For those who intend to act. Legal contacts, know-your-rights, and frameworks for people who have decided that watching is no longer acceptable.
If you are arrested — first calls
Write this on your arm before any action.
NLG National: (212) 679-5100
Mass defense / protest support: massdef@nlg.org
Your local NLG hotline: nlg.org/chapters/#massdefense
Say nothing until you have spoken to an attorney. You have this right regardless of citizenship status.
Legal Representation
National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
Phone: (212) 679-5100
Mass defense: massdef@nlg.org
Local chapters & hotlines: nlg.org/chapters/#massdefense
Attorney referral directory: nlg.org/referral-directory
The primary legal resource for direct action defense. They have a mass defense program specifically for people arrested during protest and direct action. They show up, they take the cases, they know the federal system. Find your local chapter — the regional hotline is staffed by attorneys who know your jurisdiction.
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Phone: (212) 614-6464
Website: ccrjustice.org
Handles federal civil rights cases. Has litigated directly against ICE and CBP. Takes cases other firms won't.
ACLU National
Phone: (212) 549-2500
Know your rights: aclu.org/know-your-rights/immigrants-rights
Can refer you to your state affiliate's legal intake. Extensive know-your-rights materials covering ICE stops, raids, right to remain silent, right to refuse consent to search.
RAICES
Website: raicestexas.org
Specific to Texas detention. Multilingual know-your-rights materials. Direct services for detained individuals and families.
National Immigration Law Center (NILC)
Website: nilc.org
Federal immigration law analysis, detainee rights, policy tracking. Reference resource for understanding the legal framework of what is happening.
Monitoring & Documentation
Freedom for Immigrants
Website: freedomforimmigrants.org
Detention monitoring, hotline, visitation network. Tracks conditions inside facilities.
Detention Watch Network
Website: detentionwatchnetwork.org
Facility-specific conditions reporting. Useful for understanding the specific landscape before acting.
Human Rights Watch — U.S. Detention
Website: hrw.org/united-states/detention
Documented reporting on conditions. Useful as reference and as evidence of what is known.
Legal Framework — Know This
Habeas Corpus — 28 U.S.C. § 2241
The mechanism for challenging unlawful federal detention. A detained person or someone acting on their behalf can petition a federal court directly. This is the legal door.
Fourth Amendment
Protections against unreasonable search and seizure extend to non-citizens on U.S. soil. You do not surrender constitutional rights by being undocumented.
Zadvydas v. Davis (2001)
Supreme Court held that indefinite detention of non-citizens is unconstitutional. There are time limits. The government does not have unlimited authority to hold people.
42 U.S.C. § 1983 / Bivens Actions
Section 1983 allows civil rights claims against state actors. For federal agents, the equivalent is a Bivens action. These are the tools for accountability after harm is done.
Fifth Amendment — Right to Silence
You have the right to remain silent. This applies regardless of citizenship status. The only thing you are required to provide is identification in states with stop-and-identify laws. Say nothing else until you have an attorney.
Before You Act
1. Write the NLG number on your arm in permanent marker.
2. Find your local NLG chapter hotline at nlg.org/chapters/#massdefense.
3. Establish a contact person who knows your plan and timeline — someone who will make calls if you don't check in.
4. Consider a pre-action consultation with a civil rights attorney. Hypotheticals are not incriminating.
5. Document everything you witness. Civil rights claims live or die on documentation.
6. Know the distinction between obstruction and intervention — legally significant and often blurry in practice.
If You Had No Time to Prepare
Written for you, not for the people helping you. Read these first.
Right Now
Immediate survival — warmth, water, trust, ICE contact, your rights. Read this first.
Moving vs. Staying
When stillness is safer than moving. How to read a route. What to do if separated.
Food With Nothing
Finding food with no money. What to eat first. Signs someone needs medical help.
Communicating Safely
How to reach people without exposing your location or theirs. Signal, SMS, no phone.
Field Manuals — For Those Supporting You
Aftercare
Trauma-informed field guide for immediate care of people in crisis.
Medical
Field medicine for non-clinicians — dehydration, malnutrition, refeeding, wounds, fever, panic, cardiac events.
Culture & Language
Being a safe presence across a language barrier — cultural context, key phrases, shame and dignity, what not to do.
Supply List
Full checklist — comfort, hygiene, food, medical, wound care, hemorrhage control, pregnancy and delivery, expression, and yours.
Training
What to learn before you go, in priority order.
If You Have a Child
When a child has no parent and no one else.
Sexual Assault
Field response for assault survivors — immediate care, medical windows, presentation, cultural context.
Death in Care
When someone dies while under your responsibility. Recognition, response, telling others, body dignity.
Impairment
Recognizing and managing your own degradation — sleep, exhaustion, flooding, hunger.
Suicidality
Recognizing risk, asking directly, levels of crisis, response, and after.
Infection Control
Preventing spread of communicable illness across a group — TB, GI, skin infections, your own exposure.
Group Triage
START triage for multiple casualties — who first, the permission to decide, and emotional triage for group psychological crisis.
Pregnancy & Labor
Complications, delivery if no other choice, premature birth, miscarriage.
