How to Stay Safe and Support Your Community During Immigration Enforcement Operations
If federal immigration agents are heading to your area—or have already arrived—you may be scrambling to map out a plan to lay low at home, or grabbing your whistle and lacing up your shoes to join a local neighborhood watch. This is an extraordinarily frightening situation for undocumented residents and all immigrants living in the U.S., and rising tensions have now made the environment dangerous even for U.S. citizens. There are no simple, one-size-fits-all answers for protecting yourself and others in every scenario, but there are tested frameworks you can use to weigh your options and prepare.
The presence of immigration agents in cities and towns across the country has risen sharply in recent months, and public tensions have escalated in lockstep. Last Wednesday, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, a U.S. citizen and Minneapolis resident, inside her car during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation. After already deploying 2,000 agents to Minnesota, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly planned to send an additional 1,000 agents that same week. “There are now more ICE agents in Minnesota than the combined total of officers on the Minneapolis and St. Paul police forces,” Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said Friday. “So they outnumber our own local police officers patrolling our streets.” (Minnesota and Illinois have since filed lawsuits in federal court to end what they call ICE’s “invasion” of their states.)
A day later in Portland, Oregon, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents shot two people inside a vehicle, leaving both hospitalized. These tragedies are only the latest in a growing string of violent incidents involving immigration agents that have escalated since President Donald Trump took office one year ago on a sweeping anti-immigration agenda. Beyond the high-profile operations in Minneapolis and Portland, ICE and CBP have carried out widespread deportation raids across the entire U.S.
“The number of ICE agents has grown dramatically, and their sheer presence in local communities is larger than ever before,” says Jennifer Whitlock, senior policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center. “And that means the risk of encountering an ICE officer has risen sharply for almost everyone, even if you have no connection whatsoever to the immigration system.”
Shifting Risks in a Volatile Climate
Longstanding problems have plagued ICE and CBP operations for years, including arrests and detentions that accidentally ensnare U.S. citizens and people with valid legal status. The agencies also have a well-documented history of aggression and mistreatment when interacting with suspects. Most immigration violations are civil, not criminal, offenses. Over the last year, however, DHS’s budget for immigration enforcement has expanded substantially even as public unrest over these operations has grown. The result is a charged climate where routine interactions can quickly and dangerously escalate.
“We’re surging operations because of the dangerous situation we see in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a Wednesday press conference. “We should all work together to protect our citizens.”
Many observers see immigration enforcement’s track record and current activity very differently, though.
“For its entire existence, ICE has been a very violent agency and a very unaccountable agency without much oversight or transparency,” says Nithya Nathan-Pineau, policy attorney and strategist at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
She notes that as immigration officers have been linked to more and more violent incidents in recent months, it has become harder than ever to offer simple, definitive guidance for people assessing risk during interactions with federal agents.
Numerous sources told WIRED that their trainings and public guidance for interacting with federal immigration agents are actively evolving to reflect the current moment. For years, a core lesson has been explaining the difference between a judicial warrant signed by a judge (which grants law enforcement the right to enter a private home) versus the administrative warrants ICE agents often carry, which do not grant that entry authority. “Don’t open the door for ICE” has long been a common piece of advice. But this guidance, while still technically accurate, does not fully account for the chaotic, aggressive intensity of current U.S. immigration enforcement.
“In the past, we would encourage people to exercise your right to protest or record video to document interactions,” the National Immigration Law Center's Whitlock says. “We always talked about risk assessment and how some people are more vulnerable than others, but now it's not just risk of arrest at a protest—it’s risk of physical harm. I don't think we fully anticipated how ICE and CBP would openly ignore and violate people’s constitutional rights.”
In short, some level of risk is inherent in any interaction with federal immigration officials, whether you're a U.S. citizen or not. Even if you cannot afford to put yourself in direct danger, though, you can still take meaningful, concrete action to help people in your community affected by the Trump administration's policies.
Plan Ahead
Depending on your situation, you should build a concrete plan for if you end up interacting with immigration enforcement while out in public.
In its online guidance, the nonprofit National Immigrant Justice Center says individuals and communities can create a “safety plan” to prepare in case ICE operatives arrive in the area. Such a plan can include identifying trusted family members, friends, or colleagues to act as emergency contacts for anyone who could be targeted by federal immigration actions, or anyone who may come into contact with agents. Memorize their phone numbers and make sure your child's school or daycare has these emergency contacts on file. If you know you face a specific risk of deportation, you can also take additional steps, like naming an emergency guardian for your children and establishing power of attorney for your affairs.
Since even U.S. citizens are not safe from violence or arrest at the hands of federal immigration agents, immigrants with established status, valid visas, or permanent residency face potentially even higher risk if they participate in community safety efforts or other activities that bring them near immigration agents.
In December, DHS vehemently denied to WIRED that its agents engage in racial profiling as part of immigration operations. Multiple sources emphasized to WIRED, though, that nonwhite Americans should consider being extra cautious about proximity to immigration agents. This is particularly urgent after a September 2025 U.S. Supreme Court decision in which Justice Brett Kavanaugh concluded that someone’s apparent ethnicity may be a “relevant factor” that could justify detaining someone during an immigration enforcement action—something now widely derided as a “Kavanaugh stop.”
You should also consider taking precautions to protect yourself against potential digital surveillance if you know you will be near immigration authorities. Both CBP and ICE have steadily expanding digital surveillance capabilities. While you can’t always anticipate when you might encounter federal agents, people who are specifically targeted for immigration enforcement actions should consider taking extra digital privacy precautions if they are able.
Looking broadly, sources told WIRED that political polarization and rising tensions across the U.S. are key contexts for assessing potential risks.
“It’s no longer Officer Friendly out there,” Whitlock says. “This is not to give any excuse, but I can imagine there is a mindset among rank-and-file ICE agents and CBP officers where they really do think they’re under attack and being threatened. And no one is above the law, but I think it’s important for people to understand that there are sharp limits to holding these officers accountable in practice.”
On the Scene
If you find yourself witnessing an immigration enforcement action and choose to stay in the area, there are key rules to keep in mind.
“The goal is to be an observer and to document what is happening,” says Nathan-Pineau of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. “The goal is not to go and try to physically intervene in the law enforcement action.”
Training materials from Siembra NC, a North Carolina–based grassroots organization working to defend local communities from exploitation, note that the top priorities when ICE is present are letting agents know they are being observed, reminding people of their right to remain silent, de-escalating whenever possible, and prioritizing collective safety. The group advises that if ICE operatives are conducting an arrest or traffic stop, volunteers should try to approach within the agents’ line of sight and clearly identify themselves in the process.
You can also report immigration enforcement sightings in many areas without putting yourself in direct danger by calling a local ICE watch tip line. Many immigration advocacy and human rights groups suggest using the SALUTE acronym to organize the information you share in these reports:
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Size: How many agents or officers do you see?
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Activity: What are they doing? Has anyone been detained?
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Location: Where exactly did you see them, and what direction are they heading?
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Units: What type of officers are they, and what words or markings appear on their uniforms?
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Time: What time was the sighting?
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Equipment: What gear do the agents have with them, including types of weapons, vehicles, crowd control tools, and other details?
Reports should be made as quickly as possible after a sighting. Filming ICE behavior lets agents know they are being watched, which can encourage more accountable actions, and creates a digital evidence trail for any future legal cases or proceedings. When interacting with federal agents as part of a group response to ICE, Siembra NC recommends identifying yourself as a volunteer, then asking agents who they are, what they are doing, and what agency they work for. You can then state that you will remain present to observe, while also recording vehicle models, license plates, and details of all operatives at the scene.
“We always advise people that if the law enforcement officer that you are filming tells you to step back, you should step back and you should say it out loud—‘I’m stepping back, I’m stepping back.’ That way you’re recording that you’re complying with their order,” Nathan-Pineau says.
Multiple sources reiterated that recording federal agents serves a dual purpose: if your behavior and that of the people around you is appropriate for the situation, that will be captured in your documentation alongside any officer misconduct. The fact remains, though, that peacefully filming interactions can be interpreted as aggressive or escalatory precisely because it is an accountability tool.
Proximity is one of the most important risks to assess when on the scene, says Xavier de Janon, director of mass defense at the National Lawyers Guild. “The closer people have been to federal agents or the property they are operating on, the more likely they’ve been charged, tackled, or arrested,” he says.
More and more, federal prosecutors are seeking criminal charges against people for allegedly assaulting federal officers, even if the cases ultimately don’t succeed and are later dropped. The NLG recently published a guide on how protesters and observers can assess risks related to federal assault laws.
Work From Home
Even if you can’t risk participating in on-the-ground action, there are other important ways to contribute to community safety efforts.
Civil liberties groups have been campaigning nationwide to ban real-time surveillance platforms and end lucrative contracts that share data with ICE. You can contact the offices of your local officials and tell them to cancel surveillance contracts and stop information-sharing and other law enforcement cooperation that fuels ICE operations.
“It's good that local officials in cities targeted by ICE are speaking out and condemning their brutal tactics—but talk is cheap,” says Evan Greer, director of the digital rights activist organization Fight for the Future. “ICE violence is enabled by ICE surveillance, often with help from local police and city-run surveillance systems. If local leaders want to protect their residents from ICE's harsh tactics, one of the most immediate things they can do is roll back and limit surveillance by canceling contracts with surveillance vendors like Flock and banning the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric surveillance, either through executive action or city ordinance.”
For those who are not direct targets of the federal immigration crackdown, Kathy O’Leary, a member of the Catholic peace organization New Jersey Pax Christi, recommends listening to neighbors who are directly affected and figuring out what they need. Every week, she and other volunteers go to Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey to support families who are visiting their loved ones in detention. The volunteers bring chairs and water for visitors—who are forced to wait outside—and help visitors navigate the facility's strict rules.
For example, she said, her group started bringing extra clothing after they realized visitors were regularly turned away for dress code violations. The practice started when a woman who had traveled all the way from Boston to visit her father in detention was turned away because she was wearing ripped jeans. A volunteer realized she was the same size and offered to swap pants.
“That was a serious act of resistance,” O’Leary says. “The system was creating a hurdle to see her father. The system tries to limit contact with families; it’s about stealing people’s hope and trying to break people.”
O’Leary and other volunteers also give out grocery store gift cards to visitors, since many families have had their primary breadwinner detained. O’Leary says that people who want to get involved in their communities can check if they live near a local member group of the Detention Watch Network. If there isn’t a member in their state, groups in neighboring states will often know who is active in their area.
Working with local mutual aid organizations, food pantries, and other humanitarian support groups contributes to overall community strength and safety. And simply contributing sightings to digital ICE watch trackers during your regular daily activities can give others valuable, life-saving information.
“It’s about what lever matches your risk tolerance, matches the resources that are available to you,” says Matt Mitchell, CEO of the risk-mitigation firm Safety Sync Group. “Not everyone has the same privileges. Some people want to donate money, some people want to write letters, some people want to read up on what law enforcement and CBP and ICE can and can’t do. Some people want to put their bodies in the space and assemble because that is our right, some people want to document. There are many different levels of meaningful action.”
Updated 9 am ET, January 13, 2026: Added details about ICE watch tip lines.
Updated 2:45 pm ET, January 13, 2026: Corrected Xavier de Janon's professional title.