For more than a year, communities across the country have endured violent crackdowns by ICE agents and National Guard troops. These federal deployments have been shocking and devastating, and no one has experienced more direct attacks than our immigrant families and neighbors. In the face of such terror, our communities have courageously navigated these federal deployments – offering us a model of care where neighbors, local governments, and school districts mobilize to keep each other safe.
To meet this moment, we need to organize together and share strategies of resistance that help us to chart a new path forward. That’s why the Local Progress Impact Lab – together with our partners at Public Rights Project and Mayors for America – brought together local electeds from across the country for a strategy meeting: Organizing with Local Power – Resisting Authoritarianism in Los Angeles, CA.
Almost 100 local elected officials, staff, and partners came to Los Angeles for the two-day strategy meeting focused on our communities’ response to these unprecedented federal deployments. As the Trump Administration continues to send ICE agents into our communities to wreak havoc and sow fear, it’s essential that we share learnings across geographies, deepen our toolbox of municipal interventions, and prepare for future federal incursions.
Attendees included Local Progress members who have experienced these federal deployments firsthand, as well as members who have been leading efforts to prepare for and protect their communities from gross federal overreach. We were also joined by partners who’ve been diligently working to support local communities in their fight against authoritarianism, from new policy interventions to innovative organizing strategies.
On our first day, we brought together local leaders from the largest metropolitan areas in the country to share what they’ve learned from direct federal occupation. Their lessons are key not only to understanding what’s next but also to how localities, big and small, can prepare for resistance. On the second day, we were thrilled to welcome more local leaders, labor partners, and allies to strategize on the new playbook for local leaders and partners to use.
Returning home to cities across the country, everyone at this first-of-its-kind convening is bringing back critical lessons and connections from one of the toughest years in American history. From so much unprecedented pain and violence from the federal government, we are creating new opportunities to assert local power. This convening created a new ecosystem of learning and connection that will stand in direct opposition to the centralization of power under the Trump Administration.
Our work is far from over, but this first step is how we keep our families and neighbors safe and our communities whole.