#rapid response

Call a hotline to report possible ICE/immigration enforcement activity. There's lots of misinformation/old information being spread online about where ICE might be active. This increases fear and reduces people's ability to know where ICE actually is. The best thing you can do if you think you might see ICE activity in your area is to call the nearest Rapid Response hotline.

Rapid Response Networks (RRNs) are run by immigration orgs, and when they get hotline calls they dispatch people to investigate whether the activity is indeed ICE and will observe them/help community members if so. Have the local number in your phone -- see the end of the post for directories, or search for one in your local area. For instance, here's the info for the two biggest cities in the Bay Area, San San Jose & San Francisco (I found these by googling "Rapid Response Hotline [city]"):

Hand out Know Your Rights cards and/or RRN hotline info. Know Your Rights (KYR) cards have information for community members about their constitutional rights on one side, and they have a message for border patrol agents exercising those rights on the other. Anyone can hand out such cards, ask stores to hand them out to customers and/or employees, leave them at community centers, etc. You can also hand out information about the local Rapid Response hotline (like the yellow card above, or the directories at the bottom of the post). My local pizza place and bagel place both offer red cards for customers to take and have hotline cards or posters up for everyone to see.

Here are two kinds of KYR cards (printable versions here and here) and a printable poster:

Tell employers (shopkeepers, store managers on duty, etc) how to help their employees. There are a number of steps employers can take to help their employees in case ICE shows up. For instance, if they have a sign up that says "Employees Only" in part of their store, then ICE needs to have a signed judicial warrant to enter that space. Also, ICE sometimes shows up with something called an administrative warrant, but they need to have judicial warrants, signed by a judge, with the correct time frame on them. There are a number of online resources that give more information for employers.

My local RRNs and some local Indivisible groups have been training and sending volunteers to high-risk stores to offer printed versions of such guidance to store managers. They also give managers "EMPLOYEES ONLY" signs, a guide on what valid judicial warrants look like, RRN hotline info, and Know Your Rights cards. (You could also do this kind of work independently.) I talked to five store managers this week who were very thankful for the info. Two of them cried and said some of their employees and/or their employees' families had already been taken by ICE.

Accompany scared community members to appointments (e.g., immigration hearings, ICE check-ins). Lots of people are scared to go to their appointments alone (and scared their families won't know what happened to them if they end up detained), but they also don't want to put their family or friends at risk by asking them to come along. Also, when ICE does detain people outside an immigration hearing, they often don't communicate with the judges or local officials, so then the detainee may get in trouble for missing an appointment, even if they're later released.

Some of the local RRNs organize their volunteers to go along with people to hearings/check-ins as needed. The RRNs train their volunteers on how to observe what happens and how to get legal help if ICE does detain someone. But the volunteers also do a lot of just providing terrified community members company and solidarity. Sometimes other local resistance groups, mutual aid groups, and volunteer groups also organize accompaniments (and I think some groups also offer to accompany people to healthcare appointments and other broader appointments as well), so you can search for other local opportunities. Or if you know someone who might be scared to go to appointments (or might know someone who is), you can offer directly.

Observe and document ICE. The RRNs also need volunteers to go investigate the possible ICE sightings people call the hotline about. RRNs give training on best practices for observing ICE as safely as possible. They try to deploy volunteers in groups to reduce risk to individual volunteers. And they have a dispatcher who stays in close contact with volunteers and is ready to send legal help if needed. It's very scary to potentially interact with ICE, even with training -- and training does not guarantee safety (Renee Good was with an RRN). But if you're considering trying to observe/document ICE, volunteering with RRNs is probably one of the safest and more effective ways of doing so. One of my local RRNs has apparently had zero volunteer injuries and have only had one volunteer detained (and then immediately released without charge) since forming in 2017. But there also has been an increase in intimidation/scary behavior towards volunteers recently, even far from all the terrible things we've been seeing from Minnesota.

Helping families of detainees. Many RRNs and resistance orgs also help families! They connect them to legal help, but they also do things like help with groceries/rent, help kids get to school, help register kids in a new school district if the kids need to move, and help families figure out next steps/reunite. Reach out to your local RRN for more info.

Hotlines & Rapid Response Network directories

These are incomplete; I also recommend just searching for "ICE Rapid Response [area]" if you don't see your state/region/city here.

Here is a list for California --

And here are two lists of RRNs/hotlines across the US (the first one is a bit confusing -- you have to click a further link for the PDF once you get to the page -- but I'm linking to this page in case they ever decide to update their PDF):