📎 Federal Resource Round-Up

As we approach the 100 day mark of this federal administration, the executive branch, Congress, and billionaires continue attacking our communities on multiple fronts all at once: escalating abductions and disappearances of dissenting views and students, accelerating the mass detention and deportation of immigrants, and continuing to threaten and dismantle federal agencies, programs, and funding.

These assaults are meant to be overwhelming, so our goal for these round-ups is to connect you with key, timely information and resources from Local Progress and the Impact Lab plus our partners – and to help you focus on where local power can be effectively leveraged in this moment.

🧰 Resource Update: Tools to Interrupt Criminalization

The federal administration has escalated its use of criminalization to target immigrant communities and suppress dissent. In the past few weeks alone, over 300 student visas have been revoked on political grounds, and more than 200 immigrants—like Maryland father Abrego Garcia—have been deported to a notorious torture facility in El Salvador in defiance of court orders. 

These acts are part of a broader strategy: using criminalization to silence opposition and enforce policies that consolidate right-wing power. Local governments have the ability—and responsibility—to push back.

Here’s how we can act:

• Anchor our messaging. Use LP’s updated guides–Protecting Immigrant Rights Under a Hostile Federal Administration and Let’s Talk Real Safety–to align around a strong, consistent narrative. New content includes Best Practices for messaging on immigration and guidance on Responding to a Raid in your Community; and Addressing Public Suffering and Ending Harm and Surveillance, emphasizing the urgent need to move away from carceral solutions and toward real investments that address the root causes of harm.
• Interrupt policies that criminalize residents. Reach out to Interrupting Criminalization’s Help Desk for 1:1 assistance with any organizing, policy, budget, or litigation strategies.
• Strengthen community defense. Invite a local partner organization to sign up for National Immigration Project’s “Removal Defense for Community Defenders” training starting in May. 

• Apply for funding. Vera is accepting applications for jurisdictions committed to creating or expanding publicly funded deportation defense programs. Local governments are eligible for catalyst funding up to $100,000 for one year. Applications are due April 21 at 11:59pm PT. Learn more and apply here.

🏛️ Federal Firings and Grant Freezes: What Local Leaders Need to Know and Do

The federal administration has frozen funding for essential programs that families rely on, fired thousands of federal workers delivering critical services, suspended transformative clean energy projects, and threatened lasting cuts to Medicaid and social services. 

Here are two resources to support local leaders in responding:

• Join the briefing. Register now for “Firings, Freezes, and Fallout: How the Trump Administration is Harming Local Communities”—a livestreamed briefing with our partners on Wednesday, April 23 at 12pm PT to learn what’s happening and what’s coming next. 

• Challenge unlawful award terminations. A new issue brief outlines how localities and grantees can challenge federal award terminations in district court, why that jurisdiction matters, and what legal strategies might be effective. 
  
  

🏳️‍🌈 What Localities Can Do to Protect Queer Communities

​​In recent months, the Trump Administration—alongside right-wing state governments—has escalated its campaign to push LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people, out of public life. These attacks are part of a broader strategy to erase queer and trans existence through fear, surveillance, and exclusion.

But local leaders are pushing back. Across the country, communities are advancing a bold vision rooted in safety, dignity, and autonomy. Our latest resource highlights local action in Ohio, Iowa, California, and other states; offers helpful tools; and outlines key steps jurisdictions can take now:

• Create gender-affirming local IDs. As the federal government moves to erase accurate sex markers, cities can issue municipal photo IDs that allow trans and genderqueer residents to self-attest their name and sex designation.
• Protect students’ rights. Pass and enforce school district policies that affirm students’ names, pronouns, participation in activities and sports, access to facilities, and protection from being outed or disciplined for gender expression. 
• Fund access to gender-affirming care. In jurisdictions where care is banned or restricted, localities can offer flexible funds to support travel for care. Where care is legal, invest in local provision and welcome services for out-of-state families.

📣 Your Advocacy is Working 

During the first few months of the Trump Administration, LP members and our allies led the charge in publicly condemning HR 32 – the “No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities” Act – helping to shape a visible narrative of opposition to the harmful bill. LP members mobilized and took action – calling key members of Congress, engaging local media, and making clear that any advancement of the bill would be met with fierce public resistance. In the face of this coordinated pushback from local electeds and key allies, the bill was quietly tabled and ultimately abandoned—an early defeat for Trump-era anti-immigrant policymaking and a key victory for our network under the new administration. This win serves as an important reminder that your organizing matters in this moment. 


Photo credit to Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; retrieved from NPR