THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S OCCUPATION of Washington, DC, began in August 2025. The Army National Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security (HSI), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and other federal officers already have an outsized presence in DC; in August, still more agents swarmed the District, conducting a nauseatingly cruel sweep of unhoused Washingtonians before launching a still-ongoing, terroristic attack on District residents: highway checkpoints; on-the-street jumpouts; and abductions outside workplaces, schools, and homes. Similar “surges” took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and — still ongoing — Minneapolis, where ICE murdered a community responder, Renee Nicole Good, in January 2026.
DC’s immigrant communities and allies organized in response, including the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, where multiple chapter formations came together to develop a strategy that became the newly formed Community Defense Working Group. The working group has focused on patrolling neighborhoods — looking out for ICE activity and keeping neighbors informed — and direct action. This work, by long-standing community organizations and MDC DSA, has continued throughout the months, evolving to match changing federal tactics and community needs. It preceded the Trump administration, and it will certainly carry on after Trump and his army of federalized brownshirts leave DC’s streets.
The Washington Socialist sat down with two Metro DC DSA Community Defense organizers to discuss the occupation of DC, socialists’ work to protect each other and our communities, the value of direct action, and more. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity, length and context...
The Washington Socialist: Can you talk about the foundation of Metro DC DSA’s rapid response efforts, including before the 2025 occupation of DC?
Cee: I moved to DC in August of 2017; that was officially Trump’s first year. There were just talks of starting a Migrant Justice Working Group. The consensus was that we could help out with what was something of a rapid response effort, at the time, with a group called Sanctuary DMV. If they heard reports of someone being detained, responders would show up. The problem was, we wouldn't get there in time, because there weren’t patrols. Don’t get me wrong, Sanctuary DMV was awesome and did a lot of incredible work (and even participated in our actions). But we definitely ended up finding our niche with direct actions.
We created this direct action strategy, we researched companies that were getting a lot of funding from ICE; researching executives, lobbyists who were in the DMV area. And we would go out and protest in front of their house, let their neighbors know what exactly they did for a living and how they earned their money. Eventually we actually went to Tom Homan’s house in Virginia. In addition to that, we were also notified that Kirstjen Nielsen, who was the head of the Department of Homeland Security at the time, was eating at a restaurant, and we were able to get a lot of people in our group to go and protest her at the restaurant.
That was the norm for a long time. We were on the verge of changing tactics and going after one specific company, at the time it was Deloitte, and this was going to involve a lot of agitating the workers in the building, in the company; going directly in that building, doing direct actions there. But then COVID hit.
That was the problem: Our strategy was so reliant on people being together, being confrontational, direct action. Because now these workers weren’t at the buildings, they were at home. There wasn’t the potential for even organizing within that office space. And we were kind of stuck with the question, what do we do now? A lot of us went to focusing more in the SOS [Stomp Out Slumlords tenant organizing] sphere. A lot of the immigrant community we knew at the time, because they depended so much on jobs that were deeply affected by COVID, we were helping them in their buildings, helped organize volunteers to help them fill out forms for rental relief. At the same time, the Northern Virginia branch of Metro DC DSA did a lot of great work with La Colectiva, at the time, of getting rid of the cooperation between Arlington Police and ICE. And I know there were a lot of people in the chapter that were helping when states were bussing people into DC: meeting people at the bus, providing them with necessities, places to stay, things like that. And that kind of coalesced with [the Abolition Working Group].
So there was some work being done [before August 2025], not very directly, not in your face. But that brought us to the occupation, where things were in our face — and something had to be done as soon as possible.
Things really ratcheted up in August. What did the early days look like, as you were beginning to prepare for and respond to the occupation?
Peu: Thinking back to those early days, everything was coming up very organically. Many DSA members had joined up with a nonprofit for patrols, but when I attempted to join and help organize the patrols, the people I spoke to were too beyond capacity to take my offer.
Early on, at the beginning of the occupation, there was a discussion between MDC DSA and DSA LA. And that was a very helpful discussion — they talked about everything they had seen, everything they were doing for rapid response and mass patrols. Some very specific logistics like what do the ICE cars look like, how have things changed as federal agencies have responded to DSA’s rapid response. And then bigger ideas, like one big idea: don’t ask for permission, just do it. You can ask for forgiveness later. There’s no time for internal debates; you need to just start projects and do them. And that philosophy has helped us a lot. We need to keep moving and keep trying things to keep people safe.
The beginnings of the Community Defense Working Group came out of the mass meeting that the chapter put on. It was a big meeting, lots of community members wanting to talk about patrols, direct action, legislative strategies, trying to connect people based on their wards and their neighborhoods. And there was a group of organizers that, coming out of that meeting, thought that we as DSA we can do something more direct and take leadership in something. And then our first patrol took place a week or two later.
Cee: This was kind of the feeling for everyone, every group. We were all kind of in a little shock about what to do since Trump got reelected. I remember there were talks, even with SOS, like: how are we going to help make sure that immigrant communities in the building are protected?
In that mass meeting, I was in the group that was discussing direct action. I realized we may have kind of lost that institutional knowledge on how to do direct action. It was time for us to step up and, for those who have that knowledge, to try and bring it back into the chapter.
That takes us to some of the first patrols and direct actions that were being organized. Can you talk about how those coalesced and what that looked like in practice — how you were doing direct actions and keeping people safe?
Peu: Basically, the advice of DSA LA was for MDC DSA to find its niche, what it’d be good at, what we could offer that others weren’t offering. So instead of spread-out patrols all over the District, with people patrolling by themselves, we picked a neighborhood that was hit the hardest by ICE activity and we picked the times that were hit the hardest, and we had a group of people out at those times. So that way nobody’s coming to a detainment scene by themselves; there are people who are walking over or biking over who can come help. I think all the riskiest things I’ve seen and been a part of, I was by myself. So being in a group is very important to that. The other point of why we picked the neighborhood we did, and why we were doing the times that we did, is that we started this as a collaboration with and expanding upon a tenant association who were doing their own patrols to help protect their neighbors. So we immediately were like, we’ll come and bring DSA people to go out at the same time.
Cee: For most of us, this is our neighborhood. This is my neighborhood.
Peu: That’s a great point.
So we had a big group of people, collaborating with a tenant association. We were also in communication with a couple other tenant associations. The spots that we picked to patrol are in response to places we know are full of immigrants.
So what the patrols look like: basically, when we see a detainment, we tell a bunch of people. Somebody is talking to the detainee, to get their name, to get a phone number to call. Somebody is filming, somebody is reporting it to the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid (MSMA) hotline. And then we have folks that go out on bikes as well: they can follow vehicles on the scene and alert the neighborhood of ICE’s presence.
So that was the beginning of the patrols, and we’ve been refining ever since. We’ve been collaborating with other patrols and local groups, trying to expand in that way.
Cee: I think the only other thing to add is that through the patrols we really started to build relationships with other organizations, other patrol groups, and the community members — people on the street, just because they live there. I think that was a point when it became much more than us trying something else, it became something real.
Peu: Once we were connected with local groups, it made things run with a totally different speed. And even just in terms of bringing in people in the community, people have been really inspired by what we do. I know three people who said they joined DSA because of what we’re doing, because they joined patrols and were like, “this is what we want to be a part of.” That part is really inspiring: people recognize what we’re doing and want to join us.
Are there times when you see the real, tangible impacts of your patrols — warning people that ICE is around and people are kept safe by that, for example, or when you’re able to help get someone who’s being detained in contact with a family member or lawyer?
Peu: Yeah. The scene has changed significantly since August-September. That’s when we saw the most ICE activity, but we’re still seeing it. But absolutely. I’ve had stretches of two or three hours when I’ve seen like three or four detainments — and that’s where we’re getting people’s phone numbers, calling it into the hotline. We also have Spanish speakers on patrol who just call the family members themselves; the hotline might not be able to notify members for a certain amount of time, so being able to call the family immediately, so they know what happened, so they can come get the car, so they can come get a pet, so they can immediately respond, that’s really impactful. As far as calling it into the MSMA hotline, they connect folks to legal services as well, and the pictures and videos that we take are sent to their lawyers, and they’re used in their clients’ cases. So absolutely we see an impact there, as well.
Cee: Many of the activities and tactics we do, without being specific, slow ICE down; they make it harder for them to do what they do. We know, because we talk to the community: even when there aren’t ICE activities going on, we’ve heard from the community that they feel safer because they see us out there. So that’s something I always consider important.
Peu: We definitely piss ICE off; they don’t want to see us. At first I felt a little silly following them around and saying, “hey, this is ICE,” but it did really piss them off. Sometimes they’d stop and say they would arrest me — they did not. One time they tried to run me off the road, which was pretty scary. You’ll see them run through red lights to try to lose us, that kind of thing. And I’m just some person on a bike.
But their tactics have changed. They used to have checkpoints. They used to take a long time when detaining people. They absolutely do not now. They’re in and out in a few minutes, and we have to work really quickly to make sure people get there.
Are there things that people should be looking out for when it comes to ICE?
Peu: There are obvious tells: if it’s a car without license plates and they’re not being pulled over by a police car that’s next to them, they’re obviously ICE or they’re part of the alphabet soup of federal agencies that have been deputized to work on immigration. Sometimes they tape up their plates. They may have out-of-state plates; often, but not always. There’s certain makes and models of cars that are very popular. Tinted windows, tinted so dark you can barely see inside, multiple people inside.
They will try to hide it, right? They might take off their vests in the car, they might try to put things in their front dash to make the cars look normal. If you’re seeing a few cars in a convoy and they have dark, tinted windows, keep a look out.
You can definitely notice them, you can definitely get good at spotting them. You also get a little paranoid, and you can’t really look at the street the same way again.
As ICE’s tactics and strategy has changed, how has the day-to-day Community Defense work changed, and what does it look like moving forward — as much as you can anticipate that?
Peu: Our overall model is the same as the beginning. We are doing more with data now, so we can be better at picking times and places for patrols. The hope is that we can not just do more ground patrols, but that we can train other local pods to do what we’re doing. The moral of the whole story is collaboration. We can’t do it on our own, and we shouldn’t. It’s way better to bring people in and to foster leadership. But the overall patrol idea is mostly the same.
Cee: What we haven’t really talked about, because it’s now being more developed, is another direct action side of protest and things like that. We’re working a lot with a coalition of organizations and the Families Not Feds coalition, and the Abolition Working Group is a part of that, too. With that, we’re focusing on the collaboration between the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the federal forces and agencies — trying to hold Bowser and the DC Council accountable. And the hope is that we can break this cooperation; our belief is that will make it harder for ICE to do their duties. That’s the flip side of the coin in our analysis. We do the rapid response to ICE with the patrols and other activities, but also, what are we doing to hopefully make it harder for them to do what they’re doing?
What difference do you think it would have made to have a mayor and a Council willing to stand up for constituents?
Peu: You see what’s coming out of Minneapolis, and Chicago, and Charlotte — what it feels like to have mayors stand up for people. Meanwhile our mayor pretends that she doesn’t know what’s happening. But they know what they’re doing is unpopular. MPD knows what they’re doing is unpopular, so they want to just hide it as best they can. And because they’re hiding it, and because ICE is trying to be stealthy and not do checkpoints anymore, a lot of people don’t know the extent of the collaboration. And for a lot of people that DO know the extent of collaboration, they don’t trust the police anymore! You have lots of people who aren’t going to call the police anymore. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau just published the committee report about this — she did a report about the hearing that she had — but it just doesn’t seem like the rest of the Council, besides Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, is willing to stand up for people.
Cee: One of the main political problems is this fear of losing Home Rule, and that’s understandable. It’s crazy, because the more our leaders capitulate, the more that foundation crumbles beneath them. And they ask us to behave, to do this the “right way” or to “wait until the midterms.” All the while, our neighbors are being torn from the streets. Yes, there probably is a lot of things they cannot do. What I would like to see, as someone who lives in DC, is for them to even fucking try. What that would do is inspire the community to actually feel empowered because their leaders are actually taking a stand. There are great people doing great work here, but I do feel a sense that a lot of people are still not sure what to do. They’re unsure of their own power and their ability, and part of that, I think, is because the leaders of the District have not been a good example of what it looks like to fight.
How can members plug in to community defense work?
Peu: You can come out on patrol; we’ll train you, we can partner you up with experienced people on your first time. If you do not feel comfortable patrolling and want to help patrols, we have dispatchers who stay on the phone for the bikers and for people in cars, and that is extremely helpful — keeping tabs on the chats, crossposting between chats, keeping people informed of what’s going on and where to go. There are also a lot of logistics that go into direct action that people can help with.
Cee: We can always use people that are willing to do literature or graphics or social media work. DC seems to be struggling with getting more awareness out there. I’ve heard people saying, “oh, they’re still doing detainments?” And I’ve been hearing that for months.
And finally, come out to the rallies, the ones by us and by other coalition partners — show up, and then learn more about this work. You can reach out to us and work alongside us.
Peu: We need people on the frontlines, we need people on the backlines. The unglamorous work is just as important.
Anything else you want to touch on?
Peu: We could talk about the Brooke Pinto action, right?
Cee: The Families Not Feds coalition had been trying to urge Councilmember Pinto to actually hold a hearing with MPD to discuss what is going on with the collaboration between MPD and federal agents, what was going on during that 30-day “emergency” period when the federal government took control of MPD, and then we actually, with some people in the Abolition Working Group and people in the Families Not Feds coalition, went and spoke at a different hearing on public safety, demanding that she hold this hearing. Then we had a direct action where we marched in front of her house, had people speak, and directly called her out, demanding that she hold this hearing.
We’re doing more work along those lines. There are talks of other ways that we can directly call out other councilmembers and even the mayor herself — she might not be running again, but she can’t get away with this without being held accountable.
Why direct action? Why is this an important part of the strategy to fight back against these attacks on our neighbors?
Cee: It’s just one more arrow in the quiver. I think there are two advantages to direct action. One, I think, is how empowering it is for participants. I think if it’s done right, there’s a lot of education, without even realizing it, that happens when people participate in direct actions. Because, you know, they are the ones doing the work; they’re not relying on a politician to do it for them. On the other side: in the original Migrant Justice Working Group, and even SOS, when we first started, we always followed this concept that what really disrupts power is when you make their work extremely difficult. The idea that a lot of their power is gained by convincing people that this is just the way it is — and direct action actually steps in and says, “no it’s not, and we refuse to comply with that.” So that, I think, is the other part of direct action, why it’s needed, and why we do what we do.
Right now, Minneapolis is in the midst of complete warfare on immigrants, residents, and community responders, and it’s sure to spread to other cities. Are there general pieces of advice you have for other DSA chapters to prepare for these surges in their areas?
Peu: Definitely to move quickly and not ask for permission. Be open to just trying things and doing the project and making it happen quickly, and then figuring out what’s going wrong. My instinct is to try to perfect something before putting it out in the world, and that is the opposite of what you need to do.
DSA cannot do anything on its own, and it shouldn’t attempt to in any given community. You’re working in an ecosystem with other groups, hyperlocal groups, and finding the thing that DSA can do best. Sometimes it’s a matter of bringing a lot of people in to do something. Sometimes we have organizing expertise, or we have people with individual skills, like research, statistics, that kind of thing. So what you actually do depends on what’s already happening in your city.
Cee: Start talking to your neighbors. This started as us working together with a tenant association that was already doing this, so organize your building if you live in a building [and] start talking about this particular issue, what you can do to protect your neighbors.
To stay up to date on the Community Defense Working Group, follow their Instagram.
