folks have been clean and compliant with ICE, and now immigration is coming back to them and they are being detained on check-in.”
These obstacles have not stoppered the flow of immigrants seeking advice, says Milagro Sique, CEO of the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island. The state’ s largest immigration services nonprofit lost $ 2.5 million in funding and 25 percent of its staff.“ We try to guide them as best we can, by providing some hope.” Providence-based immigration lawyer Hans Bremer is similarly inundated with inquiries, but“ our income is down dramatically.” His firm is still winning asylum cases that were already in process, but he has fewer new cases because“ from the immigrant’ s point of view, why pay an attorney thousands of dollars for a case where they may be back to their home country in a few months?”
This possibility weighs on Jose Garcia( a pseudonym). He bolted from his village in Ecuador steps ahead of the murderous intention of the local police, who he says extorted and beat him, left him for dead in a garbage dump and shot up his house. Garcia gathered his wife and three-year-old son and headed for the U. S. border, where the family was admitted in April 2024 as asylees with a credible fear of harm. In January, he was detained by ICE agents on his way to a construction job. Since his release in February, AMOR was helping the family get a lawyer to plead their case.
“ My papers were in order. I’ ve always done the right thing.,” he says.“ We simply strive to earn an honest living so we can put a plate of food on the table. That is, literally, the only‘ crime’ we commit on a daily basis.” He watches his son quietly eat a slice of pizza.“ If something were to happen to me, I don’ t know what would become of him, because I am their sole provider.”
“ ICE is in the area!”
The Deportation Defense Network hotline gets a call about masked men in the neighborhood, and a verifier on the scene confirms they are ICE agents waiting to detain someone on that street. The alert goes out and a dozen volunteers mobilize. Ken Pariseau begins knocking on doors, as a crowd chants:“ You have the right to remain silent!” Within minutes, the commotion persuades the ICE agents to leave, and the crowd gives a cheer.
It is a gloomy Sunday afternoon, and the steely light barely penetrates the Bell Street Chapel— but it matches the mood in the room. About seventy people came to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Providence to learn about the DDN, a state-based initiative of AMOR. The role-playing exercise caps a presentation on the network’ s mission, tactics and their constitutional right to legally oppose their government.
In early 2025, AMOR and Party for Socialism and Liberation increased the capacity of the DDN and its twenty-four-hour hotline. Borrowing from local organizing activities and other states’ experiences, the DDN uses the right to free speech and to assemble to warn a potential target, document the incident and discourage ICE from executing an arrest: Show up in numbers, make enough noise and ICE will melt away.
The PSL’ s Beka Yang estimates that more than 5,000 volunteers have signed up to receive ICE alerts on their phones or take intervention training, to man the hotline and patrol the courthouses.
“ Our approach has been to build a strong, local mass movement and it’ s really gotten a life of its own,” Yang says.“ Our success is measured by how much we’ re able to continue growing a movement of everyday people who are inspiring each other to exercise our collective bravery.”
In the last year and a half, Rhode Islanders have mounted a modern-day burning of the HMS Gaspee, the 1772 rebellion that helped unite the Colonists against the crown before the Revolutionary War. Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, the ACLU, religious institutions and immigrant groups have filed several lawsuits to block federal actions that harm immigrants. This session, the General Assembly considered a legislative package that would add legal protections for immigrants and redefine a statutory year as 364 days for petty misdemeanors, such as shoplifting, to prevent immigrants convicted of those offenses from being deported.
“ This closes a loophole between state and federal law,” says Representative Leonela Felix( D-Dist. 61, Pawtucket), sponsor of the 364-day bill.“ I come from an immigrant family, and I’ ve had family members who’ ve gone through the immigration process successfully and others who have not, so to me, this issue is personal.”
The city of Providence posted 200 signs marking public and private city-owned spaces off limits to immigration officers. In November, the City Council updated an existing ordinance to establish protected spaces, limit the collection and disclosure of sensitive personal data and clarify the limits of city law enforcement’ s interactions with immigration officers. Last June, it mailed jumbo“ Know-Your-Rights” postcards citywide.
“ We want to make it clear: Providence is not going to make their job any easier,” Mayor Brett Smiley says. These countermeasures are meant to minimize disruptions of immigration enforcement to the flow of city life— if, for example,“ a federal agent tries to grab someone coming here to pay their taxes. It’ s critical that everybody in Providence feels comfortable calling 911 if they’ re a victim of a crime or a witness. We believe deeply that the community is safer when Providence embraces these policies.”
The Immigration Coalition of Rhode Island has forty-four member organizations that meet monthly to share information, strategize and advocate for bills, says coordinator Juan Pablo Ocampo. Its members organize free legal consultations and preparedness clinics to help families organize their paperwork, and develop a temporary guardianship plan if an immigrant is unexpectedly detained. They support“ Know-Your-Rights” seminars statewide.
The Rhode Island chapter of the AFL-CIO has held several
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