50501 toolkit: Responding to Federal Occupying Forces
MAGA—the American fascist party, led by Donald Trump and bankrolled by ultra-wealthy technofascists—is seizing power while militarizing our streets to cover up its failing legitimacy: the tanking economy, the Epstein files, and his wildly unpopular ICE kidnappings.
The U.S. Military is being exploited as a labor pool, while poor and working-class communities of color are treated as enemies. This is not about “safety.” It is about control—and by design, it is deadly.
We know the pattern. When troops roll in, Black and Brown communities are the first to feel the violence—raids, checkpoints, intimidation, and the criminalization of dissent.
We refuse occupation in our towns and neighborhoods. Militarization is expensive, destructive, and unsustainable. Each deployment drains millions in taxpayer dollars that should be funding schools, housing, clinics, and jobs. It poisons our environment with fuel, waste, and weapons, while Trump squanders our resources on repression instead of care.
Our demand is clear: pull out all troops immediately. We call on our elected officials to protect our people, our communities, and our right to self-govern.
We Keep Us Safe
Real safety is not built by soldiers in our streets. Real safety is built by neighbors protecting neighbors, by compassion, by solidarity, by standing with those most targeted.
We refuse to let poverty be criminalized. Our unhoused neighbors, low-wage workers, and struggling families are not disposable.
We refuse the terrorizing of immigrant communities. Troops paired with ICE mean more raids, family separations, and fear. We will not let our immigrant neighbors be scapegoated or dehumanized.
We refuse every attack on those already pushed to the margins: queer and trans people, disabled people, youth, returning citizens, Native and Indigenous peoples. Their survival is resistance, their leadership lights the path forward.
And we name this truth: people of color living at the intersections—immigrant, queer, trans, disabled, poor—carry the heaviest weight of occupation. We hold them at the center of our struggle.
Together, we reject militarization. Together, we resist occupation. Together, we build safety that no army can take away.
Mid-August 2025: Trump federalized law enforcement and sent the National Guard into Washington, D.C., burning $1 million/day and turning neighborhoods into occupation zones.
“These federal agents have now shown a clear pattern of violently profiling, harassing, and arresting Black and Brown DC community members. They are armed, sometimes unidentified, and moving in gangs through DC neighborhoods confronting people who are simply at home, driving to work, or doing routine daily activities.” – Free DC
“This situation is more than a threat to DC residents. It is an active military takeover of the nation's capital.” – Free DC
Florida: ~200 Marines remain deployed since July, supporting racist and unconstitutional ICE operations.
California: Marines and National Guard units were deployed earlier this summer, despite clear objections from state and local leaders who rejected militarization. Trump bypassed their authority and imposed federal occupation anyway. Those forces have since been withdrawn following massive public pressure and legal pushback, but the episode shows how quickly federal troops can be forced into immigrant-rich communities against the will of local governments. California was targeted as punishment for its open resistance to Trump’s agenda—a warning shot to other defiant states.
Chicago: Trump is planning a National Guard deployment, with active-duty troops also discussed. The majority of residents in Chicago are Black and Brown, with strong immigrant-led organizing and a Democratic mayor.
Other states at risk (19 total): AL, AR, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, LA, MO, NE, NV, OH, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WY.
Additional cities at risk (6 total): Baltimore, New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, Oakland.
Key takeaways:
Why now?
The National Guard is made up of citizen soldiers with civilian jobs, families, and communities. They are students and working-class people. Typical service involves responding to natural disasters and other humanitarian work. Many join for college tuition, healthcare, or benefits—not to suppress their own communities.
While many Guard members are working-class, they often come from outside the neighborhoods they’re deployed to—especially majority-Black and immigrant communities. This mismatch can heighten the racial dynamics of occupation and increase risks of violence.
They are workers in uniform, not Trump’s private army. Seeing them that way helps us focus our protest energy on the real sources of repression: Trump, MAGA loyalists, and corporations enabling authoritarianism.
The Guard is unique because it has both state and federal roles. They are almost always under the command of their state governors, activated for natural disasters, floods, hurricanes, wildfires, pandemics, or local emergencies.
However, the Guard can be “federalized” by the president in rare circumstances—like overseas wars, or domestic emergencies, within legal limits. When federalized by Trump into areas not requested by local governors or mayors (such as CA and DC), they are placed in roles they did not sign up for and are not trained for.
We repeat. Guard members do not receive law enforcement training for these domestic deployments. They receive military training, not crowd-control or civil-liberties training. That’s why it’s so dangerous when they’re used in protests or domestic policing. They don’t have the training or mandate for it. This puts both the Guard and the public at risk, especially Black and Brown communities.
Their morale is low. Few want to be deployed domestically against civilians. Note that even “low morale” troops can carry racial biases, and that militarization legitimizes policing practices already weaponized against communities of color.
Legal context: Deploying the U.S. Military for domestic law enforcement is restricted under the Posse Comitatus Act, which exists to protect civil liberties. The law part is complicated with the National Guard vs U.S. Military, but it is fair to say that Trump’s deployment is legally questionable and constitutionally dangerous. Furthermore, National Guard members have a duty to disobey unlawful orders (info: https://nlgmltf.org/military-law/2025/faq-on-refusing-illegal-orders/).
This work is usually done by organizations with deep experience, like Veterans for Peace, About Face, and other veteran and service-member–led groups. In this unique situation, civilians have been encouraged to study these tactics informed by the organization’s experience and recommendations, and engage respectfully when able to safely do so.
Why Defection & Noncompliance Matters
Authoritarian regimes rely on obedience from troops and police. When Guard members refuse orders, disobey, or quietly step back, it weakens Trump’s grip.
Research Shows: Nonviolent movements with higher rates of defection and noncompliance from security forces are far more likely to succeed (Chenoweth & Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works).
Historical Precedent: Serbia 2000, Philippines 1986, Sudan 2019.
When troops refuse to repress, the communities most targeted—Black, immigrant, Indigenous—gain breathing room to continue organizing. Defections are not abstract wins; they directly reduce the likelihood of disproportionate harm to already over-policed communities.
How To Best Support Defection & Noncompliance Efforts
Hold discipline in our movements. Nonviolent, united protest demonstrates legitimacy and creates openings for doubt among soldiers.
Avoiding antagonizing (taunts, physical clashes) → the research shows that in scenarios like this, antagonizing those who support Trump, or the deployment, will only strengthen loyalty to the regime.
Understand why the vibe matters. Psychological research shows loyalty shifts are most likely when:
Challenge With Respect: Standing firm, but treating all Guard members as humans → creates cognitive dissonance. Those who initially supported or felt neutral about the deployment can begin to ask: “Why am I pointing a rifle at my fellow Americans?” For example, the response to aggressive interactions from Guards can include statements that question, such as: “Is this what you thought you would be doing in the Guard when you signed up?”
Hanoi Hannah – tactics used in Vietnam to get American soldiers to defect. Example video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLHGU36yzCn/
NOT Antagonizing: Screaming insults, spitting, or physical clashes → hardens loyalties and justifies crackdowns. Research shows antagonism lowers defection rates and raises the chance of repression. Act with knowledge and intention, and DO NOT antagonize.
Be An Accomplice: Because Black and Brown protesters are often criminalized more harshly than white protesters, discipline and nonviolence may not be perceived equally across racial lines. White allies have a role in absorbing risk, de-escalating, and redirecting attention away from targeted communities.
Document Everything: Proper documentation protects communities, creates accountability, and provides evidence for legal and advocacy efforts. Prioritize this over confrontations. What you capture can have long-term impact.
Point interested Guard members toward resources:
The Sweet Spot: Humanizing the other side + disciplined nonviolence → maximizes the chances that Guard members hesitate, defect, or quietly support.
Read more tips on interactions here.
The real targets are the power-holders propping up Trump’s agenda. Direct efforts toward:
✔️ ICE and community defense
✔️ Legal resources are especially critical right now. Funnel resources from other organizations to strengthen local immigrant defense networks.
✔️ Defense of local Black-led and immigrant-led organizing hubs, which are the first to be targeted under militarized crackdowns.
✔️ Protest at Points of Intervention, such as MAGA-aligned elected officials (district offices, campaign events) or the corporations underwriting MAGA politics (donors, enablers, profiteers).
✔️ Local organizing: Build the infrastructure of resistance beyond a single day of protest.
✔️ Legal or allied gov pressure.
NOTE: Think about your digital security. Use encrypted channels (Signal, Proton, etc.). Don’t coordinate sensitive plans over Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram DM.
Protect & Support Communities
• Activate rapid-response chats and text trees. Share Know-Your-Rights info in multiple languages.
• Establish ICE/community watch groups for rapid response.
• Set up safe housing, food delivery, childcare, and transportation backups for vulnerable families.
• Expand accompaniment programs for ICE check-ins, fund legal clinics, and strengthen rapid aid for detained families.
• Resource immigrant defense funds, trauma services, and civic groups impacted by militarization.
• Funnel resources from broader organizations to local immigrant-led, Black-led, and Indigenous-led networks—legal support is especially critical.
• Educate local businesses on 4th Amendment rights, help them set up Private areas and get plugged into your community watch network to report ICE activity.
Legal & Rights Infrastructure
• Connect with local ACLU chapters, immigrant rights organizations, and bar associations; test and promote legal hotlines.
• Document Guard/ICE activity safely (film/photograph from a distance; log unit identifiers, locations, times) and funnel evidence to hotlines such as Eyes on ICE, your local text tree or group chat, and/or legal allies.
• Prep litigation citing the 10th Amendment, which protects state sovereignty, and Printz v. United States (1997), where the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot commandeer—or force—state officials to enforce federal law.
• Outreach via veterans, clergy, and community leaders to encourage Guard members to question orders; new organizers focus on support infrastructure and legal aid.
Government & Policy Levers
• Create a city fund to support impacted families who have lost income. Examples: Anaheim and Santa Barbara, CA. Examples: Anaheim and Santa Barbara, CA
• Reverse 287(g) partnerships, which pay local law enforcement to deputize their officers as ICE agents. Check here: https://themarkup.org/tools/2025104/16-law-enforcement-ice-cooperation-tracker
• Track raid/arrest locations on a public website. Example: Anaheim, CA – anaheim.net/contigo
• Ask local law enforcement to ID anyone presenting as law enforcement. Example: Huntington Park, CA – after passage of this resolution, an alleged impersonator carrying a loaded firearm was arrested (June 2025)
• Restrict local disclosure of street vendor information except by subpoena or judicial warrant. Example: California – SB 635 (currently in state Senate)
• Create safe passage zones around schools, in which volunteers and police escort families and buses are diverted away from high raid routes. Example: Los Angeles – LA Unified School District safe passage program
• Require federal agents to have faces visible and be readily identifiable. Example: California – SB 627 and SB 005 (passed September 11, 2025)
• Pass state legislation limiting cooperation with federal raids. Example: California – SB 627/005, plus other state sanctuary policies
• Prohibit local, state, and federal law enforcement officers from covering their faces while interacting with the public. Example: California – SB 627 (2025)
• Require law enforcement to wear identifying information such as their name or badge number. Example: California – SB 627 (2025)
• Organize a letter campaign for allies targeting members of congress, like Free DC’s campaign here.
• Press governors/AGs to not call in the National Guard. Ask them to deploy their Guard for official state work so Trump can not federalize them.
• Advance city/county ordinances restricting ICE data-sharing, facility use, and requiring public reporting.
• Push hearings, resolutions, and investigations into costs to taxpayers.
Public Narrative & Nonviolent Pressure
• Organize rotating vigils and marches at local points of intervention.
• Frame deployments as costly, unconstitutional overreach harming communities, fascist.
• Encourage defections through legal and veteran channels.
• Train de-escalation marshals to keep protests disciplined and prevent provocations.
• Engage clergy, unions, and veterans to lead vigils, press events, and solidarity actions.
• Focus on points of intervention, such as protests outside the offices of MAGA representatives, or sit-ins inside.
• Identify and pressure MAGA-aligned corporations backing deployments—organize campaigns, boycotts, and call-outs.
Oversight & Accountability
• Track Guard spending; file FOIA/state records requests for deployment orders and communications.
• Publicize findings to bolster legal and political pressure.
• Maintain channels for real-time Guard movements, ICE actions, and community impacts.
When Trump deploys the Guard or federal troops without request, governors, attorneys general, and mayors have a duty to defend their residents, state sovereignty, and the Constitution.
The strongest models so far come from Gov. JB Pritzker (Illinois), Gov. Gavin Newsom (California), Philadelphia’s DA Larry Krasner, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. Together they’re showing how state and city leaders can resist authoritarian overreach.
1. Opening Defiance
2. Defending Sovereignty & Rights
3. Accountability & Consequences
4. Framing the Narrative
Pritzker, Newsom, Krasner, and Johnson prove state and local leaders can block Trump’s overreach by:
Demand these actions from your own leaders — the more officials echo these models, the more Trump’s occupation narrative collapses.
For residents on the ground:
For city and state leaders:
For allies outside the occupied zone:
✅ Join or start a local ICE/community defense network.
✅ Support and amplify Black-led, immigrant-led, and Indigenous-led organizations resisting militarization.
✅ Practice solidarity by showing up where racialized repression is heaviest—not just in majority-white protest spaces. Ask what they need, and then listen and follow through.
✅ Identify if any MAGA-aligned officials are in your area → plan an office protest or visibility action.
✅ Research local corporations backing Trump/MAGA → pressure campaigns, boycotts, call-outs.
✅ Amplify messaging: Push slogans, talking points, and solidarity narratives on social.
✅ Focus on immigrant help groups: Funnel resources from other orgs to strengthen local immigrant defense networks. Legal resources are especially critical right now.
✅ Consider all potential responses, including responses from allies in government or the legal community.
As with all our movement work, centering racial justice is essential. It ensures that the communities most targeted by this crackdown are not only protected, but uplifted and leading. This fight is bigger than Trump—it’s about dismantling the racist machinery of militarized policing and building a future rooted in justice, liberation, and care for one another.
This is a dangerous moment, but it is also clarifying. Trump’s overreach exposes his desperation. By keeping our focus laser-sharp on disciplined, strategic resistance, we continue chipping away at the pillars propping up his regime. Our real fight is with Trump, ICE kidnapping people in our communities, MAGA lawmakers enacting fascist laws, and all the other pillars enabling this authoritarian agenda.
As we organize, resist, and protect our communities, we carry with us the love, wisdom, and courage of those who have long fought against American fascism—the elders, Indigenous leaders, and Black Americans who have shouldered this struggle for generations. Who remind us that our fight is part of a much larger story: one of survival, resistance, and the relentless pursuit of justice.
This moment calls for clarity, purpose, and love. By grounding ourselves in disciplined, intersectional resistance, we honor those who came before us and ensure the next generation inherits a foundation of safety, solidarity, and liberation. We resist not out of anger alone, but out of care—for our neighbors, for our communities, and for the long arc of justice we are bending toward.
Every act of protection, documentation, and solidarity weakens their oppression. Together, with humility, courage, and love, we will continue dismantling the machinery of repression and building a future where all communities can thrive.
This toolkit is the result of many minds and experiences. Thank you for your collaboration and contributions. It is an honor to be in the struggle with you all.
If you would like to help spread the word about this toolkit, here are some memes you can customize or download via Canva.
What’s new / why this matters
State-by-state risk frame (snapshot)
This summarizes how the Fox-listed states intersect with the 9/1 mobilization and potential escalations into 9/6:
(Details for each state—likely hotspots and risk ratings—are in the CSV and the on-screen table you can scroll.)
9/1 vs. 9/6 implications
City-types to watch inside the 19 states
Key indicators to monitor (per state)
Practical, lawful risk-reduction (for organizers/attendees)