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Feedback or a recommendation for an addition to this kit? Email [email protected]
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This care kit is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. If you are facing repression or legal action from state or university authorities, we strongly recommend contacting an attorney immediately. Legal resources are included for your convenience, but using them does not create an attorney-client relationship or replace individual legal counsel. For questions, reach out to us.
This section of the kit is meant to help you recognize the signs of the various systems of repression one may face: state (immigration & criminal) & institutional (campus), and connect with tools, strategies, and support networks to defend yourself and your community from these forms of repression.
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We stand firm in the belief that we keep us safe. Across the country, universities are facing escalating pressure: federal threats to defund institutions over their refusal to dismantle DEI programs, censorship of educational materials, surveillance and targeting of student activists—especially those who are international or undocumented—and heightened crackdowns on protest. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a broader pattern of repression designed to silence dissent and demobilize movements.
At Duke, this repression has taken on particularly chilling forms. In recent days, international students received sudden and unexplained emails indicating that their F1 visas had been revoked. These actions—carried out by the Department of Homeland Security, which is reportedly deleting students from the SEVIS immigration database without notification or justification—are unprecedented. Affected students have been told they are now residing in the U.S. unlawfully and should depart the country, even when there is no clear cause for the revocation. The revocations appear to fall under three broad categories: prior contact with law enforcement (regardless of conviction), vague "national security" justifications such as protest activity or social media use, and entirely unexplained cases.
With all this in mind, we've created this care kit (adapted from one originally created by UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine) to offer a quick, accessible guide on what you need to know, what to expect, and how to prepare for potential targeting or repression—whether from the state, campus administration, or law enforcement. In partnership with legal and community organizations, we've also established a rapid response process to support those who may be targeted.
The repression we’re seeing right now is not random—it’s strategic. It’s meant to exhaust us, scatter our energy, and divert our focus from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It is also the result of state capture, where private interests—corporations, lobbyists, political donors—have entrenched themselves deep within the machinery of government, reshaping institutions to serve profit, power, and control rather than justice or public good. This is the backdrop for the current wave of repression: universities are being threatened with defunding for refusing to dismantle DEI programs. Student organizers are being surveilled, disciplined, and in some cases arrested. International students are now being targeted with an alarming new tactic: visa revocations without warning, justification, or recourse.
These actions are not isolated incidents or random bureaucratic errors—they are violent tools of a system trying to demobilize us. They are designed to isolate us, punish solidarity, and make resistance feel impossible.
We won’t let that happen.
The people of Gaza and Palestine are facing elimination. We are all witnessing an ongoing and horrific genocide, and those in power are counting on our distraction, our silence, our fatigue. They want to commit their crimes in the dark, while captured institutions—media, courts, universities—look away or suppress dissent. We owe it to those resisting with everything they have to stay present, to stay focused, and to not look away.
We don’t abandon each other. We don’t give in.
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ICE Watch: Siembra NC hotline (877)-395-3094
Non-Urgent Legal Intake: