Charles Swift, director of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, speaking at an Islamic Center in Maryland as part of a 15-city awareness tour.

A plan to blacklist the Muslim Brotherhood – and, by extension, target US Islamic groups – no longer seems imminent as the White House wrestles with more urgent controversies, but civil rights attorneys are warning that it’s no time for celebration.

This is the moment to prepare for actions the Trump administration could take to choke off Muslim civic life, warned Charles Swift, a national security lawyer best known for representing the driver of al Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden. Jaws dropped as Swift outlined the government’s broad powers of investigation to a Muslim audience at a legal seminar in suburban Maryland this month.

Under laws enacted after 9/11, Swift said, the feds still have the authority to swoop in and freeze assets, in some cases even before an investigation. Such moves could be challenged in court, he said, but not before causing irreparable damage.

“The day you’re blocked is the day you’re done,” Swift told the audience.

Swift, director of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, is part of a road show of legal experts crisscrossing the nation to jolt Muslim nonprofit directors into “preparing for the day.” The 15-city tour is one of many legal rights campaigns gaining traction as Islamic organizations find time to regroup in the break offered by Russia taking over as the national security issue du jour. Public outcry and court rulings over the travel ban also bought some time.

That brief lull already may be coming to a close, with the White House announcing that President Donald Trump will give a speech on Islam during a trip this week to Saudi Arabia. There’s no telling what he might address or whether he’ll drop any clues about the likelihood of the Brotherhood ban, an idea pushed by some of his anti-Muslim advisers.

Legal-advocacy groups advise US Islamic organizations to remain on high alert, preferably with attorneys retained and records shipshape. Citing cautionary tales of now-defunct Islamic charities, the activists are pointing Muslim groups to the hidden vulnerabilities in their bookkeeping, overseas ties, donations, and other seemingly mundane duties of running an Islamic organization.

And finding legal protection also comes with snags, especially for small groups on shoestring budgets. If your assets are frozen, you can’t pay for a lawyer, and if you prepay for legal services, the attorneys could drop you because they don’t want to be associated with the target of a federal investigation.

Then, even if a targeted group successfully defends itself and is cleared of wrongdoing, the organization is still effectively finished: in financial ruin and a pariah to donors.

“That was really scary to hear. Once you get tapped, you might get tapped out by the end,” said Amena Waseem, who attended Swift’s talk because she plans to open an international relief group.

Waseem said she’s worked in the nonprofit world, so she knew she’d have to stay vigilant to make sure her support didn’t inadvertently help any sanctioned group. Still, she said, the workshop was a wake-up call – she hadn’t realized the scope of the government’s powers to investigate Islamic organizations under the rubric of counterterrorism.

“This in itself is a new thing for us, having the resources to go to and say, ‘I need legal assistance, I don’t understand what’s about to happen,’” Waseem said. “There’s so many initiatives now, and so many people who look for these resources and who probably still don’t know they exist.”