Together We Rise: National Week of Action
The Trump Administration’s executive orders have severely impacted the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, Safe Pathways, and other humanitarian protections, targeting vulnerable communities, including refugees, TPS and HP holders, asylum seekers, and immigrants. From February 17–24, 2025, we will mobilize together to take action against hate and xenophobia while standing in support of refugees and immigrants.
Join us for a coordinated national week of action to stand in solidarity with refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrant communities. Our goal is to mobilize people across the country in a powerful and collective demonstration of support for refugee resettlement and safe pathways. To ensure that everyone can take action regardless of capacity, we’ve created a Menu of Action with different ways you and your communities can engage. The best events will be contextual, creative, and locally led, reflecting the unique needs and strengths of each community. From public events to simple but meaningful acts of solidarity, every action counts. Choose an idea that works for you, register your event on our website, and help us send a unified message: Refugees and immigrants are welcome here.
- Hold a public event to lift up impacted community members and push back against the latest executive actions harming refugee and immigrant communities. Invite people from impacted countries, refugees, refugee service providers, faith leaders, veterans, and local elected officials to speak during the event. Even small events, multiplied across the country, will send a powerful message to the administration and Congress that welcoming immigrants and refugees, and standing alongside Muslim community members, are part of our values as a country. Download this toolkit for more resources.
- Hold an educational forum about the impact of the refugee ban and recent executive orders on immigrant community members, inviting individuals from the targeted countries to share their experiences in the camps, the security process they went through, and how resettlement and seeking asylum to the US changed their lives, highlighting positive contributions.
- Host a Know Your Rights workshop. Impacted individuals, lawyers, and supportive community members have a lot of questions about how policy changes are impacting people’s lives. Hosting a community forum / Know Your Rights workshop can help inform and empower community members.
- Highlight a local refugee-owned business. Partner with a local refugee-owned or immigrant-owned restaurant, coffee/tea shop, or business to hold a public #RefugeesWelcome event and offer an opportunity to both support the business and facilitate intercultural dialogue around refugee and immigrant issues.
- Engage Your Local Elected Officials. Ask your local elected official to sign on to this letter and affirm their communities are ready to welcome refugees by taking action or posting on social media to help spread the word. Urge elected leaders to make a public statement in support of refugees and opposing the refugee ban. Take a step further by signing on to this letter as a concerned community member and ask your Mayor and City Council to pass a resolution affirming their support for refugees, asylum seekers, and Muslim communities. Encourage them to pursue the “Certified Welcoming” status through Welcoming America’s certification program.
- Call your Senators and Representatives! Urge them to stand with refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, humanitarian parolees, and TPS holders. Your voice matters—let them know that supporting these communities is essential to our American values, moral leadership, democratic principles, and economic prosperity. Find your Senators and House Representatives.
- Host a letter-writing event to Your Member of Congress. Gather community members to write personalized letters urging Congress to support refugee resettlement, asylum protections, and TPS policies. A collective, coordinated effort can amplify our voices and push for meaningful action. Here are talking points and messaging you can use about welcoming newcomers.
- Host a call-a-thon and ask community members and allies to call local and national legislators and demand that they denounce the harmful executive orders on the refugee and immigrant communities. Make it fun—set up a space, provide scripts, and track how many calls are made. Find your elected official here.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or an opinion editorial. Describe how the bans negatively impact your communities, the many contributions that Muslims and refugees make to your communities, and how the bans foster misunderstanding and hate. Click here to view sample letters you can send. Another related action item we can include here is identifying allied editors and news reporters and sending them a letter to thank them for their coverage while encouraging them to continue writing and supporting these important issues.
- Create a Faith and Solidarity Message Board. Set up a public message board in a school, faith institution, or community center where people can write messages of welcome, hope, and support for refugees and immigrants. Encourage participants to reflect on why they stand in solidarity with displaced communities. Take photos and share them online to amplify the message.
- Support a Refugee and/or Immgrant Mutual Aid Effort. Find and support a refugee and immigrant-led mutual aid network in your area. This could involve collecting donations, organizing a fundraiser, or providing direct aid such as groceries, hygiene kits, or transportation passes. Even small contributions can have a big impact on newly arrived families.
- Host an Interfaith Vigil. Connect with local faith leaders and community advocates, including those who are former refugees and immigrants. Faith communities have moral authority and can be a powerful force in shaping people’s actions and perspectives on immigration. You can use this tool as a step-by-step guide.
Be Creative! Flash mobs, theater, music, art, postcards to local resettlement offices, flowers, and messages of peace in front of places of worship—community-driven, creative actions can be powerful ways to engage new audiences and spark conversations. Organize your own event and make an impact!
