What you can do about ICE and the BBB

A4D's latest action-oriented newsletter

There is so much that’s so urgent happening in American civic life right now, it’s hard to know where to focus. We want to highlight two interelated events that are reshaping our lives at every level from local to national: passage of Trump’s cruel and destructive budget bill (after much hypocritical clutching of pearls by Republicans) and the kidnapping of immigrants from our communities. Remember, sometimes the most effective form of resistance can be found by engaging in your local communities.

We’ve been designing and making buttons to hand out at marches, rallies, vigils, and meetings.

The petty, ugly budget bill

The behemoth 1,000 page budget that was signed into law on July 4 steals from the poor and gives to the rich, enacting much of the plan laid out in Project 2025. They’ve set up a stunning transfer of wealth from the bottom ten percent of Americans who will lose an average of $1,600 a year they desperately need to make ends meet, giving it to the top four percent who will gain $12,000 a year, an amount of money they won’t even notice. It creates permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations by cutting social services that provide food to the poor and medical care for the disabled. It cuts tax credits supporting green energy that were moving us away from fossil fuels and explodes the deficit by 4 trillion dollars. The ghouls who wrote this bill know how badly it will hurt people, so they made sure some the worst provisions won’t go into effect until after the midterm elections.

What can you do now? The bill has passed, but public pressure and engagement can help shape how exactly the budget will get implemented.

• Make noise about how bad this budget is. Many people don’t know exactly what’s in the bill and when they find out, they really hate it. Talk to your friends and family, and share info on social media.

• Join a local protest. The next major action honors “Good Trouble” and is planned for July 17th in honor of John Lewis’ birthday. Indivisible, the organizers of last month’s “No Kings” protest, are organizing their some more Good Trouble a few days later, on Saturday, July 19th. Even standing outside your house with a sign is a show of solidarity keeps people motivated to fight back.

• Engage in politics at the local level. Your local city, county, school board, and other agencies will be forced to make hard decisions as federal funds are cut. Join a community group to participate in the process to find creative solutions to fill the budget gaps created by this petty, ugly bill.

• Prepare. Artists often rely on social services to fill in the gaps and will be uniquely affected by this bill. Shoebox Arts has put together a comprehensive guide on how to navigate the coming changes.

A community-organized resource table in Highland Park, Los Angeles. One of our own A4D members painted the banner!

Expanded ICE kidnappings

One of the most terrifying and consequential parts of the spending bill is the staggering increase in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget to more than $150 billion dollars, more than most countries spend on their military. Nearly $80 billion will go to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). $45 billion of it is set aside for detention facilities, five times more than the budget of the entire federal prison system.

Even at the current funding level, immigration raids have been incredibly destructive. Every day, masked agents who refuse to identify themselves — or even the agency that employs them — are racially profiling and kidnapping people from their cars, homes, workplaces, hospitals, schools, places of worship, and courthouses. Detainees are being held without due process in facilities where conditions may constitute human rights abuses. This kind of cruelty is straight out of the authoritarian playbook, and a federal judge has ordered them to stop.

Communities are fighting back. Groups have organized to patrol their neighborhoods, and rapid response networks are mobilizing peacefully to protect those targeted and document the kidnappings. There are fundraisers and food drives for families who can’t leave home to go to work or even the grocery store. You can help by volunteering, donating money and goods, or by being prepared for nonviolent resistence if ICE shows up anywhere you happen to be.

Look for a local network you can engage with on apps like Nextdoor or even by searching your zip code on social media. If you’re in the LA area, LA Taco has a whole page with resources and ways you can help. They’re doing a fantastic job covering this story every day. A new app called ICE BLOCK lets you alert people if you see ICE patrolling. This PDF provides tips on how to identify different DHS vehicles. The ACLU has great guidance for how to Verify, Document, and Report ICE activity.

Flags hand painted by A4D members fly above artist studios. See our Instagram post announcing the second A4D Flagpole Artist Residency!

To read and watch

Finally, it can help to learn how people have faced and overcome challenges like these before. We recommend books like Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too by Ijeoma Oluo and video series like this collection on the Labor Movement in California. Longer form media can provide more depth, information and inspiration for these tough times.

In solidarity,

A4D