Ready to Resist ICE? Don't Miss This Masterclass by the OG Rio Grande Valley Resisters. Their Secret: Focused Hyperlocal Action

Resistance Strategy #1: Remain Focused.There’s nothing like a “war” abroad to divert public attention from the atrocities taking place right now in our own backyards. The Trump kakistocracy* is now waging a bombing campaign against Iran on behalf of International Criminal Court defendant, Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, whose arrest warrant was issued on 21 November 2024 for starving and directly attacking civilians as a method of warfare; for the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. Soon, it will be Trump, Hegseth, and Rubio’s turn. In the meantime, while everyone’s eyes are trained on Trump & Co’s illegal actions in the Middle East, the build-up of the ICE detention-to-deportation Gulag continues unabated. New concentration camps are coming to a distribution warehouse near you — even as Congress debates whether the ICE Gestapo should wear masks. These are concentration camps, paid for by us, the US taxpayer, thanks to a $45 billion allocation from the MAGA Murder Mandate (aka, the Biggest, Ugliest Bill), which is destined to go down in the history books as the payment system for Trump & Co’s genocide against the stateless.Kakistocracy: v. derived from Greek for “worst rule,” or “rule by idiots,” a government not by the people for the people, but by the least qualified, most unscrupulous, sycophantic bullies for the billionaire (and now trillionaire) class. Rule by the Worst of the Worst.Resistance Strategy #2: Don’t Look Away.As I reported on February 21, 2026, ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland “Security” (DHS), has earmarked $38 Billion to buy 24 empty shipping depots to scale up its for-profit prison Gulag to 92,000 beds or more by the end of FY 2026. These warehouses will each cost roughly $100 million to purchase, then another $150 million to retrofit with toileting facilities, dorms, mess halls, plumbing, electrical wiring, sally ports, and double “no-man’s-land” styled fortifications, as well as coils and coils of razor wire. They are not a pretty sight. And until now, DHS has kept its Gulag well away from public view, in the deserts of Texas, Arizona, and California, and the rural countryside of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Now, the build-up of Trump & Co’s human trafficking network, fashioned on Amazon’s shipping model, is happening right in front of our faces, in empty warehouses located near population centers and large flight hubs. Case in point: the concentration camp currently underway near Williamsport, Maryland, equidistant from the Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International Airports. Plans show that it will imprison 1,500 people on any given day, and cycle thousands through each year.But to expel people, ICE must fill its Gulag first. And according to Project Salt Box, the goon-squad is about to move on Baltimore, which only fuels my already boiling anger because that is my OG hometown. Resistance Strategy #3: Get In the Way! Like the former civil servant in Hagerstown, Maryland, who was DOGEd and is now filling her days by filing petitions against the regime for violating the National Environmental Policy Act, thus slowing down development of the Williamsport Concentration Camp, it is time to get hyperlocal and get in the way!And who better to teach us how than the original Rio Grande Valley resisters, whose work to mitigate the worst of humanity’s impulses under the first Trump regime, I spotlight in my book, Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands.We held a hybrid reunion on January 26, 2026, to check in with one another, offer mutual comfort, and prepare hearts and hands for another year of standing up to injustice and jamming the machinery of misery. In this podcast, you will learn how to join the frontlines while remaining resilient, with strategies of resistance that include:* Resistance Strategy #4: Think Hyperlocally.* Resistance Strategy #5: Know Your Rights and Your Allies. * Resistance Strategy #6: Know When and to Whom to Pass the Baton.CLICK THE PLAY BUTTON ABOVE TO HEAR FROM THE OG RGV RESISTERS THEMSELVES ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼. There is incredible talent in all of our states, localities, communities, neighborhoods, and blocks. So, get to know your local allies. Find out what is needed and join, or put together, teams to meet those needs, from experts in water management to folks with a driver’s license willing to ferry the kids of impacted families to school. Most importantly…Resistance Strategy #7: Get Mad and Get Going.Write this message on your bathroom mirror, as Mark McDonald has:“Hope is presence, instead of paralysis; action instead of despair; and saying I will not let cruelty be the loudest voice.”Never forget that we are the hope. And the Cruelty is NOT Okay.Stay strong, everyone. The only way through this is…Together, ✊🏼✊🏼✊🏼 SarahFeatured Voices from Crossing the Line:* Cindy Candia, Joyce Hamilton, Jennifer Harbury & Madeleine Sandefur: Angry Tías & Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley* Kathy Harrington & Andrea Rudnik: Madrinas de Justicia and former members of Team Brownsville* Cindy Andrade Johnson, Deaconess, United Methodist Women in Faith and La Posada Providencia Board Member* Jodi Godwin, Esq.* Helen Perry & Mark McDonald, formerly of Global Response Medicine* Gaby Zavala, Asylum Seeker Network of Support, and former Director of Resource Center MatamorosAdditional Contributors:* Karen Sturnick, Green Valley Samaritans* Maree McHugh, Silver City, New Mexico* Rev. Ali Lopez-Valcarcel, United Church of Christ, Rio Grande Valley* Pastor Mark Redwine, RGV* Esmeralda Lozano, City Commissioner, La Feria, TX[Full list of Strategies of Resistance to follow.]SAVE THE DATE: March 8, 2026The next meetup of the Hope Knows No Borders NetworkTales of Humanity is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Tales of Humanity at sarahtowle.substack.com/subscribe