With cellphone cameras and tip lines, D.C. residents find small ways to fight ICE

It was early in the morning when David heard the commotion outside their window: Four unmarked vehicles pulling over two work trucks on Columbia Road NW. David grabbed a cellphone and ran outside, where they witnessed masked agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement questioning a dozen men – six of whom were eventually detained.

“Once I saw the military fatigues and the bulletproof vests, that’s when I knew something else was going on,” says David, who asked that their full name not be disclosed for fear of attracting unwanted federal attention. “And that’s when I called the tip line.” 

Run by the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, the hotline serves as a real-time clearinghouse of information – an early-warning system of sorts – on reported ICE activity in D.C. But David, neighbors, and passers-by also did more: They collected contact info for the detained men, documented the stop, and yelled at the ICE agents to leave. (“Get the fuck out of my city!” yelled one resident. “Guess what? We’re in the city,” responded an agent.)

“I felt safe knowing there were 40 other people who believe in protecting anyone who lives in this country,” David says, adding that it was “nice to see my neighbors stand up for what’s right.”

Those actions are just one example of the myriad ways that D.C. residents have been pushing back on President Trump’s surge of federal agents and the National Guard in the city. They’ve protested, recorded, and organized. They’ve wheat-pasted posters onto walls and utility boxes, and shared know-your-rights materials. They’ve volunteered to walk kids to and from school, deliver groceries to immigrant families afraid to leave their homes, and funnel information about the detained to lawyers and advocates.

It’s both literally and figuratively a David and Goliath battle; disparate groups of locals fighting well-funded and often anonymous federal police agents who grab residents off city streets. And it’s one that many say comes out of frustration that D.C.’s own government has seemed cowed by Trump’s actions, partially cooperating with federal agents and delivering only muted guidance to communities looking for reassurance and resistance.

“What’s most important is that everyone in the District should try to watch interactions with ICE, but also get to know their neighbors. There might be people who don’t want to send their kids to school, and you might be that safe ride. Or they might need groceries,” says Nadia Salazar Sandi, an organizer with El Colectivo de Familias Migrantes. “Knowing your neighborhood and community itself can create a lot of safety.”

‘I have a role to play in protecting my community’

Sam Dobbs was headed to the gym in the heart of Columbia Heights last week when he heard the chanting, “ICE get out, ICE go home!” 

The charter school teacher walked towards the noise and found a group of ICE agents standing sentry in front of the Taco Bell Cantina on 14th Street NW with a growing crowd of protesters around them. Dobbs joined in the chanting, following the officers as they crossed the street and eventually left the area. 

It’s unclear why exactly the ICE agents were in the area, a historic center of the city’s Latino community, that afternoon. They had been seen participating in arrests and raids in the days prior, but they had also engaged in visual shows of force – at one point tearing down an anti-ICE banner in neighboring Mt. Pleasant, which the agency then gleefully boasted about on social media. 

Either way, for Dobbs it was an opportunity – a small yet symbolic one – to stand up for the neighborhood he has lived in since 2018, and for a city he feels is being occupied. (And he’s not the only one: A recent Washington Post poll found that almost 80% of D.C. residents oppose the federal surge.)

“Seeing the escalation of my neighbors being harassed is incredibly upsetting. I just feel like I have a duty to resist this oppressive regime,” he tells The 51st. “They were in my community around my neighbors, they were masked, and they felt like occupiers of our streets. I don’t believe they are keeping us safe and know there are people in my community who may not be able to stand up for themselves. I have a role to play in protecting my community.”

Two days later and a few blocks north, an early-morning ICE stop attracted neighbors who filmed and registered their anger. “These are our neighbors! ICE go home!” yelled the onlookers. “Los blancos estan aqui apoyando” – the white people are here supporting – said one resident who filmed the encounter, which ended with the agents breaking open the driver and passenger windows and detaining the men inside the car. 

Bystanders asked the men for their names and birthdays, much as David had when they witnessed the ICE arrests on Columbia Road. 

“It’s absolutely helpful,” says Michael Lukens, the executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrants Rights, which works to provide detained immigrants with attorneys – something that can only happen if they know who was detained. “This is where the Trump administration’s big picture tactics come into focus. A lot of people do have a good case and should have their fair day in court, but they are not getting it because they can’t get an attorney.”

Lukens encourages people to record ICE arrests and try to collect personal information about those being detained, both so their families can be notified and so advocacy and legal-aid groups can quickly offer their services. 

“Stay at a safe distance and don’t interfere. Video the encounter, make sure people know about it, get the person’s name and where they’re from, and their birthday,” says Lukens. “We all have to be witnesses to what’s happening and make ICE’s terror campaign public.”

‘The volume of calls has exponentially increased’

A large part of local resistance to ICE and other federal agents prowling around D.C. has come from residents publicly warning when they see them around; in a way, it’s inverting the traditional police mantra of “See something, say something.”

Many of those warnings of ICE activity have been shared through the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network’s tip line, which takes in information on sightings of federal agents, verifies them, and then blasts out warnings over social media. (The network has more than 7,000 followers on BlueSky and another 18,600 on Instagram.)

The line was launched the day after Trump was inaugurated for his second term in office, but Madhvi Bahl, a core organizer with the group, says tips have been flooding in since the surge began. “The volume of calls has exponentially increased,” she says. 

Since August 11, there have been 1,670 calls to the tip line and hundreds of text messages. By comparison, in the two weeks before Trump’s announcement, there were only 181 calls.

The network was founded in 2022 in response to Republican governors bussing undocumented migrants to D.C., and it initially focused on helping them get housing, services, and basic essentials. This year, though, the network has shifted more into rapid-response mode, trying to mitigate the immigration crackdown in recent weeks that has in part targeted those very migrants who arrived in 2022. 

“There is a vibe shift,” says Bahl about how she perceives D.C. now. “Every time you leave your house in Black and brown parts of the city you end up seeing something, a detention or ICE agents congregating and hassling people, federal agents enforcing fare evasion. You can’t go anywhere without seeing them. They are like cancer.”

To help empower residents to help, the network also created its own guide on best practices for bystanders.

‘They’re not doing anything’

The local response has also been driven, in part, by concerns that the D.C. government is tacitly going along with Trump’s federal surge. That’s especially the case on immigration enforcement, where MPD has been seen working with ICE in recent weeks – contravening its longstanding policy of not asking about immigration status or honoring ICE’s detainer requests unless a warrant is produced. (On Wednesday, Bowser said she was “grateful” that the presence of federal agents had led to an apparent decrease in crime, but she conceded that “a break in trust” may be occurring between local police and residents.)

But it’s also evident in D.C. schools, where some parents say that school leaders have failed to address the uncertainty and concerns of this moment – especially amongst immigrant families. 

“We would like it if the government tried to help in this fight,” said a Latina resident who didn’t want to be identified by name because of her own status. “Because they’re not doing anything.”

While DCPS has clarified that law enforcement would only be allowed inside schools with a warrant, it hedged on whether D.C. police officers posted in schools would assist with immigration enforcement. While a slide presented to teachers before the start of school said they wouldn’t, it included an ominous conditional: “At this time.” 

On Thursday, DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee told The 51st that the school system has communicated with school leaders on protocols of how to handle any situations that might arise from the federal surge, and would continue to do so. “We will actually have more meetings with specific school communities, because it does look different from neighborhood to neighborhood. We will support our school leaders,” he said.

But that help doesn’t seem to be filtering down to some community members, who have organized what they say are efforts to directly address how some families are feeling. The Latina resident said many of her neighbors didn’t want to send their kids to schools because they were afraid that ICE agents would be lurking around the corner. 

So she and other members of the school community organized walking buses – groups of designated volunteers who pick up and drop off kids. “We try to help neighbors who are scared of going out by picking up their kids and walking them so they can have access to education and so they can feel safe, that there is a group of neighbors that is there for them,” she explains.

At another DCPS school, one parent who requested anonymity said the school community itself was taking the lead. 

“Guidance from DCPS leadership to principals is minimal and not shared by DCPS to families,” they say. “Our principal has been told that she can't distribute Know Your Rights materials, and she can't organize KYR trainings. So the [parent-teacher organization] and teachers have been organizing as we are able, trying to stay below the radar while distributing information to parents.”

The PTO has executed a similar effort to walk kids to school if their families are afraid to go outside, and the school principal said any family that feels unsafe during the day – whether it’s because they spot ICE or something else – can come to the school building. 

At another school in Northeast, parents are walking around the perimeter of the campus during drop-off and pick-up times. “We take turns looking for masked people, unmarked cop cars, and law enforcement,” writes one parent. “If we see it, we will email our school administration to let them know.”

Another parent who spoke to The 51st – again on the condition of anonymity so as to not draw attention to their school – conceded that they approached the first week of school with apprehension and concern. But they say that for the families that can, keeping their heads up and making their presence felt is important. 

“We know a huge part of protest and resistance is taking up space, and making sure that we are laying claim to our city, the streets that are ours and the schools that are ours,” they told us. “These are the things we can do: to find joy, and support one another as neighbors and families. I’m frustrated around the macro level, but on the micro level I really do believe this is what true organizing looks like: neighbor to neighbor, family to family, person to person.”