Fighting ICE in Our Backyards

By: Anthony Davis, Jr. | Groundwork Project

Blatant racism. Excessive use of force. Unorganized processing. Denial of evidence. Disobedience of court orders. Lying under oath. Expansion of detention centers. Illegal search and seizure. Zero accountability.

Under the Trump Administration’s lead, ICE is wreaking havoc on our communities. By this point we all know the statistics — 2025 was ICE’s deadliest year in two decades. 2026 is off to a bleak start — nearly 70,000 people are currently being held in ICE detention centers, many of whom have no criminal history, and many more of whom are children.

Abducted because of the color of their skin, or the language they speak, or simply, because an ICE officer decided they could.

Far beyond the national coverage of the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, MN, or Los Angeles, CA, ICE operations are routinely happening across the country away from the public eye, in places like West Virginia, Alabama and Oklahoma — without the same media coverage, without the same level of protest, without the same level of national attention, but with the same force and the same devastating consequences.

For too long and too often those of us committed to social justice, democracy and civil rights have ignored so-called red states we assume are too far gone to merit our focus or effort. But ICE’s current actions prove the opposite. These are the places most in need of our attention and support. Places where anti-immigrant, anti-democracy, and anti-equality forces have been building power for decades, unopposed. Places where elected state leaders don’t hesitate to abandon their most vulnerable citizens. Places where immigration agents operate the most freely and with the least public scrutiny. Where state and local officials actively cooperate with ICE, making enforcement quieter, faster, and harder to challenge. Where grassroots immigrant protection efforts are the only line of defense for families facing detention or deportation.

That’s why Groundwork Project launched the Immigrant Protection Rapid Response Fund last month, an effort to arm the organizers and local leaders on the frontlines of the fight for immigrant protection and ICE accountability, whose work doesn’t make CNN news alerts but quite literally saves their neighbors’ lives.

It’s no shock to report we received tremendous interest in these resources. Within a week of launching the program, we awarded nearly $50,000 to small grassroots organizers and organizations doing immigrant protection work, in increments of a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. We’re not talking about big, well-resourced non-profits. We’re talking about small, largely volunteer, truly grassroots efforts that are the linchpin of our resistance and protest in this moment – building networks of mutual aid, neighborhood protection, nonviolent protest and community care that stand in contrast to everything ICE and this Administration represents.

Here in West Virginia, you all know exactly the kind of fight and fighters we’re talking about. In Mason County, organizers are banding together to call for the resignation of House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, who is representing a second data center-related developer against a community group seeking to appeal an air quality permit. Organizers notched a victory when a  judge issued a scathing opinion ordering the release of some detained by ICE because their constitutional rights had been violated. Other partners of ours are filling urgent financial needs like paying utility bills for immigrant families, providing representation to those detained, and expanding their legal observer and rapid response programs.

That fight echoes across the states where we work, in Oklahoma, where organizers banded together to challenge a proposed ICE detention center, ultimately resulting in the plans being cancelled. In Mississippi, where grassroots organizers are reporting unprecedented interest in know-your-rights and bystander trainings, as more and more new faces are looking for ways to get involved. In Alabama, where organizers are working together across previously disparate networks to get 3-day “survival kits” to vulnerable families.

Thanks to these organizers, we’re growing stronger while the opposition continues spouting misinformation, peddling fear, and threatening our rights. Their best efforts to disenfranchise and divide us are actually creating an environment that’s fostering the very things they hope to destroy — caring for one another, creating community, and protecting each other.

Because of this, some folks are protesting for the first time ever. More and more people disapprove of the administration’s heavy-handed attempts to intimidate and silence us.

This is what democracy looks like. 

And nowhere knows that better than states like Oklahoma and Mississippi and West Virginia. Where, despite generations of national indifference, local organizers have spearheaded our country’s marquee victories for social and economic justice, from Black Wall Street to the Voting Rights Act to labor unions and more. 

Once again, it is your brave example our country should follow again today.

AUTHOR: Anthony Davis, Jr. | anthony@groundworkproject.com 

AUTHOR BIO: Anthony Davis, Jr. is the director of programs at Groundwork Project, an organization providing support to local community organizers in places often overlooked and underfunded. Anthony is a strategist, organizer, and systems-builder focused on strengthening the infrastructure of civic engagement, social justice movements, and political campaigns.

ORGANIZATION: Groundwork Project | www.groundworkproject.com 

ORG CONTACT: Pen Christian, Director of Communications | pen@groundworkproject.com