • When you see ICE vehicles or agents, let the neighborhood know! Codes vary regionally, but generally, short repeated blasts = “ICE nearby”; long blasts = “someone is being detained”.

    • Teach others you’re frequently around about ICE whistles so they know what it means and how to respond. Consider providing whistles.

• If you see ICE or hear a whistle code, watch the agents and document everything you can about them. 

  • • Capture specific information that can inform lawsuits and help people nearby track and respond appropriately.

    • The SALUTE acronym can help you remember what to document: 

      • • Size (how many agents/vehicles?)

        • Activity (what were they doing? did they detain anyone?)

        • Location (exact address/intersection and direction)

        • Unit (visible patches/acronyms/badge information)

        • Time (and date)

        • Equipment (weapons, vehicle types— get photos with license plates if you can, dogs, etc.)

    • If you recorded video that involves people other than ICE agents, the current advice is not to share it publicly— ICE could use it to put others at risk or as evidence in an effort to prosecute observers or detainees.

    • Know what regional immigrant rights or civil rights organizations to contact to safely share this information.

    • If the agents arrest/detain anyone, call out to the detainee and ask for critical information about themselves so they can be tracked and helped:

    • Name

    • Contact information for a loved one or lawyer

    • “A-number” or alien registration number

    • Anything important they want to convey in the moment—vulnerable loved ones who need to be supported (don’t lead ICE to them), significant medical needs, etc.

• ICE tracking tools and social networks can help you stay aware of where ICE is operating, verify suspected ICE vehicles and hotspots, and report sightings and incidents to aid rapid community response. 

  • • There are many ICE-tracking tools out there (as of Feb. 2026): iceinmyarea.org, Coqui, ICEbreaker, ICEBlock, and People Over Papers.

    • These tools are generally careful to operate within the bounds of free speech, and their proponents consider them legally similar to traffic apps that allow you to report speed trap cameras and police sightings. Despite their constitutional legality, there is pressure from ICE and the federal government to have carriers prevent their use. 

      • • The major app stores have removed some of them, such as ICEBlock on iOS devices, at the request of the government, but those who already have the app can still use them, and they are fighting for reinstatement. Google has also removed some apps, but Android users may install apps from sources other than the Play Store. 

    • Many communities also have text- or social media-based alert systems, such as Signal groups, for reporting ICE incidents and mobilizing rapid responders. Supporters of the administration's agenda have prompted the FBI to investigate people who report ICE in Signal chats, despite this also being a form of free speech.

• Report concerns about human or civil rights violations to organizations who can help:

  • • Civil rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and legal nonprofits such as the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) field calls for help. Contact your regional chapters.

    • The Democrats on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Oversight Committee) have set up a website to collect reports of concerning actions by ICE, in order to help inform corrective legal actions

• Protect yourself and others in advance through training and preparation: 

  • • Learn what kinds of behavior help to deescalate a situation

    • Have a buddy system and/or check-in system

    • Make sure your digital devices are secured so you aren’t putting anyone at risk if your phone is confiscated or accessed by ICE agents

    • Share this knowledge with others in your communities so you are all better informed and safer

    • Get deeper training, such as Legal Observer training, to manage your risks and understand what observer behavior is and is not legally allowed. 

For more information, read the question about training immediately below, and several questions in the Understanding and Mitigating Risks section, above, about risks and legality. 

Many organizations offer free trainings through in-person or virtual meetings or self-paced materials because, if many people know how to remain calm and take effective actions in a crisis, we will all be better off. Here are several types to help you decide what kind of training to seek out, and how.

• Nonviolence training: Remaining peaceable even in highly stressful situations or where others are being violent takes practice and is often better with intentional training. People can prepare for nonviolence in movements by hearing from leaders or organizers about what to expect at protests or in encounters with ICE, and learning personal safety practices for attending demonstrations, how to deescalate a situation (see bystander training), and how to tell when a situation is getting more dangerous and extracting oneself. Other, more specific training may be offered for crowd monitors, law enforcement liaisons, or participants in civil disobedience actions likelier to result in arrest (such as the faith leaders blocking an airport runway in Minneapolis to protest deportations), as well as bystander intervention and legal observer training.

• Know Your Rights training: Many organizations offer variations on KYR topics, including training for protestors, small businesses, immigrants, and Americans generally. Since your rights may be somewhat dependent on your location, look for trainings relevant to you geared toward your region. If you don’t find one, look for something more general or national.

• Bystander intervention training calls on passersby to intercede when a person clearly requires help, and it gives people tools to deescalate a tense situation, or “lower the temperature.” This kind of training often teaches the “5 Ds” of bystander intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct, and how to use them.

• Legal observer training: Legal observers are watchers of law enforcement who are prepared to record and hold them accountable for misdeeds. Some legal observers follow ICE agents around or go to places ICE is likely to operate, such as courthouses and places day laborers tend to frequent; others stay ready to show up when alerted to a nearby problem. Legal observers must follow relevant laws themselves and are sometimes targeted by ICE (Alex Pretti, for example), so this important work is not without risk, and it is essential to have strength in numbers and a buddy system. Several groups offer training to help prepare people to be legal observers with certain practices for safety and understanding of risks. Relevant training may be called legal observer training, constitutional observer training, Upstander training, ICEWatch training, community patrols training, or some other regional name. Such training may be offered locally or online.
  Part of the reason Minneapolis’s community organizing has been so strong is because of their efforts to prepare and mobilize people. By the start of February, 30,000 residents of Minneapolis received training to be volunteer observers. 

• Digital security training: Some groups offer training about safe and secure practices for digital devices and communications. Avoiding phishing, knowing your digital privacy rights with various tools and platforms, and understanding security settings and the basics of encryption can significantly help reduce your vulnerabilities. There are also best practices for how and when you communicate and store sensitive information, such as keeping your communication groups small and known to you, auto-deleting messages after a certain amount of time, and never sending sensitive information through insecure channels or even through encrypted chats of uncertain memberships. These precautions protect you, your loved ones, and everyone you are trying to help. 

• First aid training: Many ICE encounters have turned violent in recent months, and in some of those cases ICE has prevented medical professionals from rendering aid, including preventing a medic from approaching Renée Good after she was shot, many medical professionals from helping detainees, and more. Knowing how to tend to your own injuries or those of others without formal medical help may save lives. Many organizations have published basic guides, and some offer courses on various first aid scenarios that can help. 

• Specialized training for professionals: Training of various levels of formality is available for lawyers to run immigration aid clinics, for journalists to cover sensitive issues or work in dangerous locations, intensive courses for medical professionals to prepare to address oppression-related injuries (including "street medicine") and care for vulnerable patients, and more. 

• Self-led training: Even without a training class, it’s good to study up on the basics in case you get caught up in a high-pressure situation. You can read resources from advocacy groups or watch webinars. Learn your rights and risks, and whom to contact for legal aid. Mnemonics such as the “5 Ds,” “SALUTE,” and the "OODA loop" are great tools to help you and others remember what to do even in a crisis. Set up a buddy system for actions, and discuss preparedness or role-play scenarios with your companions. If you expect to interact in any way with ICE or a hostile police force, first aid knowledge may be useful, especially for preventing and treating injuries from "less lethal" weaponry. Other simple tactics also require basic training or instruction. “ICE whistle” alerts, discussed in the previous question, are popular because they are simple, low-tech and effective ways to immediately alert a community to ICE activity, but even they require that people know when to whistle, what different whistle patterns signify, and how others should respond appropriately when they hear whistles. Crowdsourced tools like ICE trackers also require people to know how to use them effectively.

The recent changes we have witnessed in federal immigration enforcement behavior are a characteristic component of a fascist authoritarian strategy for consolidating power. This is based upon analysis of current events in relation to historical precedent and this administration’s stated goals. We recommend reading scholar Timothy Snyder’s bestselling and accessible book On Tyranny (2017, with updated and expanded versions released in 2021 and 2022) for more background and guidance on recognizing and responding to rising authoritarianism. Understanding the pattern will help you be able to anticipate new developments as the situation evolves. 

Core tactics of authoritarian strategy include disregarding democratic norms and processes, instilling fear in the populace, scapegoating a group as a domestic enemy and “othering” them (a distraction and focus of people’s fear), establishing a paramilitary force not beholden the people, arresting people without due process, keeping the people too busy and distracted to push back, and exercising powers not granted by law however they can get away with it until they have claimed sufficient strength to subdue any opposition.

Federal immigration enforcement is at the center of the administration’s power grab because several factors aligned: 

• In the history of the United States, people of color and immigrants have often been scapegoated. In recent years this has been done especially by the party currently exhibiting fascist behavior; it is convenient for them to continue doing so.

• The Department of Homeland Security, which controls immigration enforcement and border security, has unusually broad powers because of the interests of those who established it in the xenophobic post-9/11 era.

• The U.S. military is not allowed to conduct operations on domestic soil, so immigration enforcement agencies are a convenient substitute that were easy to superpower with 2025’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, which granted these agencies a windfall of more than $170 billion dollars over four years— for perspective, that total amount of money is more than the annual budgets of the militaries of all but two countries in the world—separate from the Department of Homeland Security’s annual budget appropriations.

• A militarized force controlled and sanctioned by the U.S. executive branch has the might to do almost anything the executive branch wants, in the immediate moment. The Supreme Court’s ruling in 2024 that the President cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed as official acts seems to have emboldened this President. In pursuit of the President's agenda, federal immigration enforcement agencies have conducted illegal surveillance, mass arrests without probable cause, violations of due process, habeas corpus, and several Constitutional amendments, obstruction of justice, gross abuses of detainees, and maimings, killings, and wrongful deaths of nonviolent, non-criminal people in public and in custody. 

• Courts take time to mete out justice. Congress has the power to check the executive branch through impeachment and conviction of civil officers for “treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors,” also not a fast process. However, the majority leaders and party in Congress are, so far, supporting this administration’s antidemocratic power grab through a refusal to exercise congressional power to check the criminal behavior of the executive branch. The citizens have no direct power to recall members of Congress, judges, or executive officials, and must rely on them to take actions that are in the best interest of their constituents. The states can impose limits on cooperation with ICE and explicitly allow victims to hold ICE and ICE agents liable for misconduct, but they cannot prevent ICE from operating within their borders.

Under this administration, these agencies are rapidly expanding and evolving, working in an increasingly quick and highly adaptive manner, hiding some of their unconstitutional practical directives such as to violate the Fourth Amendment, increasingly and illegally surveilling immigrants and citizens who oppose them or are active in mutual aid, making illegal arrests, and disregarding court orders and legal restrictions, deliberately making it harder to counteract even criminal acts. Their actions appear to demonstrate a viewpoint that they are not accountable to the people, only to the current administration. Thus ICE is effectively being transformed into the administration’s paramilitary secret police.

Many people expect ICE’s conduct and activities (described in previous answer) to get much worse for a while. Thanks to their astronomical funding package in 2025, immigration agencies are rapidly increasing the size of its forces, the kinds of equipment they have, and the number of their detention facilities. The news broke nationally in February 2026 that ICE and ICE contractors are buying up warehouses around the country to turn into enormous for-profit detention centers for tens of thousands more immigrants, roughly doubling their current capacity. They would only do this if their intent is to capture, detain, and deport far more immigrants than they have been (and they have indicated as much with their detainment quotas), which requires ramping up their operations and not slowing down to correct abuses. This doesn’t end after the Minneapolis surge. We recommend taking action now.

It must be emphasized that ICE is, in the name of law and order and to rid the U.S. of the “worst of the worst” violent criminals, committing many illegal, inhumane violations of constitutional, civil, and human rights. And they are doing them to many people, most of whom who are variously not violent, not criminals, and/or here legally and through proper channels, including refugees, students, talented and essential workers, young children, spouses, U.S. permanent residents, and even many U.S. citizens. 

Unless and until we see multiple Republicans in Congress stand up to all of this through new legislation and impeachments of officials orchestrating the harmful behavior of ICE, the earliest we can reasonably expect Congress to take meaningful action is 2027, and that’s if the administration does not successfully prevent a fair election in November 2026. That is when we will see the start of the return to lawful governance and a renewed national aspiration to respect human rights in the United States.

Until then, the rest of us have the unasked-for responsibility of defending our communities through preparedness, nonviolent action, and solidarity—speaking out through word and deed on behalf of our neighbors and ourselves. If we don’t, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

It may take many years to reestablish norms of democratic process and ethical, accountable behavior. It will also be impossible to fully repair the damage done during this authoritarian surge, even if we halt it as soon as we can. Let's do everything we can to limit the damage.

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