I never met my immigrant ancestors, but I know my great-grandfather, Martin Huppert, would likely have been deported under President Trump. Immigrating to America from Hungary at the age of 18 in 1900, Huppert settled in Jersey City and made his living both distilling and selling liquors. When alcohol became illegal with the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, Huppert’s vocation transformed into a criminal enterprise, and thus Huppert became a bootlegger—at least until Prohibition ended in 1933 and Huppert’s livelihood became legal again. I suspect Huppert would say he had no choice; he had a large family to provide for, including my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and her siblings. I even found a newspaper clipping showing he was busted for running a speakeasy just days before my grandmother was born in 1923. The power nonprofits and their communities hold to fight back against the violence of the Trump administration and prevent these deportations today should not be underestimated.

When I see immigrants treated cruelly and deported under Trump, I think of Huppert’s humanity and feel despair and rage. Millions of my fellow Americans are likewise horrified by Trump’s persecution of immigrants, either because they appreciate their own immigrant roots or simply out of instinctive empathy. Yet with Trump solidifying his control over the media, the courts, academia, and the military, we also worry that we are powerless to change anything, underscoring the importance of considering the power nonprofits hold to fight back against the persecution of immigrants.

This is a rational feeling, but not accurate, as we have powerful means at our disposal: Nonprofits are critical tools that empower ordinary people to legally and effectively fight back against Trump’s immigration policies. Indeed, even as Trump singled out Minneapolis for his most recent push for mass deportations, resulting in the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents, ordinary Minnesotans worked with nonprofits to successfully pressure the president to walk back the operation.

The Power People (and Nonprofits) Hold to Fight Back

“Nonprofits in the Twin Cities have been on the forefront of efforts to protect immigrants, their families, and their workplaces and communities,” explained Laura Hermer, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, MN. Hermer specializes in healthcare access and legal issues for economically underserved communities—including, disproportionately, the immigrant populations targeted by Trump.

Hermer points to how nonprofits offer meaningful solutions to the issues facing these communities, showing the power nonprofits hold to fight back.

Read the full article about nonprofits defending immigrants by Matthew Rozsa at Nonprofit Quarterly.