Defend and Recruit is a project of Siembra NC, a Latino base-building organization in North Carolina.
Siembra NC’s roots are from 2017, when we began as a direct response to Trump’s immigration attacks. In early 2025, we turned our lessons into a simple Google Doc playbook because we knew the same playbook of hate and fear would return. You can read about our work and launch here, here, and here.
Since then, through our toolkits, trainings, and shared resources, we’ve:
- Trained thousands of people across the country.
- Helped the formation of over 100 new local groups and defense networks that have changed the national story on immigration while being grounded in building real community power.
- Empowered over 2,000 currently existing organizations, groups, unions and worker collectives, and networks to adopt new strategies and run effective campaigns supporting immigrants in their communities.
Our strategies include:
- Empowering local groups to build and scale local ICE watch networks and hotlines – because we protect us
- Growing networks of Fourth Amendment Workplaces, training employers and workers to understand their rights if ICE shows up.
- Campaigning against corporations enabling ICE, including helping to lead and win a national, cross movement fight campaign against Avelo Airlines, the only private airline carrier complicit in ICE’s deportation system
- Sharing and curating a growing library of toolkits and resources that help groups defend immigrants and build local power — on campuses; during times escalated crisis, like when Border Patrol and other raids are happening; and ways to win local strategies like passing municipal resolutions and legislation, and more.
We are supporting the national network for immigration defense, a community rooted in the urgent need to defend our people and protect one another. But we know that lasting change requires transforming solidarity into structure, translating defense into offense, and outrage into organizing.
We offer:
- Training and coaching to established and growing groups to take on or scale immigration strategies to build power
- Peer connection and community in challenging times
- Effective strategies and tactics you can adapt to defend your community and build organizing and collective power
- Inspiration and hope for the world we’re trying to build, building resilience with each other
You can:
- Build in North Carolina by getting more involved. Learn more here.
- Build in your community by downloading resources, watching or attending trainings, and when you have a group of 5 or more who want coaching or advice, email us at hola@defendandrecruit.org
- Build the broader movement by sharing resources with us to share with others (email them to us at hola@defendandrecruit.org), signing up to get the latest, and donating.