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This coming Thursday, Allston-Brighton Progressives will host a Community Defense Training at the Presentation School Foundation to inform residents about responding to Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE).

The workshop, which will run from 6:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., will be facilitated by Elaine Almquist, who has over 20 years of experience in political organizing and has led similar trainings throughout the city as well as in Somerville and Cambridge. 

Emily Paragamian, a Brighton resident and member of the steering committee for Allston-Brighton Progressives, says that she was extremely concerned about ICE presence in the neighborhood, especially after nine workers were detained at the Allston Car Wash last November. 

After hearing about Almquist’s trainings from her co-chapter lead at Massachusetts Progressives, Paragamian worked with her colleagues to bring the workshop to Allston-Brighton.

“Right now, a lot of us don’t always know what to do, whether it’s from a knowing your own rights perspective, and then also, if you see ICE like, how do you protect your neighbors?,” says Paragamian. “We’ve reached out to experts like Elaine and others to try to hopefully bring some of that knowledge and conversations here to the community.”

According to Almquist, the workshop will span almost two hours and cover information, ranging from ICE detention at the national and state level to guidelines on responding if residents see ICE in the neighborhood. 

Almquist, who began these training sessions last summer, says that preparing the workshop materials is an iterative process. Having run around ten to twelve sessions to date, she adjusts the workshop materials after each session based on feedback from participant questions. The rapidly changing situation with ICE has also prompted her to update her materials almost on a daily basis.

“The situation with ICE has escalated tremendously since we started doing it, especially with the budget increase that they got last year. But of course, over the last few weeks, that has really made the speed at which I need to change, especially the slides that cover their increased violent activities and illegal activities, those have just escalated on a curve that’s just impossible to keep up with,” she says.

Almquist, who has a degree in political science, sees these workshops as an opportunity to leverage her experience to equip participants with the knowledge and confidence to advocate for their communities.

“What I wanted to bring to people is a feeling of encouragement, of community, and I want them to leave feeling empowered to be able to protect our communities,” Almquist says. 

Along with holding the workshop, Paramagian points out other ways the community has worked to respond to ICE presence. For instance, she says that the Allston-Brighton Food Pantry has delivered food to residents who feel unsafe about picking up food at the pantry. 

“At times like these, it’s challenging, but necessary to hold a lot of emotions at once.  On the one hand, you can be frightened and angry and upset at everything that’s happening, and it’s easy to feel hopeless. But when I see all of these organizations that are out there working to help our neighbors and create a fabric of support when folks might be feeling more isolated or scared than ever, that gives me a lot of hope,” she says. ■