It's Difficult to Talk About ICE on the Internet

Ever since Immigration and Customs Enforcement was established by the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9/11, ICE has affected our food systems. One of the agency’s first large-scale workplace raids, in 2006, was a coordinated attack on six meatpacking plants across the Midwest in which 1,300 workers were arrested. And just last week, Civil Eats reported on dairy, grain, and livestock farmers all facing arrests, fear, and destabilization in the Minnesota area.   

The recent wave of ICE raids and killings has material effect on the food world. On farms, like this Oregonian cherry orchard, whole seasonal crops are wasted, left to rot on trees, as migrant farmers grapple between picking fruit or facing the brutality of ICE raids, detention, and deportation, according to CNN. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that over 40 percent of hired crop farmworkers are undocumented immigrants.

In Minnesota, restaurants have closed out of fear, staffing shortages, and in support of last week’s general strike (our friends over at Gourmet wrote about what protesters are eating in the meantime).

Far outside of Minnesota, workers and business owners are feeling the implications of participating in this protest. Caputo’s, in Salt Lake City, set up a tent to offer free food and drinks to protesters of ICE at the beginning of January, and the business was hit with a flurry of scolding one-star Google reviews — eventually counteracted by a flurry of positive reviews.

Even internet creators posting seemingly low-stakes messages in support of protesters are being censored and review-bombed by the online platforms that sustain them. All week, I’ve seen chefs and influencers post screenshots of plummeting follower counts and negative Amazon reviews of cookbooks. 

While internet entities like Google, Meta, and TikTok (which is under new, Trump-approved ownership), will never really function as the neutral platforms we might expect them to be, there will always be workarounds. Earlier this week, cookbook author and content creator Justine Doiron posted a cinnamon bun TikTok to her 2.4 million followers with a stealthy voiceover about why ICE is so dangerous. Mysteriously, the video only accrued 800 views in a 48-hour span, so she deleted it and created an even more stealthy version. On an increasingly right-wing internet hungry for “politically neutral” viral recipes but purporting themselves as spaces for free speech and expression, it’s shameful that stealth may be the best we can do. —Anna

Where to Donate Right Now

These are a few organizations working to dismantle immigration detention and deportation systems, while supporting people directly impacted by ICE.

Anti-Detention and Abolitionist Groups

These organizations work to end immigration detention and enforcement:

• Freedom for Immigrants: Immigrant-led and abolitionist. They run a national detention hotline, fight detention expansion, and support people inside detention centers.
• Detention Watch Network: A national coalition organizing to end immigration detention and deportation through grassroots campaigns like Communities Not Cages.

Legal Defense

These groups offer legal representation and litigation that help people avoid detention, secure release, and fight deportation:

• Immigrant Defense Project: They focus on stopping detention and deportation, at the intersection of immigration and criminal law.
• National Immigrant Justice Center: They provide direct legal services to people facing detention and deportation, plus policy advocacy nationwide.
• Amica Center for Immigrant Rights: Another organization that provides strategic litigation and legal defense for immigrants in detention.

Immigrant-Led Advocacy 

These groups focus on long-term systemic change, led by people directly impacted.

• United We Dream: The largest immigrant youth-led organization in the U.S., supporting DACA recipients and organizing against ICE expansion.
• National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: A network that works to advance immigrant and refugee rights through grassroots organizing and advocacy.
• National Immigration Law Center: Works to defend and advance the rights of low-income immigrants through impact litigation and policy work.

Mutual Aid and Rapid Response

If you’re able, consider donating locally to immigrant-led mutual aid or rapid-response networks in your city. Tending the Soil is a Minnesota-based community organization currently raising emergency funds for transportation, food, safety gear and more for protesters at the frontlines in Minneapolis.

You can also call your local representatives using 5calls. There's a senate vote tomorrow, Thursday, Jan. 29, regarding funding for ICE in 2026, and 5calls provides you a script and and contact information so you can let your representatives know that you don't support the bill.