Trump’s immigration crackdown is tearing our communities apart.
He’s escalating raids, targeting immigrants, and proudly separating families – even detaining U.S. citizens. His policies have devastated hundreds of thousands of lives and threaten millions more.
This assault doesn’t stop at immigrant families. It’s disrupting all of our communities: workplaces can’t find staff; restaurants aren’t being patronized; young kids aren’t going to school, and small businesses are being harassed and forced to shut down. It’s a clear sign of unchecked federal overreach. In today’s America, if you’re not wealthy, you’re under attack.
Trump believes this is the path to maintaining Republican control in 2026. But we know better, and we can fight back. Together, we can protect families from ICE detention, tell the truth about MAGA’s billionaire-first agenda, and defend the schools, workplaces, and communities left in crisis after every raid.
Download the playbook to learn how we built local defense networks, turned fear into power, and organized to step out of the shadows – into the light – to bring about a new day for all of us.
Defend and Recruit is a project of Siembra NC, a Latino base-building organization in North Carolina.
Siembra NC’s roots are from 2017, when we began as a direct response to Trump’s attacks. In early 2025, we turned our lessons into a simple Google Doc playbook because we knew the same playbook of hate and fear would return. You can read about our work and launch here, here, and here.
Our strategies include:
- Empowering groups to build and scale local ICE watch networks and hotlines, because we protect us
- Growing networks of Fourth Amendment Workplaces, helping employers and workers understand their rights if ICE shows up.
- Leading a national campaign against Avelo Airlines, the only private carrier complicit in ICE’s deportation system.
- Sharing and curating a growing library of toolkits and resources that help groups defend immigrants and build local power
We are supporting the national network for immigration defense, a community rooted in the urgent need to defend our people and protect one another. But we know that lasting change requires transforming solidarity into structure, translating defense into offense, and outrage into organizing. Learn more about us & how you can get more involved here.