You are not using Tor — your connection is visible
Your internet provider and anyone monitoring this server can see that you are here. If you are planning direct action or supporting someone who is, your visibility is a risk.
How to use Tor:
Download Tor Browser from torproject.org/download — free, about 2 minutes to install.
Open Tor Browser and wait for it to connect.
Paste this address into Tor Browser:
If Tor is blocked in your country: open Tor Browser → Configure Connection → Request Bridges.
External Link Boundary
Links marked (external) leave this site and may expose metadata to third parties. Open only when necessary.
Resources
For those who intend to act. Legal contacts, know-your-rights, and frameworks for people who have decided that watching is no longer acceptable.
If you are in immediate physical danger, call 911. If you cannot call safely, text START to 88788. The hotline has safety planning specialists available 24/7.
Delete this page from your browser history before you put the device down.
Text-only is safest. If your phone is monitored, use a device they do not check — library computer, trusted person's phone, private window. Delete after use.
You do not need to identify as trafficked to use this line. Anonymous questions accepted.
24/7 crisis support, safety planning, and shelter referrals. Confidential. Available in 200+ languages. Can help you plan before, during, and after leaving.
VAWA provides immigration relief for undocumented survivors of domestic violence, including self-petition for legal status independent of the abuser. You do not need the abuser's cooperation. Applies to spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Sexual assault support, legal referrals, and survivor resources. Immigration-neutral. Can connect you to local rape crisis centers and legal advocates.
Protective Orders
Restraining Orders — What They Do and Don't Do
A protective order requires the abuser to stay away. It is not a physical barrier. Violating it is a crime, which gives police grounds to arrest them. Most useful when combined with a safety plan and a way out. A DV attorney can file one at no cost in most jurisdictions. The hotline (1-800-799-7233) can connect you to one.
Text 233733
National Human Trafficking Hotline / Polaris Project
Confidential support for trafficking survivors. Immigration-neutral. Connects you to safe houses, legal advocates, and T-visa assistance. Anonymous questions accepted. Do not call from a monitored phone — use text or web chat from a safe device.
Provides legal immigration status to survivors of severe forms of trafficking. You do not need to have crossed a border, been brought here by someone, or cooperate fully with law enforcement. NHTH (text 233733) can connect you to a T-visa attorney at no cost.
Debt Bondage
What You Owe Them Is Not Real
Debt bondage is a federal crime. The debt is not legally enforceable. Courts do not recognize debts created through coercion or fraud. You cannot be legally held, worked, or sold to satisfy money they say you owe.
The primary legal resource for direct action defense. They have a mass defense program specifically for people arrested during protest and direct action.
Documented reporting on conditions. Useful as reference and as evidence of what is known.
Legal Framework — Know This
Habeas Corpus — 28 U.S.C. § 2241
The mechanism for challenging unlawful federal detention. A detained person or someone acting on their behalf can petition a federal court directly. This is the legal door.
Fourth Amendment
Protections against unreasonable search and seizure extend to non-citizens on U.S. soil. You do not surrender constitutional rights by being undocumented.
Zadvydas v. Davis (2001)
Supreme Court held that indefinite detention of non-citizens is unconstitutional. There are time limits. The government does not have unlimited authority to hold people.
42 U.S.C. § 1983 / Bivens Actions
Section 1983 allows civil rights claims against state actors. For federal agents, the equivalent is a Bivens action. These are the tools for accountability after harm is done.
Fifth Amendment — Right to Silence
You have the right to remain silent. This applies regardless of citizenship status. The only thing you are required to provide is identification in states with stop-and-identify laws. Say nothing else until you have an attorney.
Before You Act
1. Write the NLG number on your arm in permanent marker.
2. Find your local NLG chapter hotline at nlg.org/chapters/#massdefense.
3. Establish a contact person who knows your plan and timeline — someone who will make calls if you don't check in.
4. Consider a pre-action consultation with a civil rights attorney. Hypotheticals are not incriminating.
5. Document everything you witness. Civil rights claims live or die on documentation.
6. Know the distinction between obstruction and intervention — legally significant and often blurry in practice.
Before You Help Someone Leave
1. Do not pressure them to leave before they are ready — this increases danger. Your job is to be ready when they choose to go.
2. Learn the safety plan. Ask them what they need, what they have already tried, and what they are afraid of.
3. Keep their location private. Do not tell anyone else where they are going, even people who seem trustworthy.
4. Do not contact the abuser, even to confront or threaten them. This alerts them and can trigger violence.
5. Have a physical safe location ready. Know the address. Have it clean, stocked, and available without notice.
6. If you are transporting them: do not go to predictable locations. Know the route in advance. Have a backup.
Before You Help Someone Get Out
1. Do not force an exit they did not ask for — this can trigger retaliation and re-trafficking. The exit must be the survivor's choice.
2. Do not contact the trafficker or anyone in the network. This will alert them.
3. Do not go to a regular DV shelter. Most are not equipped for trafficking situations and the network may know to look there. Contact NHTH (text 233733) for specialized safe house options.
4. Plan for distance. Getting them out of the immediate area is more important than finding them a permanent home. A different city is safer than the next neighborhood.
5. Keep their location completely private. Do not tell anyone where they are going except people directly involved in the exit.
6. Expect the exit to take time and possibly multiple attempts. Be steady, not urgent in a way that pressures them.
If You Had No Time to Prepare
Written for you, not for the people helping you. Read these first.
Start Here — Domestic Abuse
Coercive control, safety planning, what to take when you leave, device security, shared accounts, and why leaving is complicated.
Safety After Leaving
The first 30 days are the most dangerous. Physical stalking, digital surveillance, AirTag detection, protecting your workplace and children's school.
Custody and Children
Emergency custody orders, documentation, how abusers use the custody system, custody exchanges, and what your children may be experiencing.
Financial Abuse
Recognizing it, building a hidden emergency fund, coerced debt, credit repair, rebuilding income and finances after leaving.
If You Are Pregnant and Unsafe
Specific risks during pregnancy, speaking with your provider alone, leaving while pregnant, delivery safety, and legal considerations around the birth.
When You Cannot Call 911
Alternatives for undocumented people, those with warrants, and communities where police presence creates danger. Medical emergencies, DV, trafficking, mental health crises.
Start Here — Sex Trafficking
Your rights, document confiscation, debt bondage, how to signal for help, T-visa, and reaching the NHTH when your movement is restricted.
If a Child Is Being Trafficked
Recognition, what not to do, how to approach without triggering the trafficker, mandatory reporting, legal protections, and how to support the child.
Labor Trafficking
Recognition in domestic work, agriculture, construction, and restaurants. Debt bondage, document confiscation, visa situations, wage theft, and how to reach help when movement is restricted.
Supporting a Survivor After Exit
What recovery actually looks like, why survivors grieve their trafficker, trauma bonding, what helps and what doesn't, and how to take care of yourself as a supporter.
When You Cannot Call 911
Alternatives for undocumented people, those with warrants, and communities where police presence creates danger.
Right Now
Immediate survival — warmth, water, trust, ICE contact, your rights. Read this first.
If They Come to Your Door
The door is the line. What a real warrant looks like. When to run, when to go quiet.
If You Are Stopped
On foot or in a vehicle. When to run. When to fight. What to say when you can't.
If You Need to Leave Now
Ten minutes or less. What to take, what to leave, where not to go first.
Moving vs. Staying
When stillness is safer than moving. How to read a route. What to do if separated.
Your Phone
IMEI tracking, PIN vs. biometrics, what a wipe actually does, what to say when they take it.
Communicating Safely
How to reach people without exposing your location or theirs. Signal, SMS, no phone.
If You're Separated
Reconnection protocols. What to teach children now. Using Twilight Homes lost and found.
If You Are a Child
They took someone and you are alone. What to do right now, who to call, what not to say.
Food With Nothing
Finding food with no money. What to eat first. Signs someone needs medical help.
Field Manuals — For Those Supporting You
Aftercare
Trauma-informed field guide for immediate care of people in crisis.
Sexual Assault Response
Immediate care, medical windows, evidence, reporting choices, and cultural context.
Medical
Field medicine for non-clinicians — dehydration, malnutrition, refeeding, wounds, fever, panic, cardiac events.
Culture & Language
Being a safe presence across a language barrier — cultural context, key phrases, shame and dignity, what not to do.
Supply List
Full checklist — comfort, hygiene, food, medical, wound care, hemorrhage control, pregnancy and delivery, expression, and yours.
Training
What to learn before you go, in priority order.
If You Have a Child
When a child has no parent and no one else.
Sexual Assault
Field response for assault survivors — immediate care, medical windows, presentation, cultural context.
Death in Care
When someone dies while under your responsibility. Recognition, response, telling others, body dignity.
Impairment
Recognizing and managing your own degradation — sleep, exhaustion, flooding, hunger.
Suicidality
Recognizing risk, asking directly, levels of crisis, response, and after.
Infection Control
Preventing spread of communicable illness across a group — TB, GI, skin infections, your own exposure.
Group Triage
START triage for multiple casualties — who first, the permission to decide, and emotional triage for group psychological crisis.
Pregnancy & Labor
Complications, delivery if no other choice, premature birth, miscarriage.
