According to the Immigration Policy Tracking Project, the Trump administration has taken 130 actions on immigration so far this term. Groups in Montana are trying to both track those changes and watch state bills.
One early executive order placed a 90-day freeze on refugee arrivals to the country, halting families with flights already booked to the U.S. Another made changes to Temporary Protected Status and Humanitarian Parole, granted when a person's home country is deemed unsafe due to armed conflict, natural disaster or other emergencies.
Mary Poole, executive director of the nonprofit resettlement agency Soft Landing Missoula, said the orders could undo years of work.
"This rapid removal of humanitarian protections, that's one thing that's really scary for folks," Poole observed. "Many people came here through this new legal pathway that Biden created and it might just be deemed null and void."
Two Montana immigration bills passed the House and were brought to the Senate last week. One would require police to check and report someone's immigration status during a "lawful stop" and the other would allow the state to criminally prosecute a person in federal detention for immigration violations.
Soft Landing Missoula works with 600 refugees and immigrants from 30 different countries. Poole said
the organization has taken on new work with the change in federal administration, including immigrant rights' training.
"Immigrants have rights," Poole emphasized. "Making sure that folks are aware of what those are and how our organizations and facilities can uphold those rights, that's a really important piece of the work that we've been doing."
According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, if immigration officials come to a person's home, they do not need to answer a knock without a warrant signed by a judge, containing the person's correct name and address. People approached also have the right to remain silent.
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Some 15 community and faith-based organizations gathered again this week outside the Geo Group ICE detention facility in Aurora where longtime Denver resident and activist Jeanette Vizguerra is being held.
Protestors have gathered weekly after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Vizguerra during her work break at Target on March 17.
Nate Kassa, organizer, Party for Socialism and Liberation, was a safety marshal during the demonstration calling for her release.
"We're here today to demand freedom for Jeanette Vizguerra," he explained. "She's been imprisoned by the Trump administration for exercising her First Amendment right to free speech. And to speak out for the unjust detentions of people like her, and other immigrants across this country."
Vizguerra was recently named a 2025 recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her "moral courage and willingness to act on convictions, even at great personal risk."
ICE officials have called Vizguerra a "convicted criminal alien" for entering and remaining in the U.S. without proper documentation, an act the Trump administration considers illegal. ICE also said she has received due process and that a judge has issued a final order for her deportation.
Eight in ten Americans support deporting immigrants who have been convicted of a violent crime, according to a new poll. But after the arrest of documented student activists by masked agents, and the deployment of active military personnel on U.S. soil, a majority of Americans say the Trump administration has gone too far.
Yoselin Corrales, organizer with the group Aurora Unidos, said it is important to stand up against what she sees as the criminalization of people who are politically active.
"We've seen this across our country with activists being arrested and persecuted by the police and by the FBI, and we will not stand for our voices being silenced," she contended.
President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations, and the budget reconciliation bill passed by Congress last week includes the largest investment in detention and deportation in U.S. history. The law earmarks $170 billion to fund Trump's immigration plans, including $45 billion to build new detention centers.
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The Trump administration has made it clear it will cut funding from schools continuing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and with record levels of Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding for detention and deportation in the new federal budget, more school districts are quietly rethinking their policies.
Barbara Marler, an independent education consultant and adviser with over 40 years of experience, is working with school districts to help them rephrase DEI-related language so it will not be flagged in automated searches. She explained her goal is to help shield their work and emphasizes the unprecedented nature of her efforts.
"ESL and bilingual, as a field, has always had some level of controversy," Marler acknowledged. "But this is at a whole 'nother level that I've never seen before."
The Trump administration has called DEI policies "dangerous and demeaning." Marler noted school district leaders tell her the current pressures they face feel insurmountable. So far, she has worked with two districts in Illinois on strategies and expects more will follow since the passage of the new federal budget bill last week.
Alejandra Vázquez Baur, a fellow at the Century Foundation and cofounder and director of the National Newcomer Network, said immigrant justice organizations operating in 'red' states have long been aware of the risks and have adapted their language to continue their work discreetly. She added now, even groups in blue states like Illinois, which once operated more openly, are facing increased pressure to avoid being targeted.
"It's scary, because many people who enter into this work do this because they themselves are immigrants, and/or they have undocumented family members or employees that they fear are at risk should the administration come after them, or should they lose funding and not be able to pay their employees," Vázquez Baur outlined.
The Supreme Court ruling in the 1982 case Plyler v. Doe determined all children in the U.S. have the right to a public education, regardless of immigration status. But Vázquez Baur stressed she is concerned about the chilling effect the current administration is having on such basic rights and freedoms. She warned jeopardizing the rights of immigrant students can lead to the erosion of rights for all.
"Many organizations have to back down as they consider all of their circumstances," Vázquez Baur added. "But for those places that have the ability to do so, those organizations and districts should dig deeper, because we cannot be silent in the face of these attacks."
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A Tennessee immigrant-led group and other advocates are suing the state over a new law they said unfairly targets people who offer shelter to undocumented immigrants.
Of the over 400,000 immigrants living in Tennessee, around 128,000 are undocumented.
Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and its political action committee TIRRC Votes, said her organization is seeking a preliminary injunction to block the "anti-harboring" law from taking effect July 1. She described the law, which would create a felony offense for human smuggling, as having no clear guidance on who it targets or how it will be enforced.
"We believe this law is unconstitutional and an overreach of the state government," Luna emphasized. "For us, SB 392 is ripping apart the very fabric of who we aspire to be as Tennesseans."
Luna noted the lawsuit is backed by the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and the American Immigration Council. She added the law could criminalize basic acts of care like churches offering shelter or families living together.
Luna pointed out her organization recently met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia's wife and brother, along with national immigrant rights group CASA, to spotlight his case. She said he was denied fair legal protections, describing the impact it's had on his family.
"We see Kilmar's case as an example of the erosion of due process that is happening to individuals here in Tennessee," Luna outlined. "We had devastating ICE raids earlier in May that resulted in almost 200 people being kidnapped right from their cars in a coordinated operation between the Tennessee Highway Patrol and ICE."
Garcia remains in jail as lawyers debate whether the Justice Department can intervene to block his deportation, should he be released ahead of trial on human smuggling charges. Luna is calling on Tennesseans to stand with immigrant communities by volunteering, donating, or joining advocacy efforts. She added immigrants are at the forefront of building a stronger, multiracial democracy.
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