Bundled in parkas and armed with “ICE OUT” signs, hundreds of people gathered and listened as speakers doled out advice on dealing with immigration officers.

The rally, held in front of Baltimore City Hall on Saturday afternoon, was a bit more than a protest against ramped-up immigration enforcement. Inspired by protesters and legal observers in Minnesota, local organizers held a public training session for encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“What we’re going to be asking you to do is not like a huge, insane thing to take on,” said Ryan Harvey, one of the organizers with the Baltimore Rapid Response Network. “It’s talking to people you know. It’s talking to people in your neighborhood that you don’t know.”

Droves of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks, following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Footage captured by observers has contradicted the Department of Homeland Security’s version of events in both incidents, stoking national tensions further.

Similar training events have been hosted for months around the Baltimore area, often open to anyone but held indoors. On Saturday, it was disseminated over a speaker system, outdoors, in the center of the city and less than a mile from Baltimore’s ICE field office.

The crowd stretched from Fayette Street to Lexington Street and overflowed into the snow covering War Memorial Plaza. People waddled in over packs of snow and ice in the below-freezing temperatures. Organizers handed out hot tea and hand warmers.

The speakers walked them through ways to look out for neighbors and co-workers targeted by immigration officers. Like the bystanders in Minneapolis who have captured the major operation in their city, they encouraged everyone to document ICE agents’ actions from a safe distance. Some attendees jotted down notes during the training; others collected flyers with tips on them.

Mike and Betsy Niehoff drove in from Harford County to speak up for those “who don’t have a voice,” Mike said. The couple and their daughter were wrapped in scarves, hats and gloves, as was much of the crowd.

“We come down here as often as we can to support immigrant rights,” Betsy said.

With the couple was Susanna, who said she escaped the Chilean dictatorship and moved to the Baltimore area decades ago.

“I lived through a dictatorship, so I know what it is,” she said, requesting her last name be withheld out of fear of reprisal from the federal government. “It’s my moral duty to be here, and I’m going to be until the last minute of my life.”

Anticipation of a potential ICE surge has been growing in Maryland in recent days since the Department of Homeland Security purchased and sought to retrofit a warehouse into a detention facility near Hagerstown. Howard County Executive Calvin Ball introduced emergency legislation to ban permits for privately owned detention centers in the county after area officials inspected an Elkridge building that was renovated to become a detention facility.

It is not clear if more ICE officers will be deployed in the state, but many officials saw the recent actions as signs of a surge.

Ash Esposito, one of the Baltimore Rapid Response Network’s organizers and a member of the city’s Board of School Commissioners, wanted Saturday’s event to be a high-level “on-the-spot” training for people looking to get involved in their communities.

“There is a sense of urgency,” she said. “Our goal is to really make sure that people, everyday people, have information that they need to even know to do.”