Resistance Media

06/21/2025

Once the plot of dystopian films, Americans fleeing their own country in search of safety is no longer a coming attraction—it’s a reality. As the United States descends more deeply into an authoritarian nightmare, individuals and families are considering the once unthinkable: stay and risk persecution or uproot their lives for another state or country.

The era of the American exile has begun, playing out in daily decisions across dining room tables, border checkpoints, and back-channel message boards.

For immigrants, documented and undocumented, the threat is immediate and urgent. Fear is gripping communities across the country in the face of violent abductions by highly armed and masked ICE agents. Citizens and those holding valid visas and green cards are being forcefully taken, illegally detained or worse—disappeared and sent to concentration camps both inside and outside of the country. They are denied due process, family contact and publicly demonized by administration officials.

Members of the transgender community are being targeted by both red state lawmakers and the federal government—denied gender-affirming healthcare, facing new laws curtailing their rights and facing harassment and violence. The Supreme Court is providing the green light.

Women seeking reproductive health care, family planning and abortion are being targeted by red states, in some cases being charged criminally for seeking out such care. Surveillance of women is increasing and the state is now seizing control of their medical autonomy in certain emergencies. Many health centers offering sexual and reproductive care, long targets of harassment, threats and domestic terrorism, have closed. Planned Parenthood has lost all Medicaid funding in the recently passed 2025 fiscal reconciliation package, placing 200 of its clinics at risk of closing.

Universities, seeing critical federal grants being withheld, are being pressured to drop DEI policies, adopt new draconian rules to suppress future protests and to submit to hiring and curriculum audits to root out “woke” and “Marxist” bias. Some have capitulated. This is setting the stage for the criminalization of dissent, not just on college campuses but more broadly in the streets.

LGBTQ+, documented and undocumented immigrants, birth right citizens, African Americans, women, activists, whistleblowers and journalists are all being systematically dehumanized and targeted. Growing numbers of people in these marginalized and vulnerable communities are considering relocation to a safer, more secure location.

Balkanization

Every state in the union is both “red” and “blue.” As repression intensifies, America is already experiencing a soft balkanization. This has become most evident in southern states such as Florida and Texas which have been transformed into laboratories of autocracy, attracting and repelling citizens as a result.

As conditions deteriorate, the country is seeing growing population shifts as people seek out increased security and communities that share their values. Those who have the financial ability are considering moves to a red state or a blue state. But the fragmentation is much more complicated—there are rural red territories in blue states. There are blue cities in red states. There are even red & blue neighborhoods within many cities.

As the Guardian reports:

America is on the move. Hundreds of thousands of people are packing up boxes, loading U-Hauls, and shipping out of state in an urgent flight towards safety.

They’re being propelled by hostile political forces bearing down on them because of who they are, what they believe, or for their medical needs.

All are displaced within their own country for reasons they did not choose. They are the new generation of America’s internal refugees – and their ranks are growing by the day.

Here, we profile… librarians fleeing book bans, professors forced out by ideologically-motivated college education boards, and most recently, the thousands of federal employees fired by the Trump administration.

Such is the tide of coerced dislocation, in the land of the free.

One real-time example of this strategy has already appeared—The Trans Continental Pipeline (TCP), a grassroots mutual aid network turned nonprofit based in Denver CO. TCP provides resources to help LGBTQ+ individuals move from unsafe situations and political climates to the relatively Trans friendly state of Colorado.

The Guardian has reported that significant numbers of LGBTQ+ Americans are making preparations to leave the country, seeking exile in countries protecting their rights :

The increased fear and interest in fleeing marks a stunning reversal for queer rights in the U.S., but also for the nation’s standing in the world as a relative haven for LGBTQ+ people.

LGBTQ+ refugees have long fled to the U.S., not from it. The process has never been easy, but people facing violence, arrest or even death in their home countries due to their LGBTQ+ identities have successfully claimed asylum on those grounds in the U.S. since the 1990s. 

A 2021 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law found that, between 2012 and 2017, LGBTQ+ people from 84 countries filed 3,899 asylum claims in the U.S. based specifically on their persecution for being queer.

Cities and states are facing mounting federal pressure regarding immigration enforcement, with the Trump administration sending federalized national guard troops and active duty Marines into Los Angeles in support of ongoing ICE raids. The future of sanctuary cities is very much in question as a result of new federal lawsuits and threats, potentially closing off the option of safe refuge by relocating to areas with policies protective of immigrant communities including non-cooperation with ICE. 

The FY 2025 budget resolution H.R. 1 contains a dramatic 365% increase in funding for ICE as part of a massive $170 billion immigration enforcement package that would supercharge detention capacities. The new funding will make ICE the largest law enforcement agency in the history of the country, with more agents than the FBI and more prison facilities than the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons. Given such potential resources and the militarization of repression, ICE’s mandate will likely be expanded beyond immigration.

Staying in Place

Options for relocation, however, are fundamentally class-based. The ability to flee, argues Noam Chomsky in his 2016 book Requiem for the American Dream, whether physically, economically, or ideologically, is not equally available to all. For a great many Americans, especially those most vulnerable, relocation is not an option—they simply do not have the means to move. 

Wealthier Americans can consider relocation not just as an ideological statement but as a practical, secure choice. They can move assets, navigate immigration systems, and re-establish lives with relative ease. For them, emigration is not exile, it’s an escape hatch.

But for the vast majority of Americans, especially those most likely to be harmed by authoritarianism—those with low-income, immigrants, Black and Brown communities, and LGBTQ+ people, leaving is not an option. These groups often lack the financial capital, legal pathways, and international mobility that would allow for relocation. In this context, says Chomsky, talk of fleeing becomes not a collective solution but a class-based fantasy, unavailable to those who most need protection.

He argues that true resistance lies not in abandoning the country but in rebuilding democratic institutions, redistributing power, and restoring the commons.

For the majority of vulnerable Americans, building community on a grassroots level, neighbor by neighbor, block by block, is an empowering solution for increased security and mounting an effective resistance movement.

Communities organized around sustainability, resilience and mutual aid will be best positioned to safeguard targeted individuals and groups.

Exile

If not faced with an immediate crisis, but rather the slow unfolding of events, day after day, month after month, the ambiguity and difficulty in accurately assessing circumstances can be paralyzing. Alternately, making the “right” real-time decision, especially when lives are at stake, is often complicated by factors like uncertainty, incomplete or conflicting information, and emotional stress.

Historically, the dilemma of having to decide whether to leave one’s home and seek exile has been faced by many. There are several ethical, moral and practical considerations that inevitably come into play. Knowing when to go can be a matter of life or death, but the decision is rarely clear in real time.

In Germany, the rise of Hitler in the early 1930’s brought a rapid collapse of civil liberties. For Jews, intellectuals, socialists, homosexuals, union leaders and others being targeted, the question of staying or leaving became urgent.

In 1933, the German government passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which excluded Jews and political opponents of the Nazis from all civil service positions, including those in public universities.

As Nazi violence and terror seized Germany, its citizens faced harsh choices: to flee, resist, or seek invisibility. Their debates, reflecting deep ethical divides during a moment of escalating repression, continue to resonate to this day.

For Jews and those others who had fought and opposed the Nazis, emigration was both a moral necessity and an act of survival.

Figures like Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Hannah Arendt, Arnold Schoenberg, Marlene Dietrich, Bertolt Brecht and László Moholy-Nagy chose exile, recognizing that remaining could mean censorship, persecution, torture or even death. Meanwhile, others held onto hope or were trapped by immigration barriers. By the time many decided to leave, it was too late.

These high profile figures, across science, art, politics, and literature, were just a small part of the broad intellectual and cultural diaspora forced into exile by the Nazis. Many became key voices abroad, documenting, resisting, and surviving what had once been unthinkable.

Now these same debates echo across America today. Is the act of leaving the US an act of wisdom and foresight or a fundamental betrayal? Is it ethical to leave when many, perhaps most, will be unable to do so? If all opposed to Trump were to take the path of exile, who will remain to continue the resistance and animate the struggle to restore democracy?

Earlier this year, a trio of highly regarded American scholars, of authoritarian history and fascism no less, announced they were leaving their positions at Yale to relocate to Canada and assume new positions at the University of Toronto. Marci Shore, Tim Snyder and Jason Stanley, well known authors, professors and activists, set off a firestorm of criticism and debate in academic circles which rippled more broadly across the Anti-MAGA movement that has come to highly value their work.

Given that they cited Columbia’s recent capitulation to Trump’s threats and bullying as a source of major alarm, colleges and universities across the country were thrust into a cycle of policy dispute and re-evaluation. And given that they also, to varying degrees, all cited the historical parallels between America’s descent into authoritarianism and the rise of fascism in other countries as a reason for their decision, the implications for the growing resistance movement have been widely considered.

Marci Shore told the Guardian in June:

The lesson of 1933 is: you get out sooner rather than later… My colleagues and friends, they were walking around and saying, ‘We have checks and balances. So let’s inhale, checks and balances, exhale, checks and balances.’ I thought, my God, we’re like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink. We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship.’ And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.

In response to criticism, Snyder, has offered a nuanced and tactical analysis on the question of exile. Suggesting immigration can be advantageous, he has asserted that cross border institutions can play important political roles in a larger international resistance movement. He argues that these institutions historically have played roles not possible in a country under authoritarian rule.

Replying to those who have accused him of abandoning the fight on the home front, he has draw a crucial distinction between staying and fighting. 

“Staying is not the same thing as fighting,” Snyder said. “And fighting isn’t even the best metaphor. What we really need to be doing is working together, organizing, getting out in public. 

“There is an awful lot of adapting going on, an awful lot of rationalizing going on. There’s an awful lot of buck passing, which is not the same thing as fighting. There are people in the US doing great things, but there are people not in the US doing great things…”

George Packer, writing in the Atlantic in April, said he felt betrayed by the trio’s decision:

When I heard the news of the Yale exodus, I wondered if my failure to explore an exit makes me stupid and complacent. I don’t want to think I’m one of the sanguine fools who can’t see the laser pointed at his own head—who doesn’t want to lose his savings and waits to flee until it’s too late. Perhaps I was supposed to applaud the professors’ wisdom and courage in realizing that the time had come to leave. But instead, I felt betrayed.

Very few people are capable of heroism under oppression. For anyone facing death, arrest, or even persistent harassment, fleeing the country is the sane course. But the secret police aren’t coming for Snyder, Shore, or Stanley. Yale, like other top-ranking universities, stands to lose millions of dollars in federal funding, but its scholars—especially those with tenure and American citizenship—are still free to speak up on behalf of an unjustly deported immigrant, defend a trans student against bullying and humiliation, protest the destruction of the federal government, and even denounce Elon Musk on X. They can still write books about fascism—more urgently now than ever. Snyder, Shore, and Stanley are deserting their posts in this country just as the battle that they’ve warned us about and told us how to fight is coming to a head.

How will you know when it’s time to go? When Trump deports an inconvenient American citizen and ignores a court order to bring him or her back home? Or when Yale is intimidated into firing a law professor for teaching civil rights? Or the Justice Department invents a pretext for FBI agents to confiscate computers in the offices of an independent publication and take down its website? Or the 2026 midterms seem certain to be unfree and unfair? Or when none of these extreme possibilities happens, but life in America becomes so rotten with injustice and corruption, so colorlessly orthodox, so unavoidably compromising, so impoverished, so shitty, that you lose the will to stay here? When your children plead with you to move abroad?

What if you decide the time has come to leave and find that it’s too late?

I can’t answer these questions for myself, let alone for anyone else. But I don’t believe the time has come—not even close.

Rebecca Solnit wrote about how to “stay with the trouble,” in her Substack, Meditations in an Emergency:

If you’re a writer and researcher, you can, to use Donna Haraway’s resonant phrase, stay with the trouble in many ways, and the power of your voice is not limited to your locale. From Eduardo Galeano to Edward Said, writers have done important work in exile. And we are already in a time when people are getting harassed coming back into the country, having their mobile phones and computers scrutinized upon their return, being challenged because they’ve lost the ability to travel freely because they’ve dissented from the Trump Administration or belong to one of the groups they’re targeting.

Some leave authoritarian regimes because of persecution. But some leave to fight from out of reach of the regime, and examples abound including from occupied France during the Second World War and Latin American countries ruled by dictators in the 1970s and 1980s. These days I’m hearing from lots of people who have obtained or are trying to obtain citizenship in other countries – usually someplace their parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents came from. Those ancestors were sometimes fleeing persecution or genocide, as did my paternal grandparents (the pogroms were already terrible when they left the Pale of Settlement in their teens, and all the relatives who stayed behind were murdered by the Nazis as far as I know). Most of them are not planning on leaving unless they think they must for their own or their children’s safety, though I do know people who have relocated within the US to protect their trans kids.

You can leave the country and stay with the struggle or stay in the country and not participate in the struggle, and to be blunt, the majority of people in the US are not participating.

Crisis Planning

The Trump administration is challenging the courts and the constitution by detaining and disappearing documented and undocumented immigrants and American citizens alike.

Local communities are fighting back. Citizens have prepared in advance for ICE raids, setting up rapid response systems that include text chains, a network that can be mobilized quickly and lawyers on call to prevent those detained from being removed from the state or country. Recent success stories out of Vermont, Massachusetts, California and New York State are encouraging, with some of those detained ultimately being released.

Joshua Aaron, a programmer and app builder, wanted to create something that would help people “fight back.” In April he launched ICEBlock, a mobile app that lets users alert people nearby to sightings of ICE agents in their area. Designed as an “early warning system,” users can add a pin on a map showing the location of ICE agents, along with additional information like what the agents were wearing and what kind of car they were driving. CNN reports that the app already has 20,000 users.

Erik Prince, former CEO of the criminal mercenary paramilitary outfit Blackwater, and a group of defense contractors are pitching the Trump administration to hire their private, for-profit mercenary company to dramatically expand the program by rounding up hundred of thousands of targeted individuals and placing them in domestic camps. If, in violation of court orders, the administration does proceed with the detention of the millions of targeted individuals identified in Project 2025, the level of fear and chaos will be extraordinary.

US military personnel could be deployed to more US cities beyond Los Angeles, with militia members deputized by MAGA constitutional sheriffs, “assisting” ICE in identifying and detaining “suspects.” Trump border czar Tom Homan, in charge of ICE, has well documented ties to far-right extremist groups including militias. Deputized armed vigilantes are currently active along the southern border.

Such an aggressive escalation of ICE activities may drive many more vulnerable individuals and their families into efforts to flee, desperately seeking refuge and safety.

Under such circumstances, it would be necessary for grassroots structures to form to facilitate the safe movement of targeted people and provide support of various kinds. Such underground networks could be fashioned around the concepts of mutual aid and come together in informal, organic ways. Such a network could be horizontally organized and guided by continually shifting participants and assets, allowing for adaptability and fluid responses to dynamic conditions. One network may not be aware of others doing similar work.

There is a powerful historical precedent for such a network in American history: the Underground Railroad of the 1800’s. It was a clandestine, grassroots operation driven by a secret network of citizens—escaped slaves (passengers) were guided north by “conductors,” being given refuge along the way in homes, buildings and churches (“stations”) and provided food and shelter.

Canada often played an important role in the Railroad as the ultimate destination, as the Fugitive Slave Act legally allowed formerly enslaved people to be captured, even in so-called free states, and returned to the South and bondage. It was the courage and moral grounding of this network, organized by ordinary citizens, that saved so many lives and was a powerful force in building the abolitionist movement of the day. 

Canada

Proximity, combined with a long and porous border, make entering Canada potentially the most practical option for those seeking refuge outside the US.

If the Trump administration were to invoke the Insurrection Act or martial law, Canada could face the uncontrolled migration of US citizens. Such a situation would render the country’s current policies that deny Americans refugee and political asylum status moot. Such a massive influx (legal and underground) and the chaos and disruption that would certainly follow, would further destabilize US-Canadian relations and catalyze a domestic crisis in both countries.

The country’s recent history of accepting political asylum refugees from around the world is encouraging. Canada, it is said, is a beautiful mosaic of diverse peoples and cultures, as opposed to the “melting pot” of the United States. Many Vietnam era war resisters entered the country in the 60’s and 70’s. Many conducted anti-war activities there. Many stayed and enriched their host country in numerous ways despite being eventually granted amnesty by President Jimmy Carter. 

On the other hand, America is still considered a safe country by global standards and refugee claims by US citizens to Canada are not welcomed. Since 2013, zero cases of political asylum by US citizens have been accepted by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Circumstances have quickly and dramatically changed with Trump’s recent rhetorical attacks on Canada and his repeated assertion that it should become “the 51st state.” With the imposition of punitive tariffs and the results of the federal elections, the US/Canadian relationship is now complex, tense and unpredictable. 

Under these conditions, Canada’s immigration policy and its stance on political asylum is difficult to anticipate. Many forms of pressure could be applied by a Trump administration seeking to target their “enemies” and control the flow of US citizens. In America, the militarization of the northern border is well within the scope of Project 2025. Canada is already committing substantial resources to strengthen control of its border. 

While historically it has been extraordinarily difficult for the U.S. government to strip an American of citizenship, it’s very easy for the Secretary of State to cancel a passport. Without a valid passport, it’s effectively impossible for an American to legally enter another country or to obtain a foreign work permit or residence.

According to Amnesty International, “The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States bars most people crossing into Canada via the United States from seeking refugee protection in Canada, and vice versa. The agreement has forced individuals to attempt dangerous border crossings and has pushed people underground in order to seek safety. As the United States becomes increasingly unsafe for asylum seekers, the Canadian government must withdraw from the agreement immediately.”

Canada does have a vibrant civil society sector with several groups working around the issues of immigration, asylum and human rights. Most have little experience working with American citizens.

Beyond Canada

The world has never seen the phenomenon of US citizens fleeing their own country in desperate attempts to avoid incarceration, human rights abuses and possible state or vigilante violence. Such a development could lead to an extraordinary worldwide American diaspora, as those able to seek refuge do so. 

With the Mexican border now heavily militarized, ease of movement between the two countries may become increasingly constrained. Nevertheless, because of proximity, Mexico would ironically likely be viewed by many American citizens as a desirable and practical relocation destination.

Safety varies widely between various Mexican states. Such cities as San Miguel de Allende, Lake Chapala, Oaxaca and Mexico City are safe and have well established expat communities. On the other hand, heavily armed members of criminal groups often patrol areas and operate with impunity in some states, particularly along the northern border region. Violent crime such as homicide, carjacking, kidnapping and robbery is widespread in those areas.

In Central and South America Costa Rica and Uruguay are both socially progressive, safe and have relatively less challenging long-term or permanent residency requirements.

Around the world, other country’s immigration policies vary widely but in many cases are designed to encourage the wealthy or the highly skilled workers a nation is in need of.

With its advanced, western economies, social democratic policies and commitment to democracy, Europe is likely to be a strong draw for those with the means to relocate. Current immigration and asylum polices could change in unpredictable ways as the American Experiment’s crisis deepens.

Immigration is clearly a hot-button issue in countries around the globe. In Europe far-right parties are leveraging unemployment, housing and crime concerns to grow their base by fanning anti-immigrant sentiment. Many North American immigrants in Europe are wealthy, retirees, digital nomads on temporary work permits or those who were able to establish ancestral history.

Based on such factors as ease of residency, asylum friendliness, quality of life, health care and political climate, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Norway could be considered most open to US citizens seeking safety.

Spain has been a relatively welcoming destination for immigrants, but that is changing. In January its government put forward a 12-point plan to strengthen the right to housing in response to a severe housing crisis. Calling for the construction of more public housing, the plan proposed measures such as higher taxes on holiday rentals, with tax breaks and protections for landlords who provide affordable housing. The plan also includes a proposal to impose a tax of up to 100 percent on the value of homes bought by non-EU citizens, putting a further check on wealthy overseas nationals investing in Spain. 

Portugal, despite its notorious bureaucracy one of the most welcoming countries in Europe, is facing a similar challenge of lack of affordable housing for its citizens. So far it has tightened requirements for its “Golden Visa” (used by the wealthy), tightened tax breaks offered to new immigrants and strengthened regulations around holiday rentals. It is currently engaged in a national debate regarding the further tightening of immigration policy. It has well-established expat communities, public and private health care systems and English is spoken widely in urban and tourist oriented regions.  

Several African countries are welcoming to immigrants and offer stable governance, activist or political safety, LGBTQ+ safety and good visa pathways. These include Ghana, Mauritius, Botswana and Namibia. 

Many countries in Asia, while affordable, have varying degrees of military control or influence, limited free speech and public corruption. New Zealand, Australia and Japan have strong democratic systems but have relatively strict visa requirements. Thailand and Vietnam are popular with expats, but do not have democratic governance.