This Week’s Actions
Action 1: Reopen the government while protecting healthcare.
Thank you to the 353 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators and your one House representative (call, write, or email).
Script: Hello, I’m ______ from [ZIP], calling to urge you to end the government shutdown by passing a budget bill that funds healthcare and pays furloughed federal workers fairly. The shutdown is causing rapidly escalating impacts to healthcare, education and infrastructure services guaranteed by treaty to tribal nations, and risks interrupting food aid essential to six million low-income parents and young children. Please hold firm to your commitment to affordable healthcare and a swift end to this crisis.
Alternate: Sign Common Cause’s petition.
Source: NAACP, NCAI, MomsRising, Little Lobbyists, NWLC, Common Cause
Action 2: Oppose a $150B ICE funding expansion.
Thank you to the 350 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators and one House representative (call, write, or email).
Script: Hello, I’m ______ from [ZIP], contacting you to oppose the government funding bill that includes ICE funding of $150B to target, detain, and deport people. The ICE budget exceeds the budgets of many militaries around the world. I would like [Sen./Rep. NAME] to reject the use of taxpayer dollars to fund ICE’s expansion.
Alternate: Fill out the Detention Watch Network’s form to send a message to your two senators and one representative (uncheck the “Sign me up” and “I agree” boxes).
Source: AoCC, Detention Watch Network
Action 3: Defend democracy and reject authoritarian rule.
Thank you to the 204 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
October 18 is a national day of action, building on the success of the June 14 “No Kings” protests that drew more than five million participants. There are many ways to protest that don’t involve marching in the streets, including amplifying the #NoKings message on social media, displaying a light (LED or candle) in your window nightly to show solidarity, and sharing factual information on the rights of protesters and the rights of anyone approached by immigration enforcement.
Action 4: Time-sensitive: Oppose a sweeping overreach in voter-registration bureaucracy before October 20.
Thank you to the 237 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
The 60-day window to leave a comment closes on October 20. Stephen Miller’s law firm has petitioned the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) to require proof of citizenship when registering to vote, after federal courts blocked a similar provision in the president’s March executive order on elections. Such a requirement would impose expensive burdens on a vast number of Americans, including the 47% of citizens who don’t have a passport, the millions of married women whose names no longer match their birth certificates, and everyone who has moved and needs to request an original birth certificate from the state where they were born.
Submit a comment: on the Federal Register (click the green box labeled “Submit a comment”) opposing the new rule before October 20. Use your own words (copy/paste content will be rejected) to submit a unique comment about why this issue matters to you. Note: All submissions must include the agency name (“Election Assistance Commission”) and “Docket ID: EAC-2025-0236” for this rulemaking.
Source: League of Women Voters
Action 5: Stop ICE from tricking vulnerable kids with cash.
Thank you to the 49 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Office of the Executive Secretary, MS 0525 Department of Homeland Security, 2707 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, Washington, DC 20528-0525 (Postcard recommended.)
Script: Hello, my name is _____ from [ZIP]. I urge Secretary Kristi Noem to end the DHS program offering unaccompanied children $2,500 to waive their right to asylum. Children in U.S. custody must receive due process with access to child-appropriate counsel. Please stop coercing kids and end this program immediately. Thank you.
Source: KIND
Action 6: Sign the petition to reunite the Merlos family.
Thank you to the 231 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
ICE arrested Jackie Merlos and her mother on false pretenses of people smuggling, then detained Jackie’s husband, Carlos. Since June, ICE has separated the entire family, with Jackie, Jackie’s mother, and Carlos in different facilities, while the couples’ four U.S. citizen children–who were initially detained with their mother–have now spent months away from their parents in the care of a family friend. Not only is ICE violating the time limits for their release, agents have also interrogated the Merlos’ seven- and nine-year-old children without their parents present. Our tax dollars are funding this physically and psychologically harmful and morally corrupt abuse.
Sign: the petition by the National Immigration Law Center demanding ICE release and reunite this family.
Bonus: Learn about how you can support separated children in your community.
Source: National Immigration Law Center
Action 7: Honor survivors this October.
Thank you to the 19 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This year’s themes are:
- Commemorating those lost.
- Celebrating survivors’ resilience.
- Fostering connections to prevent violence.
Indigenous women experience some of the country’s highest rates of domestic violence.
The president recently downplayed violence against women and threatened cuts to enforcement.
Raise awareness: by wearing purple on October 16th and tagging @niwrc using the hashtag #PurpleThursday on social media.
Source: NIWRC
Action 8: Speak up in solidarity with farmworkers being denied their rights.
Thank you to the 177 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
In 2019, New York’s Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act gave farmworkers the right to collective bargaining. Workers who pick apples at Wafler Farms voted to join the UFW in 2022. When Wafler refused to cooperate, a state-appointed arbitrator imposed a 2025 contract with better wages, benefits, and working conditions. Wafler sued to overturn the decision, and a judge temporarily blocked enforcement while the case proceeds. Wafler is still paying below-contract rates and denying workers’ benefits. UFW is responding with public pressure.
Sign: the UFW petition urging Wafler Farms to respect the law and workers’ rights. (Uncheck boxes if you don’t want follow up emails.)
Source: United Farm Workers
Action 9: Boycott Windmill Farms mushrooms until it honors its unionized employees.
Thank you to the 122 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Farm workers at Windmill (formerly Ostrom) Farms in Sunnyside, Washington elected to have United Farm Workers representation in 2022. Three years later, their employer still refuses to recognize their union and fails to address dangerous and hostile working conditions. Out of options, UFW and PCUN launched a boycott of the company’s mushrooms until conditions improve and their union is recognized.
Boycott: If you’re in Washington, Oregon, or Alaska, check mushrooms before you buy. If they’re from Sunnyside, WA (even store brands), choose another brand in solidarity.
Everyone else: Sign the petition and support farmworkers rights at UFW and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste.
Action 10: Curb abuse of presidential power.
Thank you to the 110 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators (call, write, or email).
Script: Hello, I’m ______ from [ZIP], calling to ask you to co-sponsor and pass S. 2838, the Protecting Our Democracy Act. This bill will restore the power of the purse to Congress, enforce the constitution’s emoluments clause, and impose limits on presidential pardons. This bill passed the House in 2021, but died in the Senate, and it’s even more crucial today. Thank you.
Source: Brennan Center
Action 11: Object to state and local police assisting ICE.
Thank you to the 29 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your local police or sheriff (search for [TOWN] police).
Script: Hello, I’m ______ from [ZIP], concerned about law enforcement entering into a 287(g) agreement with ICE. This can carry significant costs for local taxpayers as ICE may not reimburse local agencies for all costs, and could expose local authorities to liability and the cost of litigation. Please break any 287(g) agreements with ICE using resources from Immigration Legal Resource Center and don’t enter into any future agreements.
Action 12: Practice essential democracy skills.
Thank you to the 14 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Polarization makes it easier for authoritarian leaders to divide us and harder for our democracy to function. We don’t need to agree with the “other side.” However, our democracy has a better chance when we practice civil debate, active listening, and mutual respect. We can reunite our nation, one neighbor at a time.
Will you practice talking with your neighbors? Sign up this week to participate with Braver Angels, Crossing Party Lines, Make America Dinner Again, or Reunited States of America.
Source: AoCC
Action 13: Count the time you gave in your own community.
Thank you to the 125 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
It’s our hope that using the Checklist inspires you to become more involved in your community. In the last two weeks, did you volunteer, do service, advocate, or support a local cause? Check the box to let us know!
Source: AoCC
Acts of Gratitude
We believe in gratitude as a tool for change. We will print a letter of thanks from Americans of Conscience with your signature and mail it to the recipient. Your information will be removed from this website no later than four weeks after the Checklist’s publication date.
Thank U.S. Rep. Dr. Maxine Dexter (D–OR) for showing up in person to an ICE detention facility to assist a family separated by ICE. Thank you for raising public awareness about ICE’s abuse and this family’s plight.
If you’d like to mail your own personal expression of gratitude, use this address: 911 NE 11th Ave., Portland, OR 97232
Thank you to the 173 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Thank Reps. Sylvia Garcia (D–TX) and Delia Ramirez (D–IL), for leading 93 of their House colleagues in demanding an account of how many protected DACA recipients have been unlawfully arrested and/or deported by the presidential administration.
If you’d like to mail your own personal expression of gratitude, use these addresses:
SG: 2419 Rayburn HOB, Washington, DC 20515
DR: 1523 Longworth HOB, Washington, DC 20515
Thank you to the 155 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Good News
If you find good news for democracy, equality, and the planet, share it with us here!
Progress on issues previously featured in the Checklist
- Remember the Texas floods in July? We have an update about how the money we raised helped families in dire need of support.
Good news: Wins for democracy, equality, kindness, and planet.
- A U.S. court temporarily blocks the presidential administration from unlawfully deploying the National Guard in Portland, OR.
- A federal district court temporarily blocks the administration from transferring those who arrived in the U.S. as unaccompanied minors to adult immigration detention facilities after they turn eighteen.
- A federal court blocks the expansion of expedited removal policies, toppling a pillar of the administration’s unjust mass deportation agenda.
- A U.S. court in Nashville rules that the Dept. of Justice’s current case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia may be retaliatory and vindictive, following Abrego Garcia’s legal challenge of his unlawful deportation to an inhumane Salvadoran megaprison earlier this year.
- The Dept. of Justice outlines in a court filing that they will accept and process new DACA applications from those not yet enrolled in the initiative.
- A U.S. district court blocks the administration’s attempt to require recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with discriminatory executive orders.
- A federal appeals court upholds a civil jury’s finding that the president must pay $83.3M dollars in damages to E. Jean Carroll for defamation.
- More than 1,000 Health and Human Services employees demand the current secretary resign from his position, warning that his policies are endangering Americans’ health.
- CA protects abortion patients’ privacy by passing a bill allowing for the omission of patients’ names from abortion pill bottles.
- TX: A court upholds students’ and school staff’s First Amendment rights by granting a preliminary injunction against a law requiring public schools to display religious documents.
- The administration does not succeed in their attempt to remove Washington, DC’s Chief of Police on politically motivated pretexts.
- Providence, RI Mayor Brett Smiley signs an executive order preventing city police officers from assisting federal immigration authorities.
- The town of Newbern, AL holds its first election since the 1960s and elects Mayor Patrick Braxton, the first Black mayor in the city’s history.
- After initially intending to keep the show off the air in spite of nationwide consumer protests, the Nexstar and Sinclair broadcast companies return Jimmy Kimmel Live! to their local TV stations.
- Civil Eats’ Crash Course: Civics and the Food System provides clarity into the government’s role in the U.S. food system and how the ongoing shutdown affects food access.
- During Banned Books Week (Oct. 5-11), Penguin Random House’s Banned Wagon tour celebrates freedom of expression and open access to information by giving away banned books for free.
- The online platform PlasticFree opens access to their global plastic-free materials database to the public for free.
- DACA recipient Catalina “Xochitl” Santiago is released from unlawful ICE detention after a federal court orders her release.
- Reading Rainbow returns after nearly 20 years to air on YouTube with new host Mychal Threets, a librarian and literacy advocate known for his encouraging social media posts.
- Tramell Tillman wins the Emmy for best supporting actor in a drama series for his performance on Severance, becoming the first Black man to win the award in that category.
- LIFE magazine publishes a gallery of historical photographs documenting Civil Rights Movement activists’ training for nonviolent protests and sit-ins.
- In response to state censorship of Pride- and LGBTQ-oriented imagery, Orlando restaurant owner Trina Gregory hosts an inclusive community event featuring food, music, and parking spot murals.
Need inspiration?
- Read the latest message from AoCC’s Founder and Director, Jennifer Hofmann: Making It Easier to Keep Going
- Feel What You Feel, but Don’t Go It Alone
- What Happens When We Refuse to Give Up
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The Americans of Conscience Checklist features clear, well-researched actions for Americans who value democracy, equality, voting, and decency. We are a big tent for all people who want a kinder, flourishing nation.
Hi~ I need help with this one: Action 4: Time-sensitive: Oppose a sweeping overreach in voter-registration bureaucracy before October 20. I want to send comments, but I feel confused about what to say. Is there a way to send me a sample, which I will then rewrite and post in my own words? Thank you so much for your help with this!
Thanks for speaking up! I recommended expressing your thoughts: do you support agendas that make it harder for Americans to vote? If not, why? For example, I value free and fair elections, so I oppose restrictions that close access to the ballot box.
Your comment can be short, as long as it’s completely in your words. Copy/paste comments don’t get counted.
As a registered Democrat in Ca I am needing more information on the upcoming elections on Prop 50. Does AoC have a stance and research?
Hi Melanie! I’m glad to know you’re involved in activism at the state level! Your question is a good one. Due to our national reach, AoCC focuses on actions that all Americans can take (federal legislation, for example). At the present time, we don’t research state-specific actions. We’re looking at creating local chapters, however, so if that’s something you’re interested in, please reach out to me by email.