PAID RESISTANCE: Anti-ICE Group Advertises Organizing Jobs at Up to $36 an Hour
Hourly wages, bonuses and daily fundraising targets—inside the operation planning hotel disruptions and a Home Depot shutdown.
by Natalie Winters on Substack, October 9, 2026
An anti-ICE protest group has advertised organizing jobs paying up to $36 an hour, with bonuses and daily fundraising targets, while publishing plans to disrupt hotel bookings and shut down Home Depot stores across Los Angeles.
The Grassroots Activist International Association, or GAIA, puts the employment model in writing. Its job advertisement describes:
“In-House campaigns that we dedicate our working hours to.”
One of the campaigns recruits would work on is ICE Breakers, which pressures businesses to cut support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The listing also names GAIA’s climate and housing campaigns.
GAIA’s own description of its training program identifies the goal:
“long-term, sustainable paid organizing positions”
The hourly rate—and the fundraising targets
The advertisement lists a $23–$36 hourly range. Its detailed compensation pitch starts at $23 an hour plus bonuses, and claims most community organizers earn $26–$30 an hour.
Recruits are expected to talk with the public, build membership and:
“Fundraise to support our work, meeting and exceeding daily goals.”
No previous canvassing experience is required.
These are advertised organizing and fundraising jobs. The records do not establish payments to ordinary attendees simply for showing up at a protest, or how much paid staff time is spent demonstrating.
GAIA says on its website that its campaigns are financed entirely through canvassing and small donations, without corporate or government funding. Individual donors, the total budget and actual payroll have not been independently established.
Pressure the hotels—and their customers
The group’s Hilton campaign plan demands a policy banning ICE and related immigration-enforcement agencies from staying at or using Hilton-branded properties.
It proposes recurring protests in Los Angeles, San Diego and Portland, timed to busy business hours. Supporters are also encouraged to make refundable reservations and cancel within the hotel’s policies to disrupt occupancy planning.
The campaign extends to organizations booking Hilton venues, including conferences, universities, unions and nonprofits. The plan specifies lawful, nonviolent action and compliance with hotel terms.
Its intended financial pressure is explicit:
“The goal is to change Hilton’s cost–benefit calculation until maintaining ICE access is more expensive than ending it.”
A May 24, 2026 action notice targeted Strategicon, a tabletop gaming convention at Hilton Los Angeles Airport. GAIA challenged the organizers’ choice of venue and urged them to stop booking Hilton until it stopped housing ICE agents.
The notice declared:
“Deal with ICE you can deal with US!”
A plan to shut every Los Angeles Home Depot
GAIA’s Home Depot campaign describes a six-month organizing effort intended to:
“shut down every Home Depot in LA for one day”
The group proposes daily outreach, boycotts, investor pressure and coordinated art actions. It demands that Home Depot sever direct or indirect ties to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, and allow the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to organize at Los Angeles stores.
