As fears of immigration arrests flare, a network of Arlington organizations has been quietly but rapidly mobilizing to help undocumented residents and hinder immigration enforcement.
Local communities were already on the alert when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out multiple raids in Northern Virginia yesterday and today (Tuesday).
One man was arrested in Arlington as he was getting into his car at an apartment complex on 4th Street N., Telemundo 44 reported. This morning, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem brought an ABC News crew along for an ICE operation reportedly in Arlington, warning of “consequences” for illegal immigration.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is bringing “consequences” during raids in Virginia on Tuesday.@ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott covered the raids at the scene. https://t.co/E0cJOElvIO
— ABC News (@ABC) March 4, 2025
Following the raids, multiple Virginia advocacy groups spoke out today, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of attempting to instill fear in immigrant communities.
“This is the latest in a series of escalating discriminatory attacks made to persecute and isolate immigrants,” Eduardo Zelaya, director of Virginia organizing at CASA in Action, said in a press release. “This fear-mongering is purposely meant to take away our power and make it socially acceptable for hateful policies against us as Black and brown people.”
Anxieties around immigration arrests have mingled with reality since Trump took office, sources told ARLnow. In the face of rapidly changing policies across the Potomac, a behind-the-scenes opposition movement has been taking shape in Arlington.
Shortly after the inauguration, the Arlington County Board voted with no publicly posted documents or significant public discussion, awarding $250,000 to a local nonprofit for “humanitarian support services.” This money has since made its way to two organizations providing legal support to undocumented Arlington residents.
Other efforts have included a push to pass out thousands of cards with advice on how to interact with ICE and potentially avoid getting arrested. Public meetings and legal representation for undocumented Arlington residents are only expected to expand in coming weeks as advocacy groups become more organized.
In interviews and statements to ARLnow, Arlington officials, activists and members of immigrant communities underscored what they view as the urgency of these initiatives. They described rampant fear, broad distrust and difficult tradeoffs between safety and basic needs as the reality of raids mingles with rumor.
“People are asking themselves, what will happen with their kids? What will happen with our kids if we’re detained, or if we’re put in a deportation process?” Arlington Mill resident Beatriz Batres told ARLnow in Spanish via an interpreter. “It feels like arriving home at the end of every long day is a victory — just to make it back safely.”
Like progressive groups around the country, many local organizations argue that the Trump administration’s attempts to root out crime threaten the rights and well-being of valued community members. However, approaches to messaging and action have varied as leaders weigh communities’ desires against potential risks and respect for the rule of law.
For Ashley Goff, pastor of Arlington Presbyterian Church, “it’s solidarity or bust at this point.”
“Everyone has a role to play,” Goff told ARLnow. “Everyone needs to determine the risk they’re willing to take — and whatever those risks are, they need to take those risks, for the sake of the well-being of the county. We’re all tied up into this together in some way, and so every entity, every person, has a role to play in how to care for each other.”
A quiet County Board vote
On Jan. 28, eight days after Trump took office, County Board Chair Takis Karantonis introduced an unusual motion in the final minutes of a lengthy recessed meeting.
With no related agenda item or published documents, he proposed to allocate $250,000 in county funds for the Arlington Community Foundation (ACF). The Board unanimously approved the decision with no comments from any officials or members of the public.
The intention of the vote, Board spokesperson David Barrera told ARLnow, was “to increase ACF’s capacity to provide humanitarian services and support to the most vulnerable in Arlington.”
“Considering the potential impact of federal government policy shifts, the Arlington County Board determined that additional support was likely to be needed in our community, especially our immigrant community,” he said.
In response to further questions about the lack of publicized materials, Barrera said that Virginia state code doesn’t require governing bodies to advertise grants in advance of awarding them.
“Given the recent national policy shifts that have caused tremendous fear and uncertainty in our community, the Board felt it prudent to act expeditiously to award this money to a trusted community partner to provide humanitarian services and support,” he said.
A grant agreement, provided to ARLnow upon request, requires ACF to coordinate with other groups on various services for local immigrant communities. These include workshops on people’s Constitutional rights, “printed materials for distribution,” consultation and legal representation for people arrested by immigration enforcement, and planning help for parents who might be detained.
ACF has since divided the county’s funds between two nonprofits that provide immigration legal services: Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) and Just Neighbors. While LAJC provides rapid response for residents in crisis, Just Neighbors works with residents seeking permanent legal status.
“We’re pleased to deploy these funds to help Arlington residents understand the rights afforded to them under the U.S. Constitution — regardless of immigration status — and facilitate access to quality legal representation,” ACF President Jennifer Owens told ARLnow.
In contrast to the County Board’s quiet actions, other Arlington officials are opposing ICE more openly. Last week, the Arlington School Board adopted a policy revision restricting access for law enforcement other than the Arlington County Police Department.
Under the new change, state and federal law enforcement without a warrant will be barred from entering APS facilities beyond the main office.
‘Our front desk is slammed’
Both Just Neighbors and LAJC plan to expand Arlington services to meet surging demand.
Exactly how much demand has increased is difficult to say, as locality-specific data on immigration arrests is limited. The Legal Aid Justice Center currently represents 22 Arlington residents with immigration cases, seven of which have come since Trump took office.
“But honestly, that’s not a great picture of anything,” said Rohmah Javed, legal director of the Immigrant Justice Program at LAJC. “We’ve turned down a lot of people because we didn’t have capacity — so it doesn’t reflect the need, really. Yes, our front desk is slammed with calls now and they are almost all immigration related.”
With $125,000 in county funds, LAJC has planned a full slate of new initiatives in Arlington between now and June 2026.
It plans to provide immigration consultations for at least 70 Arlington residents, hosting monthly consults at Arlington Mill and providing consultation to all callers who contact a rapid response hotline. It also plans to represent at least 40 residents at defensive hearings and to help at least 200 residents create “family preparedness plans” including power-of-attorney and guardianship documents.
Finally, the organization intends to host at least 10 virtual and in-person “know-your-rights” sessions for Arlington residents. One of these is tentatively scheduled to happen later this month in partnership with the Arlington County Democratic Committee.
These initiatives come at a time when, Javed said, “fear is at an absolute, all-time high” as many people don’t know what information sources to trust and are struggling to keep up with rapidly changing laws.
“We’re trying to match the community pace,” she said. “If they need information to alleviate fear, that’s what we’re responding to urgently.”
Just Neighbors also received $125,000 from ACF. It plans to host intake clinics for people trying to achieve permanent status, plus monthly question-and-answer sessions for staff at direct service providers, Owens said.
Just Neighbors declined to comment on this story.
AFAC coordinates advice on ICE
Elsewhere in Arlington, the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) has ramped up efforts to inform clientele, volunteers and the greater community about ways to handle ICE.
The nonprofit is in the process of distributing 10,000 “know-your-rights” cards in six different languages across its sites and to other groups in the county and Falls Church, CEO Charlie Meng told ARLnow. He views this as part of AFAC’s mission to treat all clients with “dignity.”
“Part of that dignity is providing information that’s relevant to them and helpful to them — information they may not get elsewhere and accurate information,” he said.
Since January, AFAC has fielded dozens of concerns from clients and volunteers on safety and protocol, should ICE arrive at their doorstep. However, Meng said attendance has not dropped at his food distribution sites — although other other food banks in the D.C. area have reported fewer clients due to fears of immigration enforcement.
AFAC has never tracked clients’ immigration status.
Its scanner card system, meanwhile, allows friends, family or neighbors to pick up clients’ food for them, if they are unable to visit in-person. If this is not possible, AFAC also offers a home food delivery service.
Additionally, the nonprofit has installed “private property” signs on all its exterior doors, which emphasize that AFAC’s buildings are “accessible to authorized personnel only.”
In a Feb. 4 mass email, Meng directed all volunteers to immediately report any law enforcement interactions or “out of the ordinary” sightings to staff. He alluded to “detailed plans ready to implement if necessary,” but provided few specifics.
“We’re in an era of revenge politics, so I don’t know what [Trump will] do or they will do,” Meng told ARLnow. “I just hope they respect AFAC and pick up people elsewhere, if they have to.”
In addition to distributing cards and posting signs, AFAC has sent informational ICE pamphlets to about 20 nonprofits nearby. It has offered its food services to faith communities that intend to become immigrant “sanctuary sites.”
“I’ve talked to a number of pastors, and I basically said, you know, ‘we can do what we do best, and that is, provide you food,'” Meng said.
Frustrations with public attitudes
While nonprofits like AFAC, LAJC and Just Neighbors kick into gear, some advocates argue that an even more aggressive response is needed.
Members of La ColectiVA — an Arlington-based group that has spent years pushing for the county to end all voluntary cooperation with immigration enforcement — expressed frustration with limits to organizations’ public support for undocumented communities. They argued that needs far outweigh the benefits of caution.
Batres, who is an organizer with La ColectiVA, said that many of her friends and neighbors are facing hard decisions about whether, for instance, walking to the bus stop to get to work is worth the risk of getting stopped by ICE. Some people, she noted, are afraid to even attend workshops teaching them about their rights.
“Every day, our community members are facing fear,” Batres said. “When they wake up in the morning, they have to go to work and ask themselves if they’re even going to make it back home.”
Adding to anxieties is widespread lack of understanding about policies at both the national and the local level, organizer Allison Beltran said.
“Not only are people expressing, of course, fear and stress, exhaustion, but one of the main things that I’ve personally been hearing every single day from neighbors in Arlington is this overwhelming confusion about the policy — what the rules are,” she said.
La ColectiVA, along with other local groups, has been attempting to ensure people have accurate information about when the Arlington County Police Department can and cannot contact ICE.
“Community members are desperately looking for these answers because they want to protect themselves,” Beltran said. “They want to protect their families. They want to stay together; they want to take care of their daily responsibilities. They want to go to work, pay their rent, do their child care, and they want to do things right — but it’s hard to do things right when you don’t know what to do.”
Beyond spreading information, La ColectiVA has recently helped fundraise for Free Them All VA, which posts bail for people detained by immigration enforcement. A representative for Free Them All said the group has bonded out two people in Northern Virginia since January, but could not provide more specific information for privacy reasons.
While efforts move forward, Beltran said that many groups, in her view, have been revealing where they truly stand.
“We’re starting to see a lot more clearly the difference between organizations that say they might be pro-migrant rights, pro solutions for immigration, and those who are actually doing the work — who are on the ground with the people in the community,” she said.
Lingering dilemmas for advocates
While many local groups agree that Arlington’s immigrant communities need greater support, there is no consensus on the form that support should take or how public it should be.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington, for instance, works extensively with immigrants. They run food pantries that serve numerous Spanish-speaking clients and are currently working to resettle 330 refugees who have come into the church’s care since October.
The Arlington diocese has walked a careful line in its rhetoric, however. Shortly after Trump took office, Bishop Michael Burbidge issued a statement on the Church’s mission to “defend and protect the most vulnerable, even as we defend the rights and duties of nations to govern themselves and to safeguard the common good.”
Arlington Catholic Charities President Stephen Carattini offered a guarded response to questions about the needs of undocumented immigrants in particular.
“No Church ministry should hesitate to provide that vital assistance our faith compels us to offer: celebrate the Mass and offer the sacraments, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, and welcome the stranger,” he said. “Catholic Charities will continue to serve the poor, protect the vulnerable, and welcome the newcomer as we have for more than 50 years.”
Goff, whose congregation on Columbia Pike has been producing know-your-rights cards by hand, takes a far sharper stance on the Trump administration and its effects on Arlington communities.
“The role of the church is to speak truth to power,” she said. “We’re ready to face this threat that seeks to disrupt the well-being of our neighbors.”
At LAJC, Javed acknowledged the difficult choices organizations face, particularly as some fear possible retaliation from the federal government. She hesitated when asked about how she believes groups should navigate those concerns.
“I’ll say this,” she said. “I’m so thrilled that Arlington gave us the money and has shown such support for the immigrant community in that way.”
Batres, for her part, still thinks that organizations and individuals throughout the county need to do more.
In the face of federal crackdowns, she argued that Arlington residents of all walks of life should stand with immigrants like her.
“We’re asking the general Arlington population: raise your voices with us. Participate in these public meetings,” she said. “We all deserve dignity and justice when we are in our community, in our homes, and we deserve the right to live safely.”
