United States and Canada Overview: August 2025

Demonstration trends

This section provides key figures on demonstration events, which includes incidents categorized as "Protests," and "Violent demonstrations" as recorded by ACLED. For more information on event and sub-event types, see the ACLED Codebook

United States:

• 1,513 demonstration events

• 44% decrease compared to the same period last month

Canada:

• 87 demonstration events

• 29% decrease compared to the same period last month

United States: Large anti-Trump demonstrations continue with Good Trouble Lives On

On 17 July, the fifth anniversary of the death of former US Congressman John Lewis, over 500 demonstrations were held under the banner of “Good Trouble Lives On” across the United States to honor Lewis’ legacy and to oppose President Donald Trump. The demonstrations were organized by a coalition of groups, some of which were involved in previous anti-Trump days of action, including the Indivisible Movement, Black Voters Matter, the League of Women Voters, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Despite the large number of events, the Good Trouble day of action saw a more modest turnout than other large-scale anti-Trump mobilizations this year. It was surpassed by the 5 April Hands Off demonstrations, which saw roughly 60% more demonstrations, and by the 14 June No Kings Day day of action, which saw nearly three times as many demonstrations. 

Unlike the Good Trouble demonstrations, which took place on a Thursday during a relative lull in demonstration activity, both the Hands Off and No Kings days of action were held during the weekend, with No Kings coming on the heels of a major moment of political contention around Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles. This may help explain the disparity in size between the two days of action. Nonetheless, Good Trouble demonstrations were held in at least 47 states and made up over a third of the total number of demonstrations in July. 

The summer of 2025 has seen regular and widespread anti-Trump protest mobilizations, with major spikes around these days of action. These single-day spikes represent a large percentage of overall anti-Trump demonstration activity. The demonstration movement’s focus on single days of mass mobilization contrasts with the steadier pace of regular demonstrations that have characterized other major protest movements in recent years, such as the pro-Palestine or Black Lives Matter demonstrations. 

United States: Multiple violent migration-related incidents take place as migration-related demonstrations decline

As President Trump’s ongoing anti-migration drive continues to mobilize opposition, the issue became an increasingly violent flashpoint in July. Several notable incidents related to migration reflected an environment of elevated violence both perpetrated by and directed at law enforcement. 

On 10 July, a major migration-related operation saw violent confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement and the death of a migrant laborer. ICE agents, the National Guard, and the US Marshals Service were met with violent resistance when they conducted immigration raids at two legal marijuana farms northwest of Los Angeles in the towns of Carpinteria and Camarillo. In both locations, agents clashed with demonstrators and together detained a total of more than 360 suspected undocumented migrants. In Camarillo, demonstrators attempted to block law enforcement agents, throwing rocks and bottles, while in a court filing, a federal agent said one demonstrator appeared to fire a gun, though no injuries were reported.¹ In response, agents fired rubber bullets, stun grenades, and smoke canisters. One farmworker fell from a greenhouse while trying to escape and later died from his injuries. 

In at least two instances this month, law enforcement was also implicated in the use of excessive force against pro-migration demonstrators. On 8 July, a demonstrator was carried for dozens of meters on the roof of a law enforcement SUV as they tried to prevent ICE from detaining a migrant in San Francisco. Meanwhile, on 17 July, a police officer was placed on administrative leave for punching a demonstrator in the head during police intervention to disperse a pro-migration demonstration in Covington, Kentucky.

While violence has largely occurred during law enforcement raids, July witnessed two armed attacks on immigration agents outside of this context, both in Texas. On 4 July, at least 10 armed individuals gathered outside the Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, where they damaged vehicles, lit fireworks, and spraypainted anti-ICE messages. When police officers confronted the group, one individual shot a local police officer in the neck, injuring him, while another fired 20 to 30 rounds at detention officers. Police arrested 10 people and charged them with attempted murder of a federal officer, describing the incident as a planned ambush.² Meanwhile, on 7 July, a man armed with a rifle shot at law enforcement officers at the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector Annex building in McAllen. A McAllen police officer, a Border Patrol agent, and a US Customs and Border Protection employee were injured by the attack and taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the assailant was shot and killed by the agents.

Beyond these violent incidents, ACLED records over 400 pro-migration demonstrations in July. While this represents a nearly two-thirds decline from the more than 1,100 recorded in June — the largest monthly number of pro-migration demonstrations on record — July still saw a larger number of pro-migration demonstrations than any month before January 2025. Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, demonstrations in support of migrants and pro-immigration policies have risen in the United States in response to his deportation policies and widely publicized ICE operations. Prior to the beginning of this year, ACLED had not recorded more than 70 pro-migration demonstrations in a single month since it began collecting data for the US in 2020. But since January 2025, pro-migration demonstrations each month have numbered in the hundreds. 

Radical group trends

This section provides key figures on far-right and white nationalist groups.³

• 58 events, of which 43 involve white nationalist groups
• 15 radical groups active, of which 6 are white nationalist
• Radical groups were most active in Montana
• White nationalist groups were most active in Texas

Group spotlight: Patriot Front propaganda highlights disaster relief activities for white people affected by Texas floods

Major floods in the Hill Country region of Central Texas began on 4 July as a result of thunderstorms in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Barry and continued through July 7, killing at least 135 people across multiple counties.⁴ In the fallout of the flooding, Patriot Front, a Texas-based white nationalist group, published photos and videos of its members performing disaster relief efforts across the region, including at Camp Mystic, a girls summer camp where 27 people died during the flooding. In a video published online, Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau proclaimed that the group’s efforts prioritized white people and used the moment to attempt to recruit new members.⁵ 

Patriot Front has frequently engaged in disaster relief activities provided exclusively to white people and has publicized these efforts to recruit new members and improve its image. Including these most recent floods in Texas, ACLED records the group traveling to at least eight disaster sites in the wake of tornadoes, hurricanes, and a train derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, in early 2023. Prior to the Hill County floods, Patriot Front most recently traveled to Welch, West Virginia following a flooding incident in May 2025 to deliver food packages emblazoned with the group’s logo.