Nationwide — Today, 17 in-person demonstrations and two virtual actions occurred across the country as a part of Detention Watch Network’s “Communities Not Cages” National Day of Action. Co-hosted by the American Friends Service Committee and Immigrant Justice Network, advocates denounced the Trump administration’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda in 13 states and the District of Columbia (see the list of actions). The National Day of Action kicked off on Wednesday evening with an Interfaith Vigil with approximately 100 people outside the notorious Dublin Women’s Prison in Dublin, California (view video and imagery from the vigil) that closed in 2024 and is now proposed to reopen as an ICE detention center. The majority of today’s actions will be held outside of ICE offices and detention centers, including, a rally and vigil outside of the ICE field Office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a rally at the Border Patrol Station in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and a rally outside of the ICE Field Office in Los Angeles to amplify the demands of over 50 hunger and labor strikers detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
View action imagery as it becomes available
Advocates say a focal point of Trump’s agenda is a multi-layered detention expansion plan, which if fully enacted will triple the amount of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Just this month, ICE issued a solicitation for “Emergency Detention and Related Services,” which could spend up to $45 billion over two years for new ICE jails and related operations. This is the latest move in the Trump administration’s cruel plan, which includes invoking an antiquated wartime act and partnering with authoritarian leader, Nayib Bukele, to outsource incarceration to El Salvador. Trump has also proliferated ICE operations into other government agencies, including the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Defense, using military bases as deportation hubs and growing ICE partnerships with local sheriffs and county jails. The administration has expanded surveillance, brought back family detention, and increased neighborhood and workplace raids that destabilize communities and disappear people, including activists who oppose Trump’s agenda, into ICE’s network, often sowing fear and confusion with facility transfers.
Advocates from across the country issued the following statements on why they participated in the national day of action:
Rev. Deborah Lee, Co-Executive Director at the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity which held an Interfaith Prayer Vigil in Dublin, California, said: “As we move through the sacred seasons of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter, we are holding this vigil and action to resist ICE’s attempt to re-open the shuttered Federal Women’s prison in Dublin as an immigration detention center. The former prison has a record of systemic staff abuse, unsafe conditions, medical neglect, and mistreatment, particularly of immigrant women. A re-purposing of this into a detention center would endanger California communities and contradict the values of a majority of California’s populace who see immigrants as an integral part of our economies and communities, deserving of freedom from harm and discrimination.”
Marcela Hernandez, Membership and Organizing Director, at Detention Watch Network, said: “Immigration enforcement – the targeting, detention, and deportation of people – tears apart loved ones and destabilizes communities. What we’re seeing now in detention centers, which are inherently inhumane, is a heightened degree of cruelty as Trump will stop at nothing to dehumanize and vilify immigrants. Under the Communities Not Cages campaign, people are fighting back and uniting to protect immigrant family members, friends, coworkers, and neighbors by calling to shut down existing detention centers and blocking ICE proposals to build new ones. Communities across the country do not want to depend on a carceral economy that profits off of people, and they are making their voices known across the country from California to Michigan to New Jersey. Instead of investing billions of dollars to carry out ICE operations that cause immense harm and sow fear, communities want investment in education, housing for all income levels, climate resilient infrastructure and health care that will benefit everyone. Members of Congress must deny ICE funding to thwart Trump’s mass detention expansion. We need real leaders who aren’t afraid to unite against Trump and advocate for the rights of immigrants – valued and vital members of our communities.”
Uchechukwu Onwa, Executive Director of Black Diasporal Liberty Initiative, said: “Our communities, especially Black, queer, trans, and immigrant folks continue to bear the brunt of cruel detention policies rooted in white supremacy and anti-Blackness. We are tired of seeing our people caged, deported, and disappeared while decision-makers stay silent. We don’t need more surveillance or reforms, we need abolition. We need housing, healthcare, and dignity, not detention centers.”
Oliver Merino, Coordinator at Immigrant Justice Network, said: “Across the country, immigrants and allies are coming together to send a clear message to the Trump administration: we need communities not cages. We will not stand idly by as this administration targets and abducts students, expands immigrant detention, conducts indiscriminate ICE raids, and violates people's constitutional rights. We also call on Congress to reject any funding proposals that will be used to separate families and expand Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
Dulce Montoya with Dream Action Oklahoma, where a vigil was held outside of Oklahoma City Detention Center said: “We must stand up and raise our voices when we see an Oklahoma that does not reflect our values as a community! We are demanding the end to expansion of the borders and detentions! We believe that everyone deserves to live with dignity and freedom without fearing that they, their loved ones, or their neighbors might be facing detention or deportation! We are taking action because we know what our values are and we can create an Oklahoma that reflects those values. We demand for local officials to make Oklahoma a home, to protect immigrant communities, to fund and invest in our people and divest from separation!”
Jordan Garcia, Program Director, American Friends Service Committee, Colorado, said: “As we lead with our values, we can demand that our Colorado Congressional Delegation, and all members of congress, join us. They too can oppose detention expansion, defund ICE & CBP and deny Trump the resources he needs to carry out his mass deportation agenda. This national day of action gives us the opportunity to be a chorus, a chorus demanding an end to caging our communities.”
JR Martin with No Detention Centers in Michigan (NDCM) where a vigil and rally was held in Grand Rapids, said: “NDCM is joining this national day of action because people in Grand Rapids and beyond need to know that ICE is taking our neighbors away from their families and communities every day. We won't let them expand this violence further into Michigan without resistance. The North Lake Correctional Facility is an abomination that should never have been built in Baldwin in the first place, for ICE or for anyone else, and Grand Rapids officials need to listen to the people of this city and declare sanctuary status immediately."
Michelle Lara, Founding Executive Director at Padres Unidos de Tulsa, for the Communities Not Cages vigil in Tulsa, Oklahoma: "We will gather on this day of action in Tulsa, Ok because our community has suffered profound losses, lives have been disrupted by fear, and families have been torn apart by the relentless attacks on our immigrant families. This vigil is a space to collectively acknowledge this pain and to declare that enough is enough. We are here to ignite a movement, to call upon every member of our society to recognize that the injustices faced by immigrants are an assault on our shared humanity. We urge you to organize your communities, to speak with your representatives, and to demand an end to detention centers and the wasteful investment in deportation. Instead, we must invest in the very fabric of our communities in education, in a fair judicial system, and in a thriving labor force.”
Catarina Andres at Southwest Florida Against Mass Deportation (SWAMD), where a protest was held in Fort Myers, FL, said: “SWAMD is participating in this National Day of Action because our community truly believes in fair treatment for everyone. Our community voiced our disapproval of the 287(g) agreement, but our local leaders did not listen to the community that they work for and still passed the agreement. We will keep using our voices to let our local and federal leaders know we will speak out against what is wrong. Our immigrant community is the backbone of this country, and no one deserves to be treated inhumanely and forced to live in horrible conditions. They are people. The color of one's skin should not determine whether they get to wake up at home with their family or be able to go out and buy groceries. We are protesting for all those innocent people who deserve to be home. We are protesting for everyone who was forcibly taken away from everything they knew. We are protesting for those who have wrongfully lost their lives at the hands of ICE. We will keep being the voice for those whose voice was taken away from them.”
In-person demonstrations:
- [4/16] Dublin, CA: Interfaith Vigil at the Dublin Women’s Prison (view video and imagery from the vigil)
- Los Angeles, CA: Rally at the Los Angeles ICE Field Office
- Las Cruces, NM: Rally at the U.S. Border Patrol Station
- Phoenix, AZ: Rally at the Phoenix ICE Field Office
- Denver, CO: Light Projection outside of GEO Detention Center
- Fort Worth, TX: Vigil at the UFW Community Justice Center
- Oklahoma City, OK: Rally at 201 N Shartel Ave OKC
- Tulsa, OK: link to more event information
- Grand Rapids, MI: Vigil and rally outside of ICE field Office Grand Rapids
- New Orleans, LA: Vigil at the Center for Faith and Action
- Shreveport, LA: Vigil in front of the courthouse
- Atlanta, GA: Action at the Atlanta ICE Field Office
- Fort Myers, FL: Vigil, Intersection of Colonial and Six Mile
- Elizabeth, NJ: Union County Commission Meeting, link to more event information
- New York City, NY: Action at Foley Square
- Washington DC: Art installation
- [4/19] Gadsen, AL: link to more event information
Online actions:
- Virtual Action Hour by Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network
- Virtual Action Hour by SURJ
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.