(Radio Iowa) – Several Iowa communities are holding what are billed as training sessions designed to teach people how to respond to ICE activity. A recent meeting in Cedar Rapids drew nearly 600 people. Reverend Jonathan Heifner at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, where the event was held, says it was about building relationships, and making sure people know their rights. “We don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Heifner says. “We didn’t want anybody to be in a situation they didn’t want to be in, and so the education of this is about knowing what we can do and knowing what the limits are.”

The training comes after weeks of protests across the country and the fatal shootings of two Minnesota residents. Heifner says people told him they felt more informed about their rights after the training. “I think the biggest learning was in the debrief after the first simulation,” Heifner says. “We asked, ‘Pay attention to your behavior. What is it that you did in these moments, and then consider who you want to be in these moments, and let’s live into that the second time.’”

Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says the training encourages interference with law enforcement operations and she questions whether the non-profit that led the training should retain its tax-exempt status. The training session in Cedar Rapids was hosted by the immigrants’ rights group Escucha Mi Voz, or “hear my voice.” Reverend Heifner says there was nothing in the training that would lead to the church losing its tax-exempt status.