What specific content is included in Monarca’s weight‑station toolkit and training materials?
Executive summary
Monarca’s publicly available “weight‑station toolkit” is a downloadable packet that maps and names truck weigh‑station locations and offers practical and messaging guidance for civilian monitoring of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity; it sits alongside broader “upstander” or legal‑observer training that teaches non‑violent observation, reporting procedures, and rapid‑response coordination [1] [2] [3]. Reporting about the toolkit and trainings highlights both procedural limits—such as explicit instructions not to physically interfere—and political framing aimed at mobilizing community resistance to ICE enforcement [2] [3].
1. What the toolkit physically contains: location lists and a downloadable packet
Monarca published a downloadable “Weigh Station Toolkit” on its site, described in multiple outlets as a packet that identifies specific weigh‑station locations where ICE operations were expected to occur, providing activists and community members with geographic intel to monitor or report activity [1] [2] [4]. The organization’s web presence hosts the toolkit as a resource people can download or access through a form link [1] [5].
2. Operational guidance for observers: what to do when ICE is present
The toolkit and related Monarca materials instruct volunteers to follow, track, report, and record Department of Homeland Security officers during operations, with volunteers trained to collect detainees’ personal information and make phone calls on their behalf if needed—functions described in reporting about the group’s legal‑observer role [2] [3]. Monarca also operates a “rapid response line” that encourages callers to report ICE sightings, share locations, and in some accounts to take photos and videos so legal observers can be dispatched to active operations [3].
3. Behavioral rules and limits emphasized in training
Multiple reports note Monarca’s explicit instructions that observers must not livestream interactions or post photos/videos to social media and are told not to “run, argue, resist, or fight” ICE officers—language presented as part of the training’s emphasis on non‑violent, non‑obstructive observation [2] [3]. Those constraints are presented as core safety rules within Monarca’s observer guidance, distinguishing documentation and reporting from physical interference [2] [3].
4. Narrative messaging and public framing included in materials
Beyond tactical guidance, the toolkit furnishes “narrative messaging” meant to shape public perception—example text urges unity across race and class and frames increased government “militarized activity” as harmful to community safety, language intended to orient observers toward community solidarity and political mobilization rather than merely neutral documentation [2] [3].
5. Training events and community outreach that accompany the toolkit
The toolkit is supported by in‑person “upstander” or ICE observer trainings Monarca advertises and runs locally—schedules posted on Monarca’s site list upcoming sessions in Minnesota where participants learn to support neighbors, practice observer roles, and prepare for rapid response work [6] [7]. Reporting describes large in‑person events where organizers brief attendees on both practical supplies (phone chargers, protective gear) and behavioral norms for protests and observation [3].
6. Competing perspectives, caveats, and what sources do not prove
Coverage is split: Monarca and allied community groups portray the toolkit as a civil‑rights, non‑violent documentation and legal‑support tool, while some outlets frame it as training civilians to “resist” or “track” ICE—language that can imply confrontation; these differences reflect editorial slant and the political stakes around immigration enforcement [2] [4] [3]. Reporting documents the toolkit’s contents and training emphases but does not provide a full page‑by‑page contents inventory or internal curriculum beyond what Monarca publicly posts, and available sources do not supply the toolkit’s raw PDF in the quoted snippets, so granular items (checklists, sample scripts, legal citations) can’t be exhaustively confirmed here [1] [5] [2].