July 6, 2025
Indivisibles in Helena,
We hope you’ve had a safe Independence Day holiday weekend. Of course, we’re all celebrating it under vastly different circumstances this year, and that is why when are writing to you again.
As we wrote on July 4th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Helena resident Christopher Martinez earlier in the week. He is currently incarcerated in the Cascade County Detention Center, along with nine other young men for the crime of being brown.
At their meeting on Thursday, our County Commissioners got an earful about local law enforcement and their cooperation with ICE. Yesterday over 200 Helenans, many from this email list, held a vigil for these men at Constitution Park. And over $30,000 has been raised to help Christopher’s family through this ordeal as he is their sole breadwinner.
But we must do more.
At the Helena City Commission meeting tomorrow night at 6 pm, residents are encouraged to voice their concern about the Helena Police Department’s involvement in this travesty of justice. Please make your voice heard tomorrow evening:
- 6 pm, City County Building, 316 North Park Avenue, Room 330
If you cannot attend in person, the meeting is online. While we encourage you to participate in person, you can provide testimony remotely via Zoom.
Because ICE has been empowered by Congress and the President to escalate their attack on lawful US residents, we must also escalate our response to this cruel and inhuman treatment of our neighbors and friends.
Here’s what’s at stake: According to the American Immigration Council, the Big Bad Bogus Billionaires’ Bill (BBBBB – aka the 2025 Reconciliation Bill) gives ICE more funding than the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Marshals Service, and Bureau of Prisons combined—making it the largest law enforcement agency in the U.S. The budget has been described by Newsweek as larger than most of the world’s military budgets.
The bill signed by the President on Independence Day provides $170.7 billion for immigration enforcement activity that includes the following.
- $45 billion for detention facilities for ICE, an increase of 265% in ICE’s annual detention budget.
- $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase.
- $51.6 billion to build a wall on the border, more than three times what Trump spent on the wall in his first term.
This use of our tax dollars to drive inequality, strip away civil rights and tear families apart, combined with tax cuts for the richest people in the country, are being prioritized over safety net programs that provide food and healthcare to those who need it most. Helena Indivisibles need to continue to pressure the City Council and County Commission to oppose the Trump regime’s unconstitutional practices.
This is the latest, less than subtle indication that Trump and his regime are laying the groundwork to turbocharge an already aggressive deportation machine. Keep in mind, the pre-BBBBB budget already allowed for ICE to put multiple agents into the small, rural town of Helena, MT, and snatch up Christopher Martinez.
Also keep in mind that if ICE can incarcerate Christopher, they can come after us simply because we resist Trump’s authoritarian takeover of our country. Now’s the time to show the Trump administration that solidarity is a verb.
- Monday, 7/7 6 pm, City County Building, 316 North Park, Room 330
The Good News
(h/t Jeff Tiedrich’s “everyone is entitled to my own opinion”)
Josh Aaron has developed ICEBlock, an app that iPhone users (sorry Androids, for now) can use to alert others near you about ICE activity. The app immediately shot to the top of Apple’s App Store downloads, for good reason.
MSNBC: “Josh, are you not concerned that the administration might come after you personally for the development of this app?”
Joshua Aaron: “I think that whenever you push back against a regime that is pushing authoritarianism, and pushing fascism, and subverting the rule of law, and our Constitution, if you push back against them, you have to know they’re going to come after you in some way. and I say, ‘go ahead, come after me, you can demonize me all you want, you can demonize the app all you want. but the reality is, it’s protected speech under the First Amendment. there’s nothing illegal about creating this app, and there’s nothing illegal about using the app.”
This is solidarity in action. Download and use ICEBlock to help keep each other safe.
After No Kings, What’s Next?
The No Kings Rally was such a huge success that our most frequently asked question since then is, “What’s Next?”
While Indivisible Helena is engaged in a strategic planning process, the national organization has been developing their next organization-wide campaign:
Across the country, authoritarian forces are getting bolder and more dangerous. Trump and his allies are not hiding their agenda: mass deportations, rollbacks of civil rights, weaponized courts, and full-scale attacks on our democracy. We don’t have to wait until it’s too late. We can stop this. But it’ll take all of us—not just on single days of mass action, but through sustained organizing in our communities.
That’s why this summer, we’re launching One Million Rising—a national effort to train one million people in the strategic logic and practice of non-cooperation, as well as the basics of community organizing and campaign design. This is how we build people power that can’t be ignored. You’re invited to join us—and lead.The event will be unveiled at this week’s “What’s the Plan” national call, Thursday, July 10 from 1-2 pm featuring Indivisible co-founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. The campaign starts June 16. Register here.
We hope to see you online on Thursday. Until next week,
Solidarity 🌹
Indivisible Helena
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n: Indivisible Helena
w: https://indivisiblehelena.org
e: indivisiblehelena@gmail.com
i: https://indivisible.org/groups?terms=59601
f: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indivisiblehelena
b: https://bsky.app/profile/indivisiblehelena.bsky.social——————————————————————————