GW student groups and community organizations launched training sessions and educational programs in the wake of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration executive orders to support refugees and prepare for potential raids. 

Trump over the last two months issued a blitz of sweeping immigration orders to carry out his campaign promise of mass deportations and intensified border security, including expanding Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, opening a migrant detention center in Guantanamo Bay and halting U.S. entry to refugees. In response, student and community groups have organized know-your-rights trainings and outreach to refugee students, aiming to mitigate safety concerns among immigrants in the District. 

Alfredo Castro — the founder of Son La Lucha, a D.C.-based organization that blends workers’ rights and immigration advocacy with Mexican folk music performances — said the group began organizing trainings following Trump’s inauguration, including one on Feb. 8 at the D.C. Justice Center, to teach community members the legal basics of responding to immigration officers in their homes, cars or workplaces.

He said the trainings aim to help people remain calm and remember their rights in the event of a confrontation with an immigration officer. Castro said there have been “very low” levels of ICE presence in D.C. but that immigration officers have made arrests in Northern Virginia and Maryland. 

“Our goal is to decrease fear and decrease panic when this situation is happening,” Castro said.

There are more than 98,000 foreign-born residents in D.C., making up 14.7 percent of the District’s population, according to the American Immigration Council. The Pew Research Center found in July that D.C. has more than 25,000 undocumented immigrants, using most recently available data from 2022.

Castro said Son La Lucha is advising community members to record video, remain silent and remember they have the right to ask for a lawyer’s presence before answering questions from ICE officers.

He said the group has told locals to ensure that the warrant an officer claims they have grants them access to their homes before allowing them to enter because a warrant for removal or deportation, or Form I-205, doesn’t permit them to arrest or enter someone’s home, unlike a judicial warrant.

He said Son La Lucha is also encouraging immigrants in D.C. at the trainings to establish “safety plans” with their children and coworkers in case an officer comes to their home or workplace, which could include intentions to record video or remain silent. 

“We want to make sure, like whatever happens, they are making the right decisions for their best interests,” Castro said.

He said the trainings also aim to teach nonimmigrant community members about legal information on encounters with immigration officers so they can step in and defend a person’s rights if they witness such altercations.

He said these nonimmigrant community members can refuse to cooperate with immigration officers on public transportation, like buses, which he said could prompt the officers to vacate the bus. 

“This is an important time for allies and community members to build stronger relationships with the people that build the city and around the city,” Castro said.

Senior Stephanie Animdee, a member of Alianza — a student organization that promotes Afro-Latinx unity — said she is a first-generation immigrant who moved from Ghana to the United States when she was six months old. She said there is a “fear in the air” among immigrant communities after Trump assumed office and that people like herself who were “fortunate” to have become American citizens at a young age should encourage everyone to help those who are undocumented, even in little ways like listening to their fears. 

“In the past, like, the U.S. was always coined as the land of opportunity, but now it doesn’t really exemplify that,” she said. “I think it’s quite sad.”

Senior Alex Dawson, the co-director of professional partners for No Lost Generation GW, a student organization that supports refugees, said the group typically fundraises twice annually for local groups like Dar Al Hijra, an Islamic center in Northern Virginia that helps Afghan refugees with settlement but that it is unclear what that money would do now that refugees aren’t entering the United States. 

He said the student group is looking to shift fundraising efforts toward international organizations that can support refugees elsewhere.

“And, you know, there are no more refugees coming into the country, obviously,” Dawson said. “So what will that money do? We’re having these debates right now. Is it more worth it to fundraise for international organizations that might be able to do more, given that not much is going on in the U.S. right now?” 

Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 halting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program until further notice, stating that entry of refugees under the USRAP would be “detrimental to the interests” of the country. 

The program has existed since the 1980 Refugee Act, and the federal government manages the program, working mainly with the United Nations Refugee Agency to resettle refugees in the United States. 

Dawson said this executive order has made his work for his student group difficult, as part of his role entails implementing a program named Welcome Corps on campus, a State Department initiative to accept refugee students to universities and allow eligibility for federal student aid through FAFSA. But Trump signed an order halting it for 90 days, until April 27.

“We’re kind of in a state of limbo, where we don’t know to what extent we should be preparing for any refugees that will be able to come into the U.S.,” he said. 

Dawson said NLG GW is developing a “resource bank” for refugee students already on campus, collecting feedback via a social media survey, connecting them to mental health professionals specializing in support for refugees and clarifying if the U.S. government would allow people with refugee status back into the country if they left voluntarily. 

“We’re trying to get feedback from the community of people in refugee or other displacement backgrounds and get their feedback on what they believe would be the best solutions, what problems they’re facing, so that we can enact that change better and more effectively,” Dawson said.

NLG GW Director of Government Relations Amina Iman, a junior, said the drastic change in American politics since Trump’s inauguration has sent immigrants and refugees back into a “mode of survival” instead of “dreaming,” which creates questions about the future of children of immigrants and refugees in the United States. 

“Can the children of immigrants and can refugees continue dreaming or do they have to start living the lives that they thought they would miss because their parents went through that?” Iman said.

Iman said NLG GW is planning a post-inauguration discussion in the next month for students to talk about their feelings in the wake of Trump’s halt on refugees entering the country and to educate nonrefugees on the difficulties that these communities are facing, like being disconnected from their loved ones who aren’t permitted to enter the United States. 

“One thing that our organization after the election, and especially after January, has been thinking about is, how do we actually localize our impact and ensure that we can make a difference right here at home?” Iman said.