We, The People, Dissent by Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

November 2026

We, The People, Dissent

Comparing Today’s Immigration Enforcement Operations to the Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 Jahdziah St. Julien, MPP, LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute Rayna Young, MPP, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

Introduction It was an ordinary Tuesday in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and Rachel Parker, a young Black girl, had no way of knowing that her life would forever change when she answered the front door.1 At the threshold of the home stood two white men: Maryland law enforcement officer Thomas McCreary and an accompanying agent whose name is unknown.2 The child did not know the men, as they were strangers to her and did not identify themselves.3 McCreary quickly grabbed Parker’s small hand and began dragging her into a waiting vehicle.4 After restraining her, McCreary and his accomplice climbed into the vehicle and sped away.5

The moment Parker’s employer, Joseph C. Miller, and neighbors learned of the abduction, they began pursuing the men who had taken her.6 When one neighbor used their vehicle to block the road that the men had been navigating,7 McCreary responded by threatening violence.8 Stepping out of the vehicle, McCreary drew his weapon, swearing that he would use it on the driver if they did not move.9 Out of concern for the child’s safety, the driver refused. Eventually, McCreary resorted to driving another route.10 Parker’s neighbors followed McCreary and his accomplice all the way to Baltimore, Maryland.11 After they found Parker, Miller pressed kidnapping charges against McCreary.12 Parker, Miller, and the caravan of neighbors then began the trip back home to Pennsylvania.13 Although Parker’s story resembles recent accounts of individuals detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

(ICE) agents,14 this incident did not take place in 2026 but rather in December 1851.15 Despite Parker’s status as a free person, McCreary abducted her from a non-slaveholding state under the pretense of enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 (FSA).16 This example of law enforcement under the FSA mirrors the pace, intensity, and objectives of the current wave of immigration enforcement in the United States. Furthermore, it illustrates how the overzealous and unlawful enforcement of such laws harms individuals, communities, and the nation.17 Congress passed the FSA on September 18, 1850, to appease Southern slaveholders who felt that their electoral advantage and political power in Congress were threatened by the entrance of non-slaveholding states and territories into the United States as well as the expanding network of abolitionists.18 Southern states opposed the admission

of more non-slaveholding states, fearing that representatives of free states would jeopardize the political and economic regime of chattel slavery.19 Southern legislators also abhorred Northern states’ personal liberty laws.20 Personal liberty laws interfered with enslavers’ efforts to capture alleged fugitives and simultaneously protected free Black residents from wrongful abduction.21 Seeking to avoid a national crisis over the issue of slavery, Congress devised the Compromise of 1850.22 In addition to admitting California as a free state and outlawing the domestic slave trade in Washington, D.C., Congress also passed the FSA to demonstrate the federal government’s commitment to upholding the institution of chattel slavery.23 This piece reveals the parallels between the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign today and the nineteenth-century enforcement of the FSA.24 Both policy initiatives involved political leaders actively dehumanizing racially marginalized groups in an effort to consolidate political and economic power at the national level, while law enforcement agents deployed aggressive tactics to carry out the removal of targeted individuals.25 Furthermore, much like the FSA, recent immigration enforcement operations have transformed a contested policy issue—the removal of marginalized groups—into a collective moral choice.

This piece begins by providing a brief overview of the FSA and describing the key policy developments undergirding today’s immigration enforcement. It draws parallels between the objectives and tactics of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration enforcement operations since 2025 and the federal government’s nineteenth-century enforcement of the FSA. The second part of this analysis focuses on communities’ nonviolent strategies in both time periods to protect the rights and lives of their neighbors most at risk of violence, detention, and removal. This current moment may feel unprecedented, but it is not. While FSA enforcement and contemporary immigration operations do not perfectly mirror one another, a comparison of the two phenomena illuminates the racialized nature of belonging, as well as noncitizens’ vulnerability under the law. Fundamentally, this period of immigration enforcement is the continuation of a centuries-long dispute about who belongs and has certain rights in the United States’ multiracial democracy. The past provides the context needed to understand and respond to this critical juncture in our nation’s 250-year history.

“I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories. . . . We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. . . . We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.” —U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, “On Liberty” speech, July 4, 199226

“ Old Ghosts”: Racialized Disinformation, Racial Profiling, and State-Sponsored Racial Violence 27

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Immigration Enforcement (2025-present)

Target: - Any Black person suspected of escaping from enslavement

Target: - Any person suspected of being in the United States without proper legal documentation

Arresting Officers: - U.S. federal marshals - Local law enforcement deputzied as federal agents - Sheriffs deputized as federal agents - Civilians

Arresting Officers: - Federal ICE agents - CBP agents - Local and state law enforcement in 287(g) agreements

Law Enforcement Tactics: - Racial profiling - Abduction - Violence

Detention: - Primarily courthouse jails

Detention: - ICE facilities - Private prisons

Hearing: - Before judge or federal commissioner - Summary judgment - No jury - Defendants accused of being fugitives denied right to provide testimony

Hearing: - Before immigration judges within the Department of Justice - No jury - Often expedited

Removal: - After the authorization of a certificate to the person laying claim of an alleged fugitive, enslavers (or the agents or attorneys representing them) could remove a person accused of escaping slavery and transport them to a slaveholding state

Removal: - After the issuance of a certificate of removal, individuals are deported from the United States - Decisions can be appealed

Strategies Used to Protect Neighbors: - Countersurveillance - Public education and awareness campaigns - Intelligence-sharing - Legal aid - Community mobilization, protest

Similar to current DHS operations, FSA enforcement targeted enslaved persons who were socially constructed as less human— and thus deemed ineligible for citizenship— for detention and removal.28 At the time of the FSA’s passage, the U.S. Constitution considered an enslaved Black person to be three-fifths of a person and denied them citizenship.29 The Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3, stated: No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.30 A legal tool designed to enforce this provision of the Constitution, the FSA mandated the detention, removal, and forced relocation of alleged fugitives from non-slaveholding states to slaveholding states. Now, 176 years later, the Trump administration’s immigration agenda primarily targets and attempts to dehumanize immigrants of color.31 For example, in 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump promulgated the dehumanization of immigrants by spreading racialized disinformation: he repeated the lie that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Ohio and stereotyped all Latinx immigrants as violent criminals.32 Then, in 2025, President Trump falsely accused Somali immigrants of fraud.33 Just as FSA enforcement did in the nineteenth century, DHS immigration operations today strip racialized targets of their full humanity and use dehumanizing rhetoric to justify their violent removal by government agents. Expanding the Law Enforcement Apparatus To broaden the federal government’s capacity to detain and remove racially marginalized and legally vulnerable groups, both the Thirty-First Congress of 1850 and the Trump administration expanded the federal law enforcement apparatus.34 On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed H.R. 1 (the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill”) into law.35 Using money from historic cuts

to Medicaid and Medicare, the legislation allocated more than $170 billion toward immigration enforcement and border patrol efforts over the next three years, with few restrictions.36i ICE is expected to use the funds to hire 10,000 new officers, representing the largest expansion in the agency’s history.37 This increase in personnel advances the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement targets of 3,000 arrests of undocumented immigrants per day and one million deportations annually.38 Likewise, when Congress enacted the FSA in 1850,39 the law officially expanded the federal government’s role in enforcing the removal of alleged fugitives.40 The law mandated the appointment of additional federal judicial officials (referred to as “commissioners”) and federal marshals in states and territories.41 These federal personnel had the authority to: (1) initiate and facilitate the removal of alleged Black fugitives, (2) temporarily deputize local and state law enforcement officers as federal agents, and (3) invoke posse comitatus to force ordinary white citizens to aid in the arrest of alleged fugitives.42

The term posse comitatus historically refers to law enforcement personnel’s recruitment of civilians (and at times military officials) for the purpose of conducting law enforcement activities, such as executing a warrant or arresting individuals. Alone, the word “posse” refers to the group of people temporarily summoned and deputized by law enforcement to carry out orders.43 5

The Harmful Effects of Racial Profiling Today, the implementation tactics used to carry out immigration enforcement operations resemble those used to enforce the FSA, likewise subjecting large swaths of racially marginalized people to wrongful detention and removal due to racial profiling.44 Under the FSA, enforcement agents apprehended many Black residents in non-slaveholding states who were not fugitives merely because their race provided probable cause for suspicion.45 According to court records from that era, it was common to assume that a person “visibly appearing to be a negro” was enslaved or a fugitive from slavery unless the accused had evidence to prove their freedom.46 Consequently, FSA enforcement created a dragnet that ensnared countless free Black people.47 Racial profiling has also featured prominently in ongoing immigration enforcement operations today, thanks in part to the recent six-three U.S. Supreme Court decision in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo.48 In 2025, in a nonprecedential concurrence, Justice Brett Kavanaugh reasoned that it was legal for immigration officials to consider race and native language when detaining and interrogating individuals.49 The use of this centuries-old racial profiling tactic has contributed to the expansion of the immigration enforcement net.50 Eerily reminiscent of posse comitatus, ICE has recently gone so far as to encourage this racial profiling practice among civilians, establishing a hotline and online tip form for people to report undocumented immigrants and “suspected criminal activity.”51 The reliance on racial profiling elevates

racially marginalized individuals’ risk of apprehension while normalizing the criminalization of immigrants, Black people, and Latinx people.52 Violent Enforcement of the Law In addition to racial profiling, law enforcement officers both then and now have perpetrated violence against racially marginalized targets.53 Enforcers of the FSA would storm into homes and forcibly restrain their targets, as they did to Rachel Parker.54 When intercepted by community members or met with resistance to wrongful arrests, FSA enforcers would sometimes deploy lethal force.55 Today, ICE agents and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have similarly deployed violence against alleged undocumented immigrants. Since the spring of 2025, ICE and CBP have orchestrated federal occupations of several major U.S. cities, including Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.56 During Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago,57 ICE agents used militarystyle tactics, deploying flash-bang grenades and tear gas throughout an apartment building in the middle of the night.58 Officers detained several children, bound their hands with zip ties, and separated them from their parents.59 Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, immigration enforcement officials have killed at least eight people in gun-related incidents and approximately thirty people overall, including U.S. citizens and undocumented immigrants.60 While the Trump administration is not the first to conduct robust immigration enforcement operations, the violence associated with these recent efforts is marked and pervasive.

For comparison, in fiscal year 2026, the U.S. Department of Education is expected to allocate $160 billion to K-12 and post-secondary education (see https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statistics).

“ To accept one’s past—one’s history— is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it.” —James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time61

“ We Who Are on the Side of Freedom”: Liberation as a Communal Endeavor

The current moment of immigration enforcement has spread fear and uncertainty across the nation. Still, in the face of intimidation, states and local communities have chosen not to back down. Like our abolitionist predecessors, we can take the moral stance to safeguard the rights and humanity of our neighbors. Then and now, the community resistance tactics used to protect vulnerable individuals include advocating for humane public policies, mobilizing community support and protection, and lawfully countersurveilling law enforcement activity. Together, neighbors can follow the example of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, a

writer, lawyer, and civil rights activist who believed that people who call the United States home “inherit the magnificent tradition of an endless march toward freedom and toward the dignity of all mankind.”63 Enacting Laws and Policies to Protect Neighbors Against Government-Sanctioned Violence While many states and localities were either active or complicit in prior FSA enforcement and remain so today in current immigration enforcement operations,64 grassroots activism consistently plays a pivotal role in enacting policy change. After

the implementation of the FSA, community members exercised their shared political power to urge nonslaveholding states to pass laws to protect the rights and lives of Black residents.65 Several state legislatures and executives strategically amended personal liberty laws to restrict the federal government’s ability to use state and local resources to enforce the FSA.66 Such resources included, but were not limited to, state and local jails, funds, and personnel.67 Although some non-slaveholding states, such as Illinois and Indiana, did not actively oppose the federal government’s enforcement of the FSA,68 others refused to stand by as the federal FSA enforcement apparatus stripped Black residents of their rights.69 One of the most robust state laws, the Massachusetts Personal Liberty Act of 1855,70 prohibited state officials from carrying out activities that facilitated slaveholders’ capture and extradition of alleged fugitive slaves.71 State officials in Massachusetts who ran afoul of this law could face financial penalties, removal from their public positions, and even jail time.72 Judges who carried out judicial duties under the FSA would be removed for losing public confidence,73 and lawyers who represented enslavers or related parties would be disbarred.74 State and local police officers who issued warrants or performed arrests of alleged fugitive slaves faced penalties of $1,000 to $5,000, in addition to removal from their roles and imprisonment.75 Other states and cities followed the lead of Massachusetts: Michigan, Vermont, and Pennsylvania each enacted their own personal liberty laws.76 Building on this example from the past, communities today can pressure their representatives to enact policies that

protect, rather than harm, immigrants and racially marginalized people. For example, they can lobby policymakers to close the loopholes in state laws that allow state and local law enforcement agencies to participate in immigration enforcement,77 and they can pressure policymakers to restrict access to information about undocumented immigrants stored in state databases.78 Many people living in states where DHS has proposed building immigration detention centers, such as Maryland, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Texas, have already shown up at town halls and city council meetings to voice their opposition, with notable success.79 After residents of Merrimack, New Hampshire, protested plans to establish an ICE facility in town, DHS withdrew its proposal in February 2026.80 Similarly, hundreds of residents of Surprise, Arizona, descended upon City Hall in February 2026 to voice their disapproval of DHS’s purchase of a warehouse to use as an ICE detention facility.81 For four hours, one speaker after another made statements denouncing the warehouse purchase.82 One resident encapsulated the spirit of resistance when he told a reporter, “We’re not gonna stand for it. We’re gonna be at this facility every day. We will stand outside, and we will protest this until they shut it down.”83 By applying pressure, communities can push political leaders to follow the lead of states like Maryland and cities like Portland, Oregon.84 In February 2026, Governor Wes Moore of Maryland signed legislation prohibiting state jurisdictions from deputizing officers for federal civil immigration enforcement.85 Similarly, in 2020, years before the current wave of violent immigration enforcement operations, the Portland City Council passed a law prohibiting

any member of the Portland Police Bureau from providing, requesting, or receiving operational support from federal agents, including but not limited to those working under DHS and CBP.86 Moreover, the law forbids local law enforcement from policing alongside and sharing or receiving information from federal forces.87 To end abuses at the hands of DHS agents, communities can call upon state and local leaders to protect their residents and resources by: (1) refusing to share data with private industries, DHS, and other federal agencies; (2) choosing not to aid federal agents’ taskforces or their policing of peaceful protests; and (3) investing in sustainable public safety solutions.88

Community Organizing to Protect Neighbors Against GovernmentSanctioned Violence Another established strategy that people can use today is robust community organizing, which provided safety and protection to alleged fugitive slaves during the enforcement of the FSA. Many community members residing in non-slaveholding states provided protection in times of immediate crisis, whether through the provision of legal aid or engagement in direct protest.89 The abolitionist residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, exemplified local resistance to the FSA.90 In June 1850, Lewis, a sixteenyear-old boy fleeing slavery, escaped from federal custody in Kentucky.91 Upon

his arrival in Cincinnati, abolitionists affiliated with the Underground Railroad shuttled him to Columbus, Ohio, where he remained for three years.92 When a federal marshal seized Lewis, abolitionists in Columbus immediately requested the aid of an attorney. The attorney ensured that the marshal was arrested upon his entry into Cincinnati, and he also represented Lewis.93 In a separate case, Black residents of Cincinnati rushed to the aid of Watkins, a free Black man whom federal marshals kidnapped.94 Hearing his cries for help along the road, they encircled the marshals’ wagon and demanded that the marshals bring Watkins before a judge.95 Many community members today have used their on-the-ground organizing power to protect their neighbors in real time, as robust information campaigns and protest movements have materialized to oppose the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Community organizers are facilitating “know your rights” trainings to teach citizens and noncitizens about their rights and protections, in places like Boston, Massachusetts96; Atlanta, Georgia97; Berkeley and Los Angeles, California98; Chicago, Illinois; Petersburg, Virginia99; Phoenix, Arizona100; and St. Paul, Minnesota.101 Such efforts have been impactful, with Trump administration border czar Tom Homan declaring that the trainings are “making it very difficult” to arrest people.102 The legal community has also offered support for people affected by the

immigration raids: all fifty states and Washington, D.C., have legal resources and pro bono public defenders for undocumented immigrants.103 Furthermore, everyday people can nonviolently resist law enforcement harms by engaging in lawful countersurveillance. During FSA enforcement, countersurveillance was a common practice used by community members in non-slaveholding states to protect Black residents from abduction and re-enslavement.104 By exercising countersurveillance, community members knew when and how to intervene before someone was abducted, during an abduction, and afterwards. Vigilance committees monitored the whereabouts of enslavers, private slave catchers, and federal marshals, then used their funds to print posters and ads with the names and descriptions of slave hunters.105 These groups of Black and white anti-slavery advocates developed a network of intelligence and shelters that would later become the Underground Railroad.106 Individuals working on the Underground Railroad deployed countersurveillance to help people find safe havens on their journey to freedom.107 With the information they gathered, neighbors informed one another of the whereabouts of FSA enforcers, which allowed them to prepare for possible raids or help targeted individuals obtain safe refuge.108 Other times, neighbors used their intel to follow FSA enforcers and initiate rescue attempts.109

“ Vigilance committees monitored the whereabouts of enslavers, private slave catchers, and federal marshals, then used their funds to print posters and ads with the names and descriptions of slave hunters.110 These groups of Black and white anti-slavery advocates developed a network of intelligence and shelters that would later become the Underground Railroad.”111 Today, community members have created their own countersurveillance networks to keep their targeted neighbors safe. In states like Minnesota and California, the sites of large-scale immigration raids funded by H.R. 1, activists have utilized centuries-old countersurveillance tactics to inform their communities of federal law enforcement presence.112 For example, volunteer groups patrol neighborhoods on foot, using whistles

to notify their neighbors of the presence of ICE agents or filming immigration officials to document their actions and pursue accountability.113 Modern technology has also made it easier for individuals to coordinate resistance campaigns. The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights compiled a list of hotlines for people to call and notify advocates of extralegal immigration enforcement incidents they witness.114

Community Organizing Tactics in the 1800s

Community Organizing Tactics in the Mid-2020s

Vigilance committees monitoring the location of enslavers, slave catchers, and marshals

Using whistles to notify neighbors of immigration enforcement agents; legally observing immigration enforcement activities

Public service announcements

“Know Your Rights” campaigns

Provision of legal aid by abolitionist lawyers embedded in communities

Provision of legal aid by lawyers embedded in communities

Creating networks of intelligence and information-sharing

Hotlines people can call to notify advocates of extralegal immigration enforcement incidents

Protesting the wrongful arrest and detention of Black residents

Protesting immigration enforcement agents’ harmful, violent, and illegal actions

The Costs of Protecting Neighbors Against Government-Sanctioned Violence nonviolent organizing in opposition to violent ICE operations.118 For example, in June 2026, the federal government charged Erik Davis, a college professor, with participating in a “conspiracy” to “impede or injure” ICE officers in Minnesota.119 However, the indictment only referred to Davis’s role in organizing a community meeting related to resisting ICE, his suggestion that participants delete Signal group chats while demonstrating, and his participation in two other meetings and a rally.120 Natasha Rakotz, another Minnesota resident, could face prison time for her participation in community activism.121 She too was charged with conspiracy to obstruct ICE operations, and the federal government’s indictment discussed her involvement in a Signal chat about monitoring ICE.122 She was also charged with injuring an ICE officer in a vehicle collision that she said was an accident.123 If convicted on both charges, Rakotz could spend a total of twentyLikewise, community protectors today may six years in prison.124 Rakotz said of the face anywhere from thirty to 100 years in “unfounded and ridiculous” charges, “If I prison if convicted of “rioting” and providing have to go to prison because I did what I information to a “terrorist.”117 The charges are could for the greater good, I’m ready and intentionally vague and seek to discourage willing to do that.”125 The spirit of community and advocacy is a throughline that connects the past and the present. In the face of danger and intimidation, community members have consistently demonstrated their courage, creativity, and wisdom in promoting solidarity and disrupting state-sponsored violence. However, the costs associated with protecting legally vulnerable and racially marginalized community members remain high. The FSA criminalized any attempts to rescue or protect alleged fugitives.115 Per the law, any individual “knowingly hindering the arrest of a fugitive, by attempting to rescue [an alleged enslaved fugitive] from custody, by helping [them] to escape, or by harboring” them risked up to six months in federal prison, up to $1,000 in fines, and $1,000 for every alleged fugitive who escaped custody (notably, $1,000 would amount to approximately $42,800 in 2026 dollars).116

“I stand with all [journalists], and I will not be silenced.” —Don Lemon126

“If you stand for truth, I need you to stand up today. And not just for me. And not just for all journalists. But for anyone who is having their First Amendment violated.” —Georgia Fort127

Journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort made these remarks following their unlawful arrests and indictments for coverage of an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on January 18, 2026.128 Along with seven fellow defendants, they were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating, and interfering with the exercise of religious freedom at a place of worship.129

Both during the present moment of immigration enforcement and under the FSA, protecting vulnerable community members can and has cost people their lives. For example, in January 2026, immigration officials shot and killed Alex Pretti, a nurse who was rendering aid to protesters in Minneapolis.130 Trump administration officials called Pretti a domestic terrorist until a video of the incident emerged, contradicting their statement.131 Pretti’s fate mirrors that of Joseph C. Miller, Rachel Parker’s guardian. After Miller’s friends realized that he had not returned to Pennsylvania, they set out on a search only to find his body hanging from a tree—he had likely been murdered.132 While the fates of Miller, Pretti, and many others illustrate the dangers associated with opposing unjust laws and practices, the victories won by abolitionists and current freedom fighters highlight the long-lasting power of collective action. When community members band together, they can safeguard the rights and dignity of all people. The concerted and persistent efforts of anti-slavery advocates resulted in the repeal of the FSA in 1864 and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which expanded the boundaries of citizenship to include people of all races and ethnicities who were born or naturalized in the United States.133 The Fourteenth Amendment also prohibited states from unlawfully “[depriving] any person of life, liberty, or property,” regardless of their legal status.134 When community members come together to protect the rights of the most vulnerable among them, they are fighting an ongoing war against the dehumanizing forces of racial tyranny in pursuit of dignity and liberation for all.

“ Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” —The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”135

Conclusion The past provides a sobering lesson: the fight to recognize the humanity and protect the dignity of all people, regardless of their race or immigration status, is both continuous and costly. People targeted by violent and unlawful government action face indefinite detention, separation from their families, and removal from their homes and communities. When the norms, laws, and policies of a nation exclude certain groups of people—politically, socially, and legally—based on their race or immigration status, they simultaneously reinforce the belief that these groups of people do not and cannot belong. In doing so, policies like the FSA of 1850 and present-day immigration enforcement directives legitimize harmful government action against racially marginalized and legally vulnerable people. Those who choose to protect their neighbors risk physical intimidation and injury, civil and criminal punishment, and at times, death. Fortunately, people living through this current moment have the benefit of learning from previous eras, using past successes and challenges as a blueprint for advancing justice. The foundation set by abolitionists and other everyday people in the antebellum period provides a map for traversing the dehumanizing rhetoric and aggressive immigration enforcement tactics of the present day. Following in the footsteps of those freedom fighters who came before, people today can—and must—dissent.

References Daily Spy Editorial Staff, Slavery or Death, Worcester Daily Spy (Worcester, Mass.), Jan. 12, 1852, at 2, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83021205/1852-01-12/ed-1/?sp=2&q=kidnapping &r=0.03,0.376,0.198,0.147,0. 2. Id. 3. Id. 4. Id. 5. Id. 6. Id. 7. Id. 8. Id. 9. Id. 10. Id. 11. Id. 12. Id. 13. Id. 14. Id. 15. Id. 16. Id. 17. Sandhya Kajeepeta, PhD, et al., Tracking ICE’s Expanding Reach, NAACP Legal Def. Fund (2026), https:// www.naacpldf.org/tracking-ices-expanding-reach/#cityspotlight. 18. Stanley Harrold, American Abolitionism: Its Direct Political Impact from Colonial Times into Reconstruction at 109 (UVA Press 2019), https://open.upress.virginia.edu/projects/american-abolitionism; U.S. Const., art. IV, § 2, cl. 3, https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-4/section-2/clause-3/; 9 Stat. 462 (1850), https://tile. loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llsl/llsl-c31/llsl-c31.pdf?loclr=bloglaw#page=42; Eric Foner, Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad, pages 106, 109, 111 (W.W. Norton 2015), https:// www.google.com/books/edition/Gateway_to_Freedom/TlICBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. 19. National Archives, Compromise of 1850 (1850), Milestone Documents Collection, https://www.archives.gov/ milestone-documents/compromise-of-1850. 20. James A. Kraehenbuehl, Lessons from the Past: How the Antebellum Fugitive Slave Debate Informs State Enforcement of Federal Immigration Law, 78(4) U. Chicago L. Rev. 1465-1502 (Fall 2011), https://www.jstor. org/stable/41552886; Karla Mari McKanders, Immigration Enforcement and the Fugitive Slave Acts: Exploring Their Similarities, 61(4) Catholic U. L. Rev. 921 (Summer 2012), https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent. cgi?article=1032&context=lawreview Foner, supra note 18 at 106. 21. Kraehenbuehl, supra note 20; McKanders, supra note 20; Foner, supra note 18 at 106. 22. National Archives, supra note 19; Foner, supra note 18 at 109. 23. Foner, supra note 18 at 107. 24. For more on this topic, see generally Kevin Kenny, The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Oxford Univ. Press 2023), https://academic.oup. com/book/46057; Rhonda V. Magee, Slavery as Immigration?, 44(2) U. SF L. Rev. 273 (2010), https://repository.usfca.edu/usflawreview/vol44/iss2/4/; Foner, supra note 18 at 112-122; Kraehenbuehl, supra note 20; McKanders, supra note 20. 25. Karla McKanders, Politics of Belonging: Anti-Black Racism, Xenophobia, and Disinformation, Harvard L. Rev. Blog (Nov. 18, 2024), https://harvardlawreview.org/blog/2024/11/politics-of-belonging-anti-black-racism-xenophobia-and-disinformation/. 26. Justice Thurgood Marshall, On Liberty (July 4, 1992), liberty-medal-ocr.pdf. 27. Mon Rovia, Somewhere Down in Georgia (Official Lyric Video), YouTube (Jan. 8, 2026), https://youtu.be/ePIYrPG3PQo?si=301_cUvSyWzPkBYt. 28. Howard Koplowitz, Trump adviser flagged for ‘extreme racism’ over demeaning immigrants granted birthright citizenship, AL.com (Jul. 1, 2026) https://www.al.com/politics/2026/07/trump-adviser-flagged-for-extreme-racism-over-demeaning-immigrants-granted-birthright-citizenship.html. 29. U.S. Const., supra note 18. At the time of the FSA’s enactment, there was no clear definition of citizenship in the United States. The only law clearly defining who could claim citizenship was the Naturalization Act of 1790, which pertained to immigration and limited eligibility to propertied, white men. U.S. Const. art. I, § 8, cl. 4, https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-8/clause-4/; see also Jahdziah St. Julien, “America 1.

Is as Much Our Country as It Is Yours:” What the Colored Conventions Movement Teaches Us About Citizenship, NAACP Leg. Def. Fund, Thurgood Marshall Inst. (Feb. 2026) https://tminstituteldf.org/what-the-colored-conventions-movement-teaches-us-about-citizenship/. 30. U.S. Const., supra note 18. 31. Karla Mari McKanders, The Criminalization and Deportation of African and African-Descendant Migrants in the United States, NAACP Leg. Def. Fund., Thurgood Marshall Inst. Soc. Sci. Rev. Research Paper No. 19 (Nov. 3, 2025), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5689103; Kajeepeta, et al., supra note 17; The UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) found that on average, 558 Latinx individuals were arrested per day during the Trump administration’s first 100 days. This constituted an increase from the period between January 1, 2024, and January 19, 2025, which averaged 276 arrests of Latinx individuals per day. Jonathan Ong, et al., Latino ICE Arrests Surge Under Trump, UCLA Ctr. for Neighborhood Knowledge report (Oct. 2025), https://knowledge.luskin.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Unseen_Latino-Ice-ArrestsSurge-Under-Trump_20251027.pdf. As of August 2026, the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than one million recipients from eleven designated countries. Venezuelans make up fifty-nine percent of those who lost protection, and Haitians constitute thirty-two percent. Carolyne Im and Mia Hennen, Second Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status for most immigrants who had it, Pew Research Ctr. short read (Aug. 12, 2026), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/08/12/second-trump-administration-has-ended-temporary-protected-status-for-most-immigrants-who-had-it/. 32. 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of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison, The Guardian (Jun. 23, 2026), https://www. theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/prairieland-ice-protesters-texas-sentenced. 118. Sam Levin, The professor facing prison in ‘antifa’ case: ‘They want to scare all who oppose ICE,’ The Guardian (Jul. 28, 2026), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jul/28/ice-protests-antifa-minnesota. 119. Id. 120. Id. 121. Id. 122. Id. 123. Id. 124. Id. 125. Id. 126. Lilia Luciano, et al., Former CNN anchor Don Lemon appears in court after being arrested over protest at Minnesota church service, CBS News (Jan. 30, 2026), https://www.cbsnews.com/news/don-lemon-in-custody-former-cnn-anchor-sources-say/. 127. Max Nesterak, Journalist Georgia Fort pleads not guilty to charges stemming from church protest, Minnesota Reformer (Feb. 17, 2026), https://minnesotareformer.com/2026/02/17/journalist-georgia-fort-pleadsnot-guilty-to-charges-stemming-from-church-protest/. 128. Associated Press, Read the full indictment against Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and others charged in Minnesota, PBS News (Jan. 30, 2026), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/read-the-full-indictment-againstdon-lemon-georgia-fort-and-others-charged-in-minnesota; Luciano, et al., supra note 126. 129. Nesterak, supra note 127; Luciano, et al., supra note 126. 130. Jacob Phillips, Who was Alex Pretti, the intensive care nurse shot dead in Minneapolis?, BBC (Jan. 28, 2026), https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62r4g590wqo. 131. Alex Gangitano, Trump: Pretti ‘shouldn’t have been carrying a gun,’ Politico (Jan. 27, 2026), https://www. politico.com/news/2026/01/27/trump-pretti-shouldnt-have-been-carrying-a-gun-00750241. 132. Worcester Daily Spy, supra note 1. 133. Constitutional Rights Foundation, The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, 34(2) Bill of Rights in Action 5 (Winter 2019), https://teachdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Fugitive-Slave-Law-1850.pdf; McKanders, supra note 20. 134. McKanders, supra note 20; see generally U.S. Const., art. IV, https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/ article-4/. 135. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (Apr. 16, 1963), https://www.learningforjustice.org/ sites/default/files/general/Letter%20from%20Birmingham%20Jail%20MLK.pdf.