Political Attacks & Community Response
Executive Orders attempting to dismantle basic legal rights for immigrant families
Attempted actions include ending Birthright citizenship, expanding use of deportation without due process, stripping 500,000+ refugees who came here legally of their protected status, and ending safe zones in schools and places of worship.
January
Executive order suspends United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP)
20,000 people in refugee camps around the world are blocked from entering the country, despite having completed a grueling vetting process.
40,000+ refugees already in the US are abruptly cut off from critical support. While many executive orders targeting migrants have been blocked or delayed, this one remains in effect August 2025.
Local agencies reliant on federal funds have been forced to lay off up to 80% of staff. RCP is receiving calls from
Impact on our Community
Many RCP Members are once again facing the trauma of indefinite family separation. Loved ones who had begun or even already completed the years-long vetting process for resettlement are now trapped in refugee camps abroad. At the same time, RCP is receiving calls from newly arrived families in prolonged crisis after abruptly losing housing, healthcare, food, and education support due to the halting of federal resettlement programs.
U.S. residents deported to Guantanamo Bay
More than 300 migrant and refugee residents have been flown to Guantanamo Bay in 2025. Most have since been moved, some returned to the U.S. and others sent to prison camps in El Salvador. Not one of these folks – parents, tax payers, and long-term community Members – received due process in an immigration court before being disappeared without warning. Many families still don’t know the location or status of their missing loved ones.
RCP Pop Up Dinner with Snap Pea Creative Dining
RCP Members host a Syrian-style feast in collaboration with Snap Pea Creative Dining and Judea Reform Congregation, raising nearly $30,000 to support refugee families being cut off from other services.
First RCP Dental Clinic of 2025
Our on-site clinics in collaboration with the UNC Dental School ensure our members access oral healthcare and oral health education safely, all with interpretation provided. In 2024, RCP provided accompaniment and interpretation for more than 219 dental procedures.
Executive orders attack language services and access to safe medical care
While language access for public services is guaranteed under the 14th amendment, this order undermines the already weak policies in place to protect that right. According to medical experts, funding cuts “raise fears of medical errors, misdiagnoses, deaths”.
Impact on Our Community
Interpretation services can be a matter of life or death difference for our members when it comes accessing critical supports from housing to healthcare.
Lack of language services exclude immigrant families from public life and leave them vulnerable to labor exploitation and targeted misinformation. At RCP we provide direct language supports to 1,200 residents annually, and we advocate within local institutions to break down barriers. Even as we face attacks at the federal level, we continue to drive policy wins here in North Carolina!
February
RCP launches Hive Action Hub serving 1,700+ local residents
In 2025, our Hive network has taken on a new role – we now regularly function as a trusted fact checker, combating the flood of political misinformation and scams targeting our Membership. As we’ve seen a general increase in scammers posing as the DMV, Post Office, Rental Agencies and Immigration representatives, migrant and refugee residents cut off from English-only information streams are hyper vulnerable to exploitation. This is exacerbated by social media algorithms that promote sensationalized and divisive messaging, which too often fill the information void for niche language speakers. Scammers have been generating messages in Members’ languages posing as ICE and demanding payments to avoid deportation and family separations.
The RCP Hive
The RCP Hive is a primary information source for non-English speakers for hurricane relief, public health information and, most recently, political fact checking. The Hive was created in 2018 to get critical emergency preparation information to RCP Members ahead of Hurricane Florence. Over time, we became a trusted messenger connecting 1,700 local residents in 10+ languages. In 2025, we’ve also used this interactive network to inform folks of their rights, provide context for immigration headlines, and expose scammers.
RCP onboards 46 new Bridge Builder Volunteers
Relationships between neighbors are at the core of how we protect each other at RCP. Our Bridge Builder volunteers are matched with local immigrant families to form long-term relationships of mutual support and care. As institutions cut off resources and legal protections for our communities, we’ve nearly doubled volunteer capacity in 2025 to keep ourselves safe.
March
More than 300 residents disappeared to CECOT prison in El Salvador
No U.S. resident should be at risk of being disappeared to foreign labor camps. The lack of due process in these cases makes this authoritarian practice a threat to all of us. It was initially claimed that immigrants disappeared and tortured in the foreign labor camp were all gang members. This has since been debunked, with evidence that more than half had no criminal record whatsoever while at least 50 had entered the U.S. legally.
Impact on our Community
Highly publicized kidnappings have a chilling effect on the community at large. Beyond working to keep our families safe and together, we’re also sharing stories of hope and collaboration across cultures to combat the hate-filled narratives that discourage families from accessing critical services and embolden individuals who wish us harm.
RCP's first International Spa Day
One of the primary tools we have to fight back against the mental health impact of fear and isolation is the art of being together. At our Women’s Groups and Health Fairs we’ve gathered more than 50 women and children on a regular basis to discuss challenges, meet with community partners, engage in cultural art and healing practices – and have fun!
April
White House interview confirming an interest in sending "home grown" U.S. citizens to foreign prison camps
It can be hard to keep up with the countless legal battles spurred by illegal kidnappings and other attacks on immigrants. However, in a critically revealing interview President Trump expressed a willingness to send “home grown” citizens that he deems undesirable to foreign prison camps. Our communities have always known that an attack on immigrant rights is ultimately an attack on all of us. This interview made that reality explicit. By defending our people, we defend everyone’s right to build compassionate, safe, and thriving communities.
Impact on our Community
For decades and centuries, immigrants and refugees, along with Black and indigenous folks and other marginalized communities, have found themselves on the front lines of attacks on personal freedom in the U.S. Bearing the brunt of those fights is a source of generational trauma – with significant implications for economic opportunity and mental health. Support our partners at El Futuro with whom we host workshops to help immigrant families access the mental health services they need and deserve.
Justice United Community Assembly on Immigrant Rights
This year, RCP’s team voted unanimously to join Justice United – a coalition of organizations and churches across the state working together to protect immigrant families safety, health, and wellbeing.
In May, we joined other Justice United Organizations for an assembly at the United Church of Chapel Hill. We shared about the issues impacting our communities heard commitments from local officials on protecting immigrant rights and well-being in Orange County.
May
Unlawful expansion of "expedited removals" – punishing residents who show up for their immigration court hearings
In May, ICE officials began taking the cruel and nonsensical step of targeting immigrants doing everything in their power to comply with our complex asylum court process. Across the country, and right here in Charlotte, ICE has begun arbitrarily dismissing asylum cases and arresting residents in immigration courtrooms.
As noted by the The American Immigration Lawyers Association, these tactics “terrify people away from the very process they’re supposed to trust.”
First RCP House Party!
RCP volunteers, donors, and supporters have been self-organizing to keep our doors open in the face of funding cuts. Between parties, wine tastings, and a Snap Pea Pop Up Dinner catered by our talented Members, we’ve raised over 100,000 from individual donors so far in 2025!
June
Overwhelming evidence shows majority of residents deported in 2025 are not criminals
The conservative CATO Institute published a report finding that ICE is arresting “500% more noncriminal immigrants than it did in 2017”. This means increased deportations have come at the expense of peaceful families – our friends and neighbors – being torn apart without warning.
Impact on our Community
The impact of arbitrary ICE kidnapping is far-reaching, undermining the safety of all immigrant and refugee families regardless of status. Our Members fear interactions with the institutions and services we all need to survive and thrive (from healthcare to education to career opportunities). Our Hive network has been critical for keeping our folks informed of their rights – and resources available to defend those rights as needed.
RCP team surpasses 400 medical accompaniments in 2025
Despite ongoing attacks on migrant and refugee access to healthcare, our RCP Language Navigators have provided a record number of medical accompaniments this year (a 25% increase from 2024).
At the same time, our research and advocacy team is uniting with Healthy Carolinians of Orange County, Partnership for Healthy Durham, Kate B. Reynolds Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, and other local partners to ensure our folks continue to get access to lifesaving care for years to come. Click to learn more about our strategy for language justice and healthcare transformation!
The "Big Beautiful Bill" brings new attacks on immigrant and refugee communities
Representing the single biggest direct transfer of wealth from working families to the ultra-rich, this bill includes a barrage of attacks on immigrant children. It cuts off access to health insurance and nutrition support to many legally present families. It will also deprive millions of children of immigrants the benefits of the Child Tax Credit. Meanwhile, the bill funds a massive expansion of failed ICE detention policies while further undermining our people’s right to due process.
July
Tropical Storm Chantal displaces immigrant and refugee families
Flash flooding during Tropical Storm Chantal displaced at least 10 of our Members in Chapel Hill. We supported displaced families in communicating with the town. In response to ongoing challenges, we’ve organized meetings (with interpretation provided!) between migrant and refugee residents and the Town of Chapel Hill Department of Affordable Housing and Community Connections. The challenges – and solutions –discussed in these meetings are then shared to our Membership at-large via the Hive.
NC House Bill 318 increases ICE overreach and ramps up fear locally
This latest state-level attack on migrant and refugee families is also a direct attack on the right of our local communities to decide how we best keep each other safe. We stand with local officials and partners like Siembra NC, affirming our right and responsibility to our neighbors to resist unconstitutional searches and seizures in our schools, hospital, and workplaces.