Throughout President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, activists in Kansas City and throughout the country saw warning signs of the policies and themes that could dominate his second term: threats of mass deportations, rhetoric demonizing migrants and people of color, and promises to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
For many, Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 brings anxiety of what’s to come, and a fear the administration will follow through on his most cruel promises. Activists like Justice Gatson, founder and director of the Reale Justice Network, feel like they’re treading familiar water.
“We've been here before, so we know what we have to do,” Gatson said.
The Reale Justice Network is one of many local groups that will keep a close eye on the Trump administration and how its actions will trickle down and influence politicians across the aisle in Missouri and Kansas.
But Jan. 20 is also the day the country remembers its most famous activist, Martin Luther King Jr. Driven by his message that the arc of the moral universe is long and bends toward justice, activists remain hopeful for the future. After all, Gatson noted, policies attacking people of color and immigrants in America is nothing new.
“We've always had to do things to care for ourselves,” Gatson said. “So of course, we're going to be leaning on each other, caring for ourselves and strengthening each other so that we can continue to fight.”
So, activists in the metro and beyond — concerned with immigration, tenant rights, racial justice, transgender rights, climate justice, and more — are gearing up. A coalition of activist groups will host a “We Fight Back” protest in Kansas City on inauguration day, in conjunction with similar protests across the country.
“It is a fight for ourselves, in this moment, but it's also a fight for our children,” Gatson said. “There will never be a time in which we would be so hopeless as to not fight back.”
Itzel Vargas-Valenzuela, Advocates for Immigration Rights and Reconciliation
Itzel Vargas-Valenzuela has been bracing for a second Trump administration since long before inauguration day.
“It just seems pretty overwhelming, to be honest,” she said. “But we're not gonna back down.”
Before Election Day, Vargas-Valenzuela took note of false political advertisements accusing immigrants of stealing public benefits from American taxpayers, rhetoric that reflected the Trump campaign’s promise for mass deportation. Top campaign aide Stephen Miller has said Trump intends to launch a deportation campaign as soon as Trump “puts his hand on that Bible and takes the oath of office.”
“We're ready,” Vargas-Valenzuela said. “We're ready to continue the fight and do everything that we can that's within our capacity to keep people safe.”
Deportations and raids have occurred regardless of who’s in office — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported nearly 272,000 people in fiscal year 2024 under President Joe Biden, the most in a decade. But Vargas-Valenzuela said Trump is more open about his threats.
As program director at AIRR, Vargas-Valenzuela organizes training and workshops with names like “Know Your Rights” and “Immigration 101,” educating people on the rights of immigrants and how to interact with immigration officers and law enforcement. Programs also teach people how to create a plan of action when someone is detained or separated from their family.
“There's a feeling of urgency to have this information as soon as possible,” Vargas-Valenzuela said. “We've been getting a lot of requests from schools, from churches.”
Vargas-Valenzuela worries the second Trump term will make immigration organizing, another focus of AIRR, even more difficult. But the organization will continue to get people involved in immigration advocacy, she said.
“We need to make sure that immigrant voices are being heard, and so we will try to continue giving those tools for people, whether it's advocacy at the state level or an actual rally,” Vargas-Valenzuela said. “We really want people to take their power back in this situation.”
Vargas-Valenzuela anticipates AIRR will expand its work into areas outside the Kansas City metro, particularly in areas like southwest Kansas. She said AIRR wants to encourage allies — people who may not be immigrants or at risk of deportation — to join the movement.
To muster hope for the four years ahead, Vargas-Valenzuela said she keeps a scene from “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” in mind.
“In that scene when Dumbledore dies and has a dark mark, and then everybody comes out with their wands and makes it go away — that's kind of how I feel,” she said. “That's how our community is coming together to really put some light in the darkness.”
Merrique Jenson, Transformations KC

Transformations KC focuses on supporting trans women of color and trans youth across Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas. Merrique Jenson, its founder, said trans women of color are amazingly strong at preparing for what’s next — including another Trump presidency.
“Our entire lives have been built on resiliency and really kind of forecasting what may come,” she said. “I think if folks are feeling frustrated or concerned about what's coming, I definitely think leaning on leaders like trans women of color is really important.”
As Trump’s movement has fueled a rise in rhetoric that targets trans people, Transformations has spoken out against legislation from Republican-dominated statehouses that does the same.
“If we see from the data of who's going to be the most impacted, we know it's going to be trans women of color,” Jenson said. “We know it's going to be young trans girls who are maybe getting out of foster care or trying to get a place on their own because they didn't have a supportive family. Those are the girls who are going to be at the margins of the impact of what's happening with this.”
Trump’s targeting of DEI initiatives has trickled down, too, and organizations like Transformations are seeing more people pull their support. At the same time, Jenson said the work of Transformations will become more critical over the next four years.
“I think there’s needs for very clear, safe, private spaces for trans people to be in,” she said. “To strategize, to connect, to laugh, to ‘Kiki,’ to joke, to cry, to talk about the hot date you went on the night before. We just need those spaces.”
In 2023, Transformations KC successfully advocated for a bill declaring Kansas City, Missouri, a safe haven for gender-affirming care. Looking ahead, Jenson said it’s important for the city to commit funding and resources to protecting trans folks.
Jenson said support from other trans women of color — “dolls,” as they affectionately call each other — is keeping her going.
“We know that dolls care about each other, and so I think that these next four years is definitely gonna be difficult. It's definitely gonna be a lot of strategy,” she said. “But so many of my sisters and myself, we've literally come out of horrible, violent situations as children. So we have some really strong skill sets. If anybody can do this, we probably can.”
Jenay Manley, KC Tenants

Every Saturday, Jenay Manley and dozens of KC Tenants members gather — sometimes in a church basement, other times over Zoom — to strategize and hope for a better future.
“I know no matter what happens in our city or in our country, they're going to have each other's back,” she said. “They're going to have my back, and we're going to build power with one another. I constantly feel terrified of what's coming in this country, and I know that the only hope lives in the union, and I see our leaders continuing to refuse to bow down to power, and I think that makes me feel powerful.”
Manley has been organizing with the citywide tenant union since 2020, when it mobilized to support tenants facing eviction. At the beginning of a second Trump administration, the tenant movement locally and across the country has grown stronger. Last year, KC Tenants became a founding member of the Tenant Union Federation, a national tenant’s rights organization.
“What we have now is tenants across the country who are committed to building real power for poor and working-class people,” Manley said. “I do see that changing drastically: how this country sees rent and housing as a human right.”
The goal of the Tenant Union Federation, described by members as a “union of unions,” is to organize tenants across the country to fight for national rent control.
“We're organizing on a national level, and the question is: What decisions do we make as tenants to ensure that this president takes our lives seriously and makes real decisions that are going to make our lives better?” Manley said.
KC Tenants has also organized the longest-running rent strike in the Kansas City area’s history; the Independence Towers tenant union is in their fourth month withholding rent from its landlord, TriGuild Inc. Leaders hope the rent strike there, and the now-paused one at Quality Hill Towers in downtown Kansas City, can serve as a model for how tenant unions in other cities can demand and win change.
No matter who is in the Oval Office, the goal of KC Tenants remains the same, Manley said: creating safe, accessible and truly affordable housing.
“What is happening in Kansas City is no different than what's happening in Bozeman or Louisville, and we know that because tenants are living in the same conditions, because landlords are using the same playbook across this country,” she said. “Poor and working-class tenants have to come together. And when we do that, everything is possible.”
Justice Gatson, Reale Justice Network

In the next four years, the Reale Justice Network, which focuses on reproductive justice and centering survivors of violence, will specifically be watching abortion rights and legislation impacting intimate partner violence.
“We're going to really be paying attention to what's going on with abortion as well as intimate partner violence, and really any potential legislation that will impact those issues and the intersections of those issues,” network founder Justice Gatson said.
Then there’s the economy and people’s ability to afford necessities, Gatson said. “Are people going to be able to survive under this Trump presidency, as far as, like, the economy? Are people going to be able to take care of their families? Are people going to be able to buy food, medicine?”
Gatson also worries Trump’s second term will embolden Republican-dominated legislatures like Missouri’s to push for more restrictions on abortion, despite the passage of Amendment 3 in November, which struck down Missouri’s near-total abortion ban. Abortion procedures are still banned in Missouri because of a patchwork of restrictions that courts have not struck down.
“I think that the Republican leadership in Missouri will align themselves with the Trump administration, and will likely take their cues around anything regarding abortion from the Trump administration,” Gatson said. “Everybody is kind of waiting to see what that will be.”
Gatson said the Reale Justice Network is tracking how Amendment 3 will play out in Missouri, and if, for instance, it will lead to the overturning of Missouri’s other abortion restrictions or if the number of clinics offering the procedure will increase.
Reale Justice Network will also keep an eye on state legislation in Missouri attacking reproductive rights, trans rights and immigrants.
Gatson said she thinks the movement for racial justice will grow stronger under another Trump term, and conservative attacks on critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives will incentivize people to pay attention and push back.
“That's going to infuriate people who have been working on these issues for so long, and they're not going to allow that to happen,” Gatson said. “At the end of the day, people aren't going to allow a convicted felon, who, on record, has committed sexual assault of at least 23 women, tell them what … to do.”