Introduction
Communities are strongest when they move beyond responding to crises and invest in the relationships, leadership, and structures needed to build long-term power.
Defend and Recruit emerged from the experience of immigrants and organisers of colour confronting the realities of immigration enforcement under the first Trump administration. Beginning in 2017, Siembra NC and its members developed practical approaches to community defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tracking, rapid response, and expanded into workplace organising and power-building while supporting immigrant families facing detention, deportation, and fear. As the political landscape shifted again in 2025, and Trump came back and promised more and worse, organisers compiled those lessons into a simple playbook so communities around the country, and increasingly the world, would not have to start from scratch. From there, Siembra NC was lucky to help build and grow hundreds of groups around the country, alongside supporting already established groups to take on new strategies.
This page is the result of that experience, and it is not based on Siembra NC’s work alone. The Defend & Recruit network includes thousands of groups – from immigrant rights groups, worker organisations, faith communities, legal advocates, movement partners, and community defense networks across the United States and around the world. In our fights, we have launched successful (and failed) campaigns, shared strategies across states and borders, adapted lessons from social movements confronting repression in different contexts, and tested what worked through practice during a time of fascism. The result is a collection of tools, frameworks, and resources shaped by thousands of organisers and community members working to protect their neighbors and build collective power.
Since its launch, Defend and Recruit has stopped Avelo Airlines from taking deportation flights, helped build political pressure around immigration warehouses that shifted the government’s plans, created a national movement for workplaces to know their rights, and supported thousands of people to get involved – helping to catalyse hundreds of local defense networks, strengthening existing organizations and unions, and contributing to campaigns that have shifted public conversations about immigration while winning concrete protections for immigrant communities.
Throughout that work, one lesson has remained consistent: communities are strongest when they move beyond responding to crises and invest in the relationships, leadership, and structures needed to build long-term power. Fighting responsively in the context of immigration and authoritative governments is not enough. Organisers must build power along the way. During moments of crisis, we can organise like never before, and we must – otherwise we’ll end up right back here after the next election.
This guide brings together those lessons. Whether you are looking to start a new group, build an ICE Watch network, strengthen workplace protections, run a local campaign, build a coalition, or recruit new people into organising, these resources are intended to help you adapt proven strategies to your own community. Use them, improve them, share them, and continue building the movement for dignity, safety, and belonging.
It includes two sections:
- One on key strategies, if you’re looking to do this work in your community
- One on how to do this organising, including tools & resources to support your local base building
The strongest fights combine protection, solidarity, strategy, and powerbuilding.
Key Strategies
Build Community Defense
ICE Watch programs are a way to respond to immigration enforcement activity, build collective power, and grow our movement – all while reducing fear and misinformation.
Common impacts include:
- Verifying rumors circulating through social media and messaging apps.
- Providing accurate information during moments of crisis
- Supporting families facing detention or enforcement actions.
- Documenting patterns of enforcement.
- Identifying local agencies or actors collaborating with federal immigration authorities.
- Building trust and visibility for local organising efforts.
Beyond emergency response, ICE Watch often becomes a gateway for leadership development and recruitment into broader campaigns. Learn more about building a network or hotline by downloading the Defend & Recruit Workbook.
Engage Workplaces
Fourth Amendment workplace campaigns help employers, workers, and community members understand constitutional protections and establish protocols before a crisis occurs.
Working in workplaces – as a worker or a community ally – builds local connections and helps workers enforce their rights. They allow for:
- Reducing unlawful workplace searches.
- Preventing unnecessary cooperation with immigration enforcement.
- Protecting worker rights.
- Strengthening relationships between workers and employers.
- Creating opportunities for workplace organizing.
Learn more about how to organise workplaces in your community, and if you’re a manager or owner, how you can ensure strong rights at work.
Change Local Policies
Local governments can play a significant role in limiting harm caused by federal immigration enforcement. Examples of local campaigns include:
- Restricting local cooperation with immigration enforcement.
- Refusing to work with companies complicit in deportation regimes
- Funding legal defense programs.
- Establishing community oversight mechanisms.
- Passing worker protection ordinances.
- Supporting language access and community outreach initiatives.
Successful campaigns often combine policy advocacy with grassroots organising and public education. We’ve seen legislation, resolutions and so much more passed. Download the Defend & Recruit Workbook for information on how to pass local resolutions based on your community.
Challenge Corporate Enablers
Effective campaigns identify the institutions that enable harm, understand their vulnerabilities, and build enough pressure to change their behavior.
Immigration enforcement does not operate through government agencies alone. Like all systems of power, it relies on a network of institutions that provide the resources, services, infrastructure, and legitimacy needed to function. Social movement scholars often describe these institutions as pillars of support: businesses, contractors, financial institutions, transportation providers, local governments, and other organisations whose cooperation allows harmful systems to operate. When those pillars are weakened, the system itself becomes more vulnerable.
This creates an important strategic opportunity. Deportation and detention infrastructure depends on airlines, private prison operators, hotel chains, transportation companies, technology firms, banks, investors, and a range of other corporate actors. Many of these companies depend on public contracts, customer loyalty, local government support, investors, workers, and public reputation. Campaigns that expose these relationships and apply coordinated pressure can create real consequences for companies that choose to profit from detention and deportation.
The campaign against Avelo Airlines demonstrated what this can look like in practice. Organisers across the country targeted a commercial airline that had entered the deportation business, combining local organizing, public education, political pressure, boycotts, shareholder pressure, media work, and direct action. Rather than treating deportation as inevitable, the campaign focused on one of the system’s pillars of support and demonstrated that organized communities can force corporate actors to choose between public legitimacy and participation in harmful government programs. The result was a major victory: Avelo ended its involvement in ICE deportation flights.
This lesson extends beyond any single company. Effective campaigns identify the institutions that enable harm, understand their vulnerabilities, and build enough pressure to change their behavior. Whether the target is an airline, a detention contractor, a technology company, a hotel chain, or a financial institution, challenging corporate enablers can reduce the capacity of immigration enforcement systems while building broader community power and demonstrating that organised people can influence institutions that often appear untouchable. Learn more about corporate campaigns.
How to Organise
Organising Tools and Templates
What we saw in Defend & Recruit was people wanting to organise, but not knowing how to. We helped groups do so thanks to the resources of so many of our friends and learnings. On the Defend & Recruit resource page you can find:
- How to build a local group
- How to work with allies on immigration
- How to deal with network tension
- How to adapt the toolkits above for your local community
- Cutting the issue
- Campaign Planning Worksheet
- Power Mapping Tool
- Action Planning Template
- Hotline Planning Checklist
- ICE Watch Program Checklist
- Campaign planning workbook
- Community defense & legal tools for immigration work in the US
Training Videos
Watch the Defend & Recruit playlist on YouTube including How to Build an ICE Watch Program, How to Start a Solidarity Fund, and 4th Amendment Workplace Training. Videos are available in English and Spanish.
There are regular training events, in person and online: Register for upcoming trainings.
Get Started
If you’re new to this work, start with:
- Understanding your local immigration enforcement landscape.
- Building relationships with affected communities.
- Identifying what’s needed in your community.
The strongest fights combine protection, solidarity, strategy, and powerbuilding. Community defense is not simply about responding to harm. It is about creating the relationships, institutions, and leadership necessary to build a future where everyone can live with dignity, safety, and belonging.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need a large organisation to start?
No. Many successful efforts begin with a small group of committed people building relationships and responding to local needs.
Should we focus on defense or long-term organising?
Both. Immediate defense builds trust and credibility, while long-term organizing creates the power needed to change underlying conditions.
What if our local government is hostile?
Community defense can occur regardless of local political conditions. In some places, the focus may be policy change; in others, it may be building independent community infrastructure.
How do we avoid burnout?
Build teams rather than relying on individuals. Invest in leadership development, share responsibilities, celebrate victories, and create sustainable expectations.