How to Respond to Immigration Raids

Some ideas to think about as you come up with the best plan for your situation!

In this zine, you will find

suggestions for how to respond to a immigration raid
explanations for the suggestions
a brief list of local (Chapelboro, NC) journalists covering immigration enforcement

The zine includes suggestions and explanations for readers to find what is helpful for their unique situation. Though this zine provides suggestions, it is not saying what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ to do in any specific situation. The goal is to help neighbors come up with ideas and skillsets to show up in defense and solidarity.

Please: take what’s helpful and leave the rest.

Create a support team for the kidnapped person’s family, friends, loved ones, and neighborhood.

Why? This will make sure that the person detained and their family stay supported by their community through connections to people and resources and not getting isolated. The support team can work with one another and combine talents and skills (family members, community organizers, legal support, religious leaders, social workers, storytellers, representatives from local advocacy organizations (e.g. Siembra NC), etc.).

What does this look like? Working with the detained person and their family to build a support group of key people. Consider some of those listed above. After the detainment, meet weekly (best in-person) to talk about needs (grocery runs, pharmacy runs, school drop off/pick ups, fundraisers, legal support, a buddy to go with them to to any meetings with state officials, etc.). See if they have any desire for political advocacy or mobilization. Set up expectations for one another and plan to meet for at least a few months.

It would be great if you already knew the affected people before the kidnapping. That way you would not be meeting them for the first time during one of the worst moments of their life. If you do not have a relationship to the detained person’s loved ones yet, talk to them, share what you know and ask what they need. Give them a copy of this zine, share resources or connections that you know of, and offer time, skills, and labor to them.

Reach out to neighbors and tell them what happened.

Why? A neighbor’s kidnapping or attempted kidnapping is important information that neighbors should know. The public should know what has happened. Neighbors should be able to prepare for themselves and their loved ones to be targeted. Neighbors should be ready to support others who are targeted.

Also, you may meet people who have experienced the same or similar situations. Their experience and support can be very helpful.

What does this look like? Telling neighbors what has happened can be as simple as a flyer. Some good topics to cover are: What Happened, What Does This Mean, How You Can Help, What Resources Are Available To You, and Know Your Rights. If the family would like to go public with their story and needs, you can include that in the flyer. This flyer can be given out by hand (print and deliver) or online. Handing them out in person is a good idea because it can help people in the neighborhood meet each other. It’s important for folks to get to know each other so they can support each other when these things happen.

Contact officials whose collaboration with federal agencies allowed for this to happen. Make their contact information public, encouraging others to make complaints. Include clear communication around the political costs of what they’re doing.

Why? There are few consequences for detaining and deporting people and terrorizing communities. One way to work against deportations becoming normal is to be loud when ICE kidnaps people. If kidnapping our neighbors has a cost, politicians might be less likely to support ICE in the future. Politicians may be more likely to use their power against ICE if they know that we support them doing that. Also, if state officials see that they have enough support from the people to reject intrusion from the federal government, they may be more likely to use their decision-making powers to limit or block federal operations in the area they have influence over. This can make it harder for federal agencies to work in certain areas.

If people understand who specific politicians are and what power they have, they can understand how much local and state-level support ICE needs to operate.

What does this look like? Research local officials and learn about ties to federal immigration enforcement. Directly contact them explaining what happened and their role in making it happen. Phone zap them (get a group of people to all make calls to them with a set of demands). Visit their offices. Name them in press conferences, op-eds, Facebook groups, radio talk shows, and more. Name them and explain how they helped to kidnap a neighbor. Explain their power to give in or resist. Call on them to respond. Call on them to commit to action against federal immigration enforcement. Brainstorm other political costs for collaboration with immigration enforcement.

Some officials to think about:

City councils and other town officials
County sheriffs and police chiefs
Departments of Public Safety or Adult Corrections (which are sometimes separate from sheriff and police departments)
Governors
State representatives (state and federal level)
Fixed Based Operators (FBOs) at airports
Construction companies that build detention facilities
Private companies that profit from contracts with ICE
Private companies that operate detention centers (for example, CoreCivic, GeoGroup)

Some other things to think about: Do any of the officials have an election coming up? Losing a re-election campaign is a clear consequence. By losing, future office holders learn the cost of working with ICE.

Host a press conference and communicate what happened through networks (grocery stores, nightlife, religious centers, local news outlets, community Facebook Groups, community Whatsapp chats, etc..)

Why? Since its creation in 2003, ICE has operated through silence, fear, and isolation. They are able to terrorize communities without consequences because they are always hiding. Being INTOLERANT and LOUD about detainments, raids, and deportations is one way to fight this. Fight the operations. Fight the state terror campaign. Fight the normalization, and build community power against these operations. This is why it is important to make every raid and every detainment a story.

What does this look like?

Contacting local journalists with press releases and offering to give interviews, especially those who cover immigration, federal policy, and state/local news.
Hosting press conferences, which can be planned with the kidnapped person’s support team.
Finding good story tellers to explain what has happened to the public. They can do this through speaking in interviews with journalists, speaking on radio shows, posting on social media (especially Facebook groups), canvassing local neighborhoods, and speaking at religious groups and community centers.
If possible, reach out to outlets that specialize in certain things (newspapers for specific racial or ethnic groups, Marshall Project for stories about incarceration, etc.) and broader or national outlets (NPR, ProPublica, etc.).

Note: It is helpful to find public-facing storytellers before raids. After a raid, reach out to them and directly connect them with journalists. This can be done in person at press conferences or by phone/email.

Outlet	Type of Outlet	Reporter	Email	Number
News & Observer	Triangle-area news	Dan Kane	dkane@newsobserver.com	919-829-4861
		Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi	lperezu@newsobserver.com
		Tammy Grub	tgrubb@newsobserver.com	919-829-8926
		Ryan Oehrli	roehrli@charlotteobserver.com
Indyweek	Progressive triangle-area news	Chase Pellegrini de Paur	chase@indyweek.com
		Chloe Courtney Bohl	chloe@indyweek.com
		Sarah Willetts	sarah-willets@indyweek.com
NC Newslines	Nonprofit NC newspaper exposing injustice in the state	Brandon Kingdollar	bkingdollar@ncnewsline.com
		Clayton Henkel	chenkel@ncnewsline.com
		Ahmed Jallow	ajallow@ncnewsline.com
Chapelboro	Chapel Hill/Carrboro news	Aaron Keck (radio host)	akeck@wchl.com
		Brighton McConnell	brighton@wchl.com
WUNC	Triangle-area news	Julian Berger	Contact information not publicly available
		Aaron Sánchez-Guerra	Contact information not publicly available
The Daily Tarheel	UNC Chapel Hill and surrounding area news	Taylor Motley	city@dailytarheel.com
UNC Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism Professor	Professor at UNC Chapel Hill’s journalism school	Erin Siegal McIntyre	esm@unc.edu

Community Action

Why? Again, there are almost no consequences for leading, helping with, or giving in to neighbors being kidnapped. Communities responding communicates that we are not okay with this. We can make consequences for state officials and get to know folks in our community. We can organize resistance so we can be ready to meet the moment today and again tomorrow.

What does this look like? Noise demo outside the detainment facility? Visit to the local politician’s office? Phone zap public officials? March on the sheriff’s office? A neighborhood-wide potluck to discuss response? Community meeting to pool ideas and assign roles for a diverse response? Group expressions of rage?

Long-term System Building

Why? As previously said: (1) ICE works best in hiding and (2) we have to build ties and deepen our organizational ability to better protect our neighbors and ourselves today and tomorrow and the day after that.

What does this look like?

Joining an organization/affinity group/some group of people that is more than yourself
Contributing labor, skills, and space
Making your neighbors a priority
Maintaining accountability with yourself, neighbors, and state officials
Continuing relationships months after ICE leaves.
Staying plugged in. Coming back again tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that.