Resist! A Rapid Response Training

Presented by ClassACT HR73 & JusticeAid

Featuring the National Immigration Project

As the response to immigration becomes more volatile, many citizens and community members want to get involved. This free training, facilitated by the National Immigration Project, will discuss the ever-evolving immigration landscape and provide practical and effective response tactics for those who encounter ICE actions.

What are your rights? Which tactics are appropriate and effective when confronted with an immigration enforcement action? What should you do if ICE attempts to detain you?

Bearing witness, testifying against improper action, speaking up, attending a rally or vigil, or even donating—is resistance. The training will help teach you about your rights, realities and different ways you can help. 

Panelists from the National Immigration Project Executive Director Sirine Shebaya, Director of Advocacy Caitlin Bellis, and Rapid Response Coordinating Attorney Gracie Willis will teach you about your rights, realities and different ways you can help.

With “Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out US Climate Regulation” (New York Times, 2/10/26), has disruption, division and non-stop controversy in our country and the world reduced the focus on climate change and the environment? Not for the members of ClassACT’s working group. Please save the date and register for a crucial discussion and calls to action by experts in environmental history, law and policies.

As part of the broader ClassACT HR73 "Democracy@250" plans for the year 2026, the Environment & Climate Change Working Group will host a Conversation intended to 1) trace the history of the Anthropocene and environmental protection in the US 2) provide perspectives on the declining federal involvement in environmental issues and climate change 3) address developments in local, state, and global commitments in this arena, and 4) articulate actions that need to be taken for the protection of our environments as democracy continues to erode in the United States. The panel will feature Dr. Jason Clay ‘73, Executive Director & Senior Vice President at the World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Historian Dr. John McNeill from Georgetown University, American Historian of Science Dr. Naomi Oreskes from Harvard University, and Environmental law and Energy Policy Professor Dr. Sharon Tisher’ 73 from the University of Maine. Dr. W. John Kress ‘73, Botanist and Smithsonian Director of the Consortium for Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet, will moderate.

HR73 classmates and their guests are invited to join us in New York City for the Culture Counts kick-off weekend celebration. The weekend begins Thursday afternoon 4/16 at the Jewish Museum for a tour led by our classmate and Jewish Museum Director James Snyder, followed by a panel discussion around the arts, humanities, and suppression of free thought, and a festive dinner at the Museum's restaurant, LOX.

Friday morning 4/17 we meet for a "Publish, Protest, and Protect: Storytelling, Storytellers, and What It Means to Write Now," a panel at PEN America, with Min Jin Lee, award-winning author of Pachinko, Free Food for Millionaires and American Hagwon (Sept.), Erroll McDonald, VP and Executive Editor Alfred A. Knopf, who has published Toni Morrison, Jay McInerney, Salman Rushdie and Kazuo Ishiguro, among others, Summer Lopez, co-CEO of PEN America, and moderator Celia McGee, arts and publishing contributor to Air Mail and The New York Times.

After lunch, enjoy a gallery crawl led by Andrea Kirsh '73 and in the evening, live music.

On Saturday 4/18 we will have a free morning and then enjoy an off-Broadway matinee. Interspersed, we will find time for casual gatherings and meals.

PLEASE NOTE: There are four "ticket types" you can register for:

• A general save the date (free)
• 4/17 PEN America panel (free)
• 4/16 Dinner, a tour and drinks at the Jewish Museum (costs $125)
• 4/18 Off Broadway play (Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days at the Greenwich House Theater on 4/18 (costs $150)

If you want to register for multiple different ticket types, you’ll need to complete a separate registration for each one. After confirming the first registration (before making payment), you can go back to the event page and register again with a different ticket type.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at classacthr73@gmail.com.

Tentative Calendar (subject to change):

Thursday, 4/16:

• 4:00pm: gather in the Salon at Jewish Museum
• 4:30pm - 5:30pm: Guided gallery tour with James Snyder '73
• 5:45 - 6:45pm: panel in Salon. This will be a panel of classmates discussing art and activism.
• 7:00pm - dinner in LOX at the Jewish Museum.

Friday, 4/17:

• 10:00am - 12:00pm: "Publish, Protest, and Protect: Storytelling, Storytellers, and What It Means to Write Now" panel at PEN America with Min Jin Lee, Erroll McDonald, Summer Lopez, and Celia McGee '73.
• Afternoon: Visit art galleries with Andrea Kirsh '73 - more information TBD.
• Evening: Music, with recommendations from Jerome Harris '73 - more information TBD.

Saturday, 4/18:

• 1:00pm: Matinee, What We Did Before Our Moth Days by Wallace Shawn, Greenwich House Theater.

With reporters under siege everywhere from the streets of Minneapolis to their homes in northern Virginia, ClassACT HR73 will present the second forum in its Freedom of the Press series on May 6 at 7:00 pm ET. Its moderator Richard Tofel ’79, who was the founding general manager of ProPublica and the assistant publisher of the Wall Street Journal, will head a panel of lawyers and reporters to discuss the current physical and legal threats the press faces.

David McGraw, deputy general counsel and senior vice president at the New York Times and lead lawyer for the paper’s newsroom, will join the discussion along with Bruce Brown, president of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Francia García Hernández, a reporter for Block Club Chicago who covered Operation Midway Blitz, will describe what it is like to cover immigration and ICE operations in a city where nearly one-quarter of the residents are immigrants.