Current - updated 2/18

Recommendations and considerations below are based on the learnings from places that have experienced a surge in enforcement activities:

1. Sharing Information

Identify how as a city you will share information with residents before, during, and after the enforcement action. This should be a central hub. 

Topics to consider covering on the hub:

• A way for residents to report unlawful conduct by agents
• Local government policies related to immigration enforcement
• Donation collection / coordination
• FAQs as staff begin to field questions during the action
• Announcements and updates from local leaders
• Signage for local business owners identifying non-public areas
• Know Your Rights information
• Community resources for accessing food, housing, mental health, legal support, and primary health
• Health resources for residents for what to do if they are exposed to tear gas or other chemical agents

Examples:

• City of Minneapolis Response Hub
• Helping Neighbors LNK: This site created by local government and nonprofit organizations in Lincoln, NE, provides practical information for immigrant and non-immigrant residents.
• City of Boulder, CO police department faq page: This site provides an example of law enforcement communication prior to enforcement action

Host Know Your Rights trainings for immigrant and non-immigrant residents.

Examples of trainings for non-immigrants:

• Constitutional Observer Handbook and trainings: The Immigrant Defense Network is providing Constitutional Observer training across the midwest.
• ICE Watch & Community Defense Trainings: Virtual trainings hosted regularly by States at the Core on how to protect your neighborhoods from federal enforcement incursions, including rapid response techniques and safety guidance.  

Examples of trainings for immigrants:

• Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) Know Your Rights page
• ILRC Immigration Know Your Rights and Advocate Training: An online and recorded training from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center for you to know your rights and be able to share them with others.

2. Practical Considerations

Practical considerations when individuals are afraid to leave their homes

Individuals are likely to not be able to pay rent either because of loss of employment or not making it to work.

• Prepare for an increased need in rental assistance.
• Consider passing a local or state eviction moratorium.

Individuals will not be able to shop for food.

• Prepare for the need for financial food assistance.
• Prepare for the need for food deliveries.
• Grocery and convenience stores in immigrant dense neighborhoods may see a drop in sales. Prepare to support these businesses so as to not create food deserts in your community.
• Note that reports suggest ICE and DHS agents have used food delivery to entrap individuals by following volunteers delivering food, distributing false information about how to access food, and impersonating volunteers delivering food. Plans for food distribution should include plans for ensuring trusted sources of information and security in food delivery.

Individuals will delay medical care and will not pick up prescriptions.

• Prepare for an increased need for telehealth services.
• Prepare to be able to provide home medical visits especially for those needing medications.
• Note that reports suggest ICE and DHS agents have detained individuals in medical facility parking lots. Urgent cares and other medical providers may want to adopt protocols that help limit the time individuals spend in public spaces in their facilities.

Practical considerations because DHS is pulling individuals from cars

Cars will be abandoned in the streets.

• Prepare for how you will deal with abandoned vehicles.
• Prepare for how you will communicate with family members and friends of detained individuals where and how to retrieve vehicles.

Family members and friends will need to pick up cars.

• In addition to first order priorities (like delegation of parental rights), family preparedness plans should include who will pick up the car if they are detained including sharing car keys.

Practical considerations for increased detention and arrests.

        More people in your community will need legal services.

• Prepare for how you will increase local capacity for immigration legal services. This could include funding, training for lawyers who don’t practice immigration law, accessing national legal networks, funding, and/or engaging additional lawyers in pro bono legal services.
• If there is significant immigration legal structure in your community ensure it is coordinated. This includes a central hotline.
• Protesters are also likely to be arrested so legal services outside immigration law may also be needed.

3. Local Government Policies and Guidance for Staff

Prohibit the use of city-owned, city-controlled, and vacant property for civil immigration enforcement.

Examples:

• City of Buffalo Executive Order: This executive order, issued in January 2026, limits federal use of city resources for the purposes of civil immigration enforcement.
• City of Chicago ICE Free Zone Executive Order: This executive order, issued in October 2025, creates mechanisms to prohibit federal immigration agents from using any city-owned property in their ongoing operations in Chicago.

Set guidelines for government staff and departments as they prepare for and respond to enforcement actions.

Example:

• City of Albuquerque Executive Order: This executive order, issued in July 2025, outlines expectations for setting government and department goals, government staff training, government staff conduct, virtual services, and establishing trauma-informed protocols for programs serving immigrant youth.

Have government departments conduct a privacy review aimed at limiting potential data exposure, including by reviewing data sharing agreements in vendor contracts.

Resources:

• Local Policy Interventions for Protecting Immigrants: This resource from Immigrant Legal Resource Center provides multiple examples of data collection and confidentiality policies (pages 8 and 9). The resource also includes additional examples of policies that set guidelines across government departments.
• Automated License Plate Reader contracts and data sharing: This policy bulletin by Local Progress includes questions to ask to understand the scope of data sharing through surveillance technology.

For communities where warehouses are being purchased and retrofitted for detention centers by  ICE contractors:

• Local governments can intervene during the development phase through the building permitting process. (Example: Howard County where detention contractors violated public notice regulations for zoning variances)

• Once established, local governments can direct agencies to investigate zoning and permitting violations taking place in facilities operated by federal immigration enforcement agencies.

4. Resources for Other Institutions

For Libraries:

• Worcester Public Library Procedures for ICE Visits: This guidance developed by the Worcester Public Library has been shared with other libraries in the state of Massachusetts. It provides guidance on the steps to take if ICE enters public or non-public library spaces, as well as how to respond to requests for patrons’ documents or personal information.

For Schools:

• Protecting Immigrant Students Action Kit: This toolkit, from the Alliance for Educational Justice and the Advancement Project, provides model policies and procedures that school districts can implement to protect immigrant students.

• MA Rapid Response Guide for Educators of Immigrant Origin Students: Although developed for schools and educators in Massachusetts, this tool has policy tools for schools and other public entities.

• The tools below focus on steps school districts can take to prepare for enforcement action. In addition, schools in communities that have experienced a surge in enforcement action have suggested districts plan for:

• Making available virtual learning options for students missing school. This includes considering how to add capacity to schools so teachers are not expected to provide both personal and in person instruction.
• Reviewing truancy policies to so students unable to attend in person are not marked as truant
• Reviewing drop off and dismissal procedures for ways to make these more efficient and minimize the time students and parents need to be outside the school building

For Workplaces (including businesses, government, etc)

• National Workplace Guide: Fourth Amendment Workplaces: This guide by Siembra NC provides detailed recommendations for what workplaces can do to protect employees in the event of enforcement action in the community including preventing unconstitutional entry and training staff. Local governments have also passed 4th Amendment resolutions (example: Durham City Council).

For Adult Educators

• This resource, developed by a group of Minnesota adult educators, provides practical advice on supporting adult students during a surge in immigration enforcement.

5. Messaging

General recommendations:

• Focus messaging on:
• how neighbors, residents, and business owners who migrated to the city are vital contributors alongside people who already lived there
• how welcoming benefits everyone
• lead with shared local values and affirm the importance of these values as applying to everyone;  
• What you are currently doing. (Knowing that there is a plan in place helps calm concerns and counteract zero-sum “crisis” thinking).
• what residents can do to take action

Sample talking points: These talking points were designed to support local leaders in affirming the community’s commitment to safety, inclusion, and shared prosperity, and countering misinformation.

6. Mutual Aid Resources / Resources for Individuals

* In development

Mutual aid can serve as a critical community resource during periods of heightened immigration enforcement by providing trusted, locally rooted support that helps families meet immediate needs, share accurate information, and reduce isolation.

• How to Create a Mutual Aid Network: From the American Friends Service Committee, this blog post gives an overview of the importance of mutual aid networks and first steps to creating one.

• Immigration and Mutual Aid Resources: From Win Without War, this site provides national immigration resources and links to state and local mutual aid organizations.  

ICE Activity Tracker: An open source site for communities to report and track ICE.

ICE subpoenas to social media accounts: Recent reporting suggests DHS growing its efforts to uncover individuals running social media accounts that oppose ICE. This resource from Justice Future Law provides background on the tactics and recommendations if you are informed that a tech company has received a subpoena related to your account. If you are concerned about being targeted, JFL recommends these digital security tips:

• Consider what/who’s email is associated with the social media account, and conduct risk assessment. That is where the subpoena would most likely go. Consider individuals who can regularly check that email and would be able to engage with a subpoena.

• Find out the information sharing policies of your email provider, and consider an alternative if your email provider automatically shares account holder information.

• You may want to consider a VPN when using email or social media to protect your IP address. IP addresses are often turned over if a company receives a subpoena, and usually renewal the exact location of the person signing onto the social media account.