What Is Communities Not Cages: A National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention?

On Saturday, April 25th, communities across the country will come together for the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action — a coordinated, nationwide mobilization against the Trump administration's reckless expansion of ICE warehouse detention and its assault on the due process rights of immigrants and all Americans.

The Disappeared In America campaign of the Not Above the Law coalition is calling on activists, organizers, and community members everywhere to take visible, peaceful, public action — whether you're in a city facing a proposed ICE warehouse facility or a community where no facility has been proposed. There is a role for everyone.

Two Ways to Participate on April 25th

1. Join a frontline action organized by Detention Watch Network partners and other allies in communities fighting a proposed ICE warehouse detention facility. Site Fight Actions:

• Surprise, AZ
• Social Circle, GA
• San Antonio, TX
• Hagerstown, Maryland
• Roxbury, NJ

2. Organize or join a visibility action outside your local courthouse or town hall to demand an end to the criminalization of immigration and the assault on due process for all Americans.
3. Sign and amplify Detention Watch Network’s warehouse petition

The Crisis: What's Happening and Why It Matters

ICE Warehouse Detention Expansion

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are expanding their existing detention network beyond jails, prisons, and military bases to include large warehouse and industrial spaces for mass detention.

Reporting shows that DHS/ICE are actively scouting, purchasing, and planning to convert approximately 23 warehouses nationwide into new immigration detention and processing facilities. These sites are expected to detain between 1,500 and 10,000 people each — signaling a massive expansion of detention capacity and the normalization of large-scale confinement in spaces not designed for human habitation.

The reconciliation package passed by Congress in the summer of 2025 gave DHS over $170 billion towards this agenda, including $45 billion to expand detention capacity, which ICE has used in part to purchase warehouses for detention. ICE is currently detaining more than 70,000 people and has stated plans to expand capacity to detain more than 100,000 people at any given time.

Core Campaign Demands

Use these demands in your local organizing, resolutions, and communications with elected officials.

1. Cancel the warehouse detention plan and stop the conversion immediately.

Local governments must abandon plans to convert any warehouse into an immigration detention or processing facility. Warehouses are not appropriate for human confinement, and expanding detention through industrial spaces deepens harm to people and communities. Any such project must be canceled in full, with no detention use allowed at the site.

2. Reject all public funding, approvals, and local resources for detention expansion.

Local government must refuse to provide any funding, permits, services, or cooperation that would enable DHS or ICE to operate a detention facility. Public dollars and local infrastructure should not be used to cage people. These resources must instead be invested in policies and services that support all members of our community.

3. Require transparency and community consent before any federal detention action.

Local officials must demand full public disclosure of all plans, contracts, and intended uses of proposed detention sites, and commit to opposing any detention project that moves forward without meaningful community input and consent. All required environmental review laws — including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and applicable state laws — must be fully followed. Decisions about detention cannot be made behind closed doors.

Talking Points

Use these talking points when speaking to the media, elected officials, neighbors, and at public events.

• The Trump administration is ruthlessly pursuing a multi-layered detention expansion plan, skyrocketing the number of people in detention. ICE currently detains more than 60,000 people and has stated plans to expand to 100,000 — with detention warehouses that could cage up to 10,000 people each.
• All immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued by ICE is particularly horrifying.
• Confining people in large-scale, makeshift detention warehouses will exponentially increase the likelihood for abuse and death in ICE custody, as ICE cuts people off from their loved ones and support networks, and subjects them to conditions that are meant for storing products, never people. People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of.
• Corporations have a major financial incentive for selling their warehouse space to ICE - from high value property sales, some bailing out struggling real estate with expedited cash out, to lucrative broker commissions. The perverse financial incentives are glaring as companies profit off of the prospect of disappearing people into ICE’s abusive detention system.
• Industrial warehouses do not have the sewage and water infrastructure to ensure basic health for thousands of people. Poor sanitation in these conditions creates serious risk of disease spread. No one is safe in ICE custody.
• ICE is bypassing local elected officials and regulations and pursuing warehouse detention in spite of community opposition, diverting critical resources from local community needs and deepening a culture of secrecy and complete lack of transparency.
• Corporations have major financial incentives for selling their warehouse space to ICE — from high value property sales to lucrative broker commissions. Companies are profiting off the prospect of disappearing people into ICE's abusive detention system.
• The threat of detention warehouses harkens back to one of our most shameful periods as a nation — when warehouses were used for Japanese American incarceration in the 1940s. It was wrong then. It is wrong now.
• Communities from coast to coast are fighting back — and winning. Small towns across Utah, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Virginia, Mississippi, and more have successfully stopped ICE warehouse plans through organizing and public pressure.
• Instead of cages, we want local leaders to champion projects that bring real investment to support all families: education, healthcare, and housing for everyone to thrive.

Proof We Can Win: Recent Victories

Community organizing is working. Here are sites where pressure from residents and local officials has already stopped ICE warehouse detention plans:

How to Organize Your April 25th Event

Step 1: Decide What Kind of Action You're Organizing

If there is a proposed ICE warehouse facility in or near your area, there may be an action already being planned. Be sure to check on Mobilize to see if there is already an event on the map. You can RSVP and then contact the host to plug in.

If there is no proposed facility in your area: On April 25th, organize a visibility action outside your local courthouse or town hall.

Gather neighbors, allies, and coalition partners to show visible public opposition to the criminalization of immigration and the assault on due process for all Americans.

Step 2: Build Your Coalition

• Reach out to local immigrant rights organizations, faith communities, labor unions, civil liberties groups, and progressive civic organizations
• Ask coalition partners to formally endorse the action and mobilize their networks
• Identify community members directly impacted by immigration detention who are willing to speak publicly
• Reach out to local elected officials who have taken positions in support of immigrant rights

Step 3: Plan Your Event Logistics

• Secure your location — a public sidewalk or plaza in front of a courthouse or town hall is ideal and generally does not require a permit, but check local rules
• Set a start and end time — 1 to 2 hours is typical for a rally or visibility action
• Designate a lead organizer and assign roles: emcee, speaker coordinator, sign coordinator, media contact, crowd safety
• Plan a short program: 3 to 5 speakers, a chant leader, and a clear call to action
• Prepare or print signs in advance — see the social media and graphics resources below

Step 4: Promote Your Event

• Create your event page on Mobilize using the template description provided by the Disappeared In America campaign

• Use the social media graphic templates to create shareable graphics – coming soon!
• Post on social media using the campaign hashtags and tag coalition partners
• Send a press advisory to local media 3 to 5 days before the event; send a press release the morning of. See the media advisory template here and press release template here.
• Focus on local media — local reporters reach your target audience and are more likely to cover community events

Step 5: Prepare Speakers and Messaging

• Brief all speakers in advance on the core talking points and the three campaign demands
• Prioritize voices of directly impacted community members — those with loved ones in detention or who live near proposed facilities
• Keep individual remarks to 2 to 3 minutes so the program remains tight and energetic
• End with a clear, specific call to action — sign a petition, call your city council member, show up at the next zoning hearing

Step 6: Get Media Coverage

Local coverage is essential to growing support against warehouse detention. Tips for earning media:

• Issue a press advisory 3 to 5 days before the event; follow up the day before
• Send a press release the morning of the action with a strong quote and compelling visual opportunity
• Have a designated media spokesperson prepared with talking points
• Elevate personal stories — impacted community members are the most compelling spokespeople
• Consider writing an op-ed or letter to the editor for local papers in the days before or after
• Track all media coverage and share with the Disappeared In America campaign

A core principle behind all Communities Not Cages events is a commitment to nonviolent action and no civil disobedience. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values, and to act lawfully at these events. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events. All events should be held in public spaces or on public property.

Media Advisory Template

Think of a media advisory as a “save the date.” If you have a trusted media list or low security concerns, let press know in advance of your action so they can plan to cover. Remember to do individual outreach to ensure reporter attendance, including calling local news stations. Please email your media advisory to DWN at media@detentionwatchnetwork.org so DWN can support with distribution and send you media inquiries.

For Planning Purposes: Saturday, April 25, 2026

Contact: Add local contact

MEDIA ADVISORY

April 25: [City] community members to denounce ICE warehouse detention in coordinated national day of action

[CITY, STATE] — On Saturday, April 25 [organizations] will hold an action at [location] to denounce immigration detention expansion for the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention. Currently, ICE is scouting, purchasing, and retrofitting warehouses nationwide for immigration detention, which are expected to detain between 1,500–10,000 people each. [Sentence on local or nearby detention warehouse proposal]. 

Jailing people in large-scale, makeshift detention warehouses will exponentially increase the likelihood of abuse and death in ICE custody, which is tragically already at an all-time high under the Trump administration. Detention warehouses will also divert critical resources such as water and electricity away from local communities, including [your locality if there’s a proposed site], and could cut off tax revenue and foreclose economic opportunities.

Today’s action is as a part of a coordinated nationwide mobilization against Trump’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda organized by Disappeared In America, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, and Worker’s Circle.

• What: [1-2 sentence description of the event]  
• When: [Saturday, April 25 at time] 
• Where: [Location with address and directions, if necessary] 
• Who: [List sponsoring organizations and speakers participating once available] 

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[insert your boilerplate language here]

Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.

Press Release Template

Send to press once your action is starting or has concluded based on what you’re doing. Your press release should be written like a news story, so press can copy and paste from your release whenever possible. Please email your press release to DWN at media@detentionwatchnetwork.org so we can assist with distribution and send media inquiries to you if needed.

For Immediate Release: Saturday, April 25, 2026

Contact: Add local contact

Immigrant rights activists and community members in [City, State] denounce ICE warehouse detention in coordinated national day of action

[City, State] — Today, [list organization(s)] brought [#] people together in [location] for a [action type] to denounce immigration detention expansion. This action was part of the Communities Not Cages National Day of Action to Stop ICE Warehouse Detention, a coordinated nationwide mobilization with over 200 actions against Trump’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda organized by Disappeared In America, Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, MoveOn, Public Citizen, and Worker’s Circle.

“In immigration detention, deprivation of freedom, isolation, uncertainty, and abysmal conditions, including inadequate medical care and mental health services, inedible food, and racist abuse, are a lethal combination that puts lives in jeopardy,” said [First and Last name], [title] of [organization]. “All immigration detention is inherently inhumane and rife with abuse, and yet the warehouse model currently being pursued by ICE is particularly horrifying.”

ICE is scouting, purchasing, and retrofitting warehouses nationwide for immigration detention, which are expected to detain between 1,500-10,000 people each. Jailing people in large-scale, makeshift detention warehouses will exponentially increase the likelihood for abuse and death in ICE custody, subjecting people to conditions that are meant for storing products, never people. Detention warehouses will also divert critical resources such as water and electricity away from local communities and could cut off tax revenue and foreclose economic opportunities.

In [State], [Specific details about local detention warehouse proposal or facility expansion]. Towns are courageously taking on ICE to fight detention warehouses from entering their community and winning in Utah, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Virginia, Mississippi, and more. People are uniting together, uplifting their shared values to welcome people and keep everyone safe, calling on businesses to take a stand, and demanding ICE out of their communities.

“Local communities are making it clear from coast to coast – we don’t want detention centers or warehouse detention in [your location] or anywhere, and we will fight tooth and nail to block ICE and ensure people are protected and safe. Instead, communities want local leaders to champion projects that bring investment to support all families like education, healthcare and housing for everyone to thrive,” said [First and Last name], [title] of [organization].

“Detention is deadly. People in immigration detention are describing it as ‘hell on earth’ because it is. What we’re seeing now is heightened cruelty under the Trump administration,” said Nanci Palacios, Organizing and Membership Director at Detention Watch Network. “People are not commodities to be shipped, discarded, and profited off of in detention warehouses or any detention facility — full stop. We demand an end to Trump’s cruel mass detention expansion and that detention facilities be shut down for good.”

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[insert your boilerplate language here]

Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.

Resources

Campaign Resources

• Communities Not Cages Toolkit (Detention Watch Network)
• Project Saltbox ICE Warehouse Purchase Tracker: Real-time map of warehouse purchase status nationwide
• Social Media Graphics
• Detention Pillars Messaging Guide: Core messaging framework for the campaign

Legal and Policy Resources

• Environmental Law: A Primer for Detention Center Advocates 
• ACLU New Hampshire Public Records Request — model for demanding local transparency
• Maryland Emergency Bill HB 630 — model state legislation on warehouse detention
• "What to Watch for When ICE Buys Local Warehouses" — Forbes, February 2026

Coalition Partners

The Communities Not Cages National Day of Action is organized by the Disappeared In America campaign in partnership with a growing list of partners including Detention Watch Network, Indivisible, Public Citizen, The Workers Circle, MoveOn and many others