Will You Put Your Body On the Line to Defend and Support Your Neighbors?
A new Solidarity Pledge organized by civil rights and social justice organizations invites people to stand up for immigrant communities.
Protesters march for immigrant rights on February 22, 2025, in New York City.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
A few weeks ago, a 10-year-old US citizen with brain cancer was deported to Mexico along with her immigrant parents. Not long after, Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent lawful resident, was abducted from his home and forcibly separated from his pregnant wife, simply for exercising his First Amendment rights. In Georgia, a man was arrested as the sermon at his church came to an end, and in Chicago ICE took another man into custody right after his wife dropped their child off at school. These cruel and widespread kidnappings are an affront to professed American values.
Amid this shock-and-awe, many of us may feel helpless to stop the devastation threatening our neighbors and communities. But, history can be our guide. By following in the footsteps of students, local officials, religious leaders, and community members who have refused to cooperate with injustice, we can uphold a longstanding American tradition of nonviolent resistance.
Fortunately, courageous people across the country are already doing this. In addition to state and local police, elected officials, and FBI officials who have pledged to oppose the administration’s attacks, frontline civil rights and social justice organizations are taking action. They are filing, and winning, lawsuits and ensuring people know their rights.
They have also, crucially, organized a Solidarity Pledge which invites people to put their bodies “on the line” to defend and support their neighbors. The pledge reads, in part: “I pledge to challenge Trump’s anti-immigrant attacks by working to create welcoming and loving communities, speaking up in defense of our neighbors, and supporting families with information and mutual aid.”
The pledge comes at a critical time. President Trump has acted swiftly to order militarized mass arrests and deportations, defying legal standards and violating long-held norms—including by ending an established policy that prevented ICE agents from storming into houses of worship, schools, and hospitals. Sending ICE agents into sacred spaces is deeply unpopular with the American people, because we know that everyone deserves to feel safe in places where we are at our most vulnerable. These are, and should remain, places of refuge.
The kidnappings as well have far less support than the Trump administration would like people to believe. Few Americans approve of using billions of taxpayer dollars to target and terrorize patients in their hospital beds. This is true across the ideological spectrum. Eighty-one percent of self-identified conservatives agree that we need bipartisan legislation to address labor shortages and inflation and protect people that are already in the United States, and 57 percent of conservative voters believe that it is essential to preserve protections for, and welcome, people fleeing persecution.
The truth is that many Americans recognize that the kidnappings are terrifying for individual people and families—and that an indiscriminate, militarized state makes all of us less safe.
That’s where the Solidarity Pledge comes in; it’s a chance to put our beliefs into action. Here’s how it works: People who sign the pledge are invited to participate in mass trainings where they can learn more about what is being done to confront the threats to immigrant communities. They are given opportunities to get involved as community educators, organizers of solidarity circles of close friends and neighbors, and as leaders of a nonviolent action corps to defend immigrant workers and families.
At a moment of fear and fracture, the Solidarity Organizing Initiative creates an opportunity for community, learning, leadership, and action, and builds important, new, decentralized civic infrastructure. These are the values that underlay a participatory multiracial democracy of care and community.
One powerful example of solidarity comes from a recent pledge taker, a young woman who is a member of Make the Road New Jersey. Originally from Honduras, she arrived in the United States as a child and spent years living without papers. Throughout that time, she intimately understood the constant fear of being undocumented, particularly when she watched ICE detain a family member. Still, she put herself through college and recently gained citizenship. Determined to ensure that others don’t have to face the same sense of hopelessness, she signed the solidarity pledge. Her commitment reflects a deep conviction about the importance of standing together to protect the dignity and rights of every individual, especially those vulnerable to the injustices she once faced.
The pledge is not just symbolic—it connects us to thousands across the country who share our conviction that every person is entitled to the same human rights. We believe in our collective resilience, and we know it has never been more urgent to engage as many people as possible to stand up for the society we aspire to build.
Over 6,600 people have already signed the solidarity pledge because they know it is right. For centuries Americans have refused to cooperate with edicts and policies they knew were wrong. We know from our own history that terrorizing and kidnapping a group of people because of their skin color, or where they were born, defies our most foundational principles. From the Boston Tea Party to the lunch counters of Mississippi, nonviolent resistance has proven to be a powerful tool to challenge oppression. The time is ripe to revive that great American tradition.
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In solidarity,
The Editors
The Nation
