The Pulse – 9/25/26: Immigration Enforcement Has Tripled. Communities Are Fighting Back.

Resistance and Unity: Defending Immigrant Communities

The protections that have allowed hundreds of thousands of people fleeing natural and sociopolitical catastrophes to build lives in the U.S. are being stripped away. 

Immigration enforcement spending has more than tripled since 2003, and Congress has now committed roughly $240 billion to ICE and the Border Patrol. Temporary Protected Status — once a lifeline for hundreds of thousands fleeing disaster and political violence — is being dismantled: refugees from Honduras, Venezuela, Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, and Haiti have all lost protections since a Supreme Court ruling this summer.

But many coworkers, congregations, and neighbors are showing up for each other. States across the country have passed laws banning ICE face-coverings and requiring agents to show visible identification. Communities are organizing to block new detention facilities before they open. In this issue, we highlight some of the organizers, researchers, and neighbors turning that refusal into action. 

Neighbors and Allies: Solidarity in a Time of Distress

This is a time of escalating fear for immigrant communities. They are being demonized and are under assault, as large-scale, heavy-handed enforcement has been unleashed on them, and our noblest traditions of welcome and inclusion are being discarded. And yet, despite these deliberate attempts to isolate and separate us, immigrants and non-immigrants alike have often been stepping up together to protect rights, build alliances, and fight for a better future for all of us. In this conversation, leading activists talk about what these movements of resistance and solidarity mean for broader efforts to protect democracy. With: Cristina Jiménez Moreta, formerly of United We Dream; Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance; Shaw San Liu of the Chinese Progressive Association; and Manuel Pastor of USC’s Equity Research Institute.

Stories, Voices, and Perspectives

The Wealth of Welcome: What Communities Across America Are Already Teaching Us (USC Equity Research Institute)
In a new brief, sociologist Manuel Pastor and researcher Thai V. Le trace how immigration enforcement spending has more than tripled since 2003 — from $9.2 billion to $29.2 billion in 2024 — with Congress committing another $240 billion combined through the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the 2026 Secure America Act. Their findings challenge the narratives used to justify this buildup, offering a clear-eyed, evidence-based case for an approach rooted in welcome rather than enforcement.

From Fear to Power: A Conversation with Cristina Jiménez Moreta
Silence doesn’t protect us — community does. That’s the hard-won lesson Cristina Jiménez Moreta carries from a childhood spent hiding an undocumented status, through becoming a founding member of United We Dream and helping win DACA in 2012. In this conversation, she talks about fear, strategy, and what it takes to build a movement that outlasts any one administration.

Louisiana Residents Are Resisting Plans to Build an ICE Jail on Contaminated Site (Truthout)
In central Louisiana, ICE is moving to open a 528-bed detention facility for immigrant women, infants, and children on the site of a former Air Force base with groundwater contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals.” Mothers, pastors, veterans, and civil rights attorneys have banded together to fight it, packing board meetings and organizing in the streets. Among them: Daniel Nakamura, whose parents were both interned in WWII concentration camps as U.S. citizens, who now drives two hours each way to stand against what he calls the same trickery happening again.

What You Can Do

• Support the organizations leading this fight. United We Dream, Haitian Bridge Alliance, and the Chinese Progressive Association — all represented by the leaders featured in this issue — are on the front lines of immigrant rights work nationwide. Consider making a donation or following their campaigns to know when and how to show up.
  
• Join the fight against detention expansion, wherever you are. The Louisiana jail featured in this issue isn’t an isolated case — it’s part of a nationwide wave of new ICE facilities. Detention Watch Network’s Communities Not Cages campaign coordinates opposition to detention expansion across the country and can connect you to organizing happening near you, even if that’s not Louisiana. Sign their petition and sign up for updates.
  
• Solidarity Guide for Defending Immigrant Communities. Check out this guide from the National Immigration Law Center.