The Trump administration has pledged to continue ramping up the controversial operations to detain and deport immigrants. Yet, as his threats intensify, the movement in defense of immigrant rights is rapidly growing and taking shape from the grassroots.

In Chicago, people are standing up to federal agents armed and ready to deploy tear gas and pepper spray. Army veterans in Portland are urging federal troops to disobey Trump’s orders, and in Colorado, residents are rejecting the conversion of several private prisons into ICE detention centers.

In the heart of the state of Virginia, organizers are bringing together waves of new volunteers to learn how to become robust defenders of immigrant rights.

Richmond Defensa responds to escalating ICE raids

“We have rapid response trainings, know your rights trainings. We do workplace-specific trainings, from guitar shops to coffee shops, and we’re going to be doing a construction-specific training in November. This last volunteer meeting, we had a little over 100 people in attendance,” said Violeta Vega, an organizer with Richmond Defensa.

Richmond Defensa was formed this summer by Richmond-based organizers joining the groundswell of outrage against ICE raids in their neighborhoods. According to immigrant rights advocates in Richmond, ICE raids have left immigrant communities afraid to go to work or send their children to school.

Trump’s ICE agents made 4,264 arrests in Virginia alone during the first seven months of 2025. This is nearly three times the number for the entirety of 2024, according to data analysis published by VPM.

Early on the morning of July 30, federal agents stormed the Southwood Apartments complex in the southern part of Richmond, resulting in the detention of a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Honduras, to the distress of his mother, who reported him as a missing person to local police following his arrest by ICE agents. According to eyewitness accounts, agents blocked his car, smashed the passenger window, and dragged him out – and the young Honduran national wasn’t the only one taken that day.

“From talking with educators, there’s so many children who don’t want to go to school because they don’t know if they’ll see their family when they go home,” said Vega, describing her conversations with teachers in Richmond that have been participating in the volunteer meetings and trainings.

But even amid that fear, Vega is seeing more and more people come out to training sessions organized by Richmond Defensa.

A recent event organized by Richmond Defensa featured a room full of dozens of volunteers, gathered around a screen that reads “How we can get ICE out of Richmond”. This event was the group’s volunteer training, where those outraged by ICE raids can learn how to become a part of the “community defense network” according to a description of the event.

“We’ve still seen people come out and remain steadfast and committed, and they have recommitted time and time again to this movement,” Vega told Peoples Dispatch.

Apart from training sessions, organizers with Richmond Defensa have been part of the formation of “Richmond Artists Against Deportations”, which brings together over 100 artists from across the city to sign a petition demanding full legal status for all immigrants. “As artists and cultural producers, we join hands with the people of our city, country, and the immigrant community, to stop this racial profiling campaign, deportation machine and put an end to abductions and family separation,” reads the petition.

Richmond Defensa organizers also marched alongside Richmond residents and union members on Labor Day, holding a banner that read “The people demand, ICE out of RVA”.

The post As Trump escalates ICE raids, local community defense networks grow appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

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