Doug DeVos and revisionist history of Grand Rapids since 1976: How the Capitalist Class always tries to control the narrative
“History is important. If you don’t know history it is as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, anybody up there in a position of power can tell you anything, and you have no way of checking up on it.” Howard Zinn
We should all be deeply skeptical when billionaires like Doug DeVos want to control the narrative around the history of Grand Rapids. In a December 2025 Wall Street Journal op-ed, DeVos wrote a piece entitled, The Grand Rapids Revival and an American Comeback.
Doug DeVos also re-printed the Wall Street Journal op-ed in his recently created pro-Capitalist online journal called Believe!. Believe is a homage to his father Rich DeVos’ book by the same title. I am not going to reprint the entire op-ed piece, but provide a summary, along with a counter narrative about the history that DeVos wants us all to accept.
DeVos begins by making the claim that in 1976 Grand Rapids “had struggled with crime and poverty over the previous decade,” and the Secret Service didn’t want to bring President Ford downtown for a parade because their were too many boarded up buildings downtown.
Like most people with economic or political power, DeVos provides no verification of the claim that Grand Rapids had struggled with crime and poverty over the previous decade. The previous decade would cover from 1965 – 1975, a period in the city’s history where the wealth gap had been growing and where Black residents were disproportionately the ones living in poverty.
In my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids, and Todd Robinson’s book, A City Within a City, both acknowledge that institutionalized racism permeated most of the institutions throughout the City. The 1967 riot was in part because of police brutality directed at Black youth, but it was predominantly a response to decades of exploitation and systemic racism.
White flight and disinvestment in Black neighborhoods contributed to the deterioration of the city, especially when it came to housing. However, the City of Grand Rapids continued to increase the amount of money they were spending on policing and the financial drain on communities because the federal government had spent billions on the Vietnam War, which Ford had voted for while in Congress and when he was in the White House.
Paul I Phillips noted that median income for black families in 1974 was $7,802 and for white families, $13,830, nearly double. Phillips refers to the policy of the 1970’s as policies of “benign neglect,” with the depression of 1974-75, “effectively undermining the economic gains made by Blacks in the 1960’s.” To survive, “an increasing number of Black families are doubling up and pooling meager resources.”
DeVos goes on to say that his father and other business leaders made a commitment to revive downtown Grand Rapids, a commitment that continues through today primarily through the efforts of Grand Action 2.0, which the DeVos family has been leading since the 1990s when it was founded. Here DeVos writes, “A half-century later, Grand Rapids is a city transformed, regularly ranked among the best places in the U.S. to live, work and raise a family.” Again, no verification of these claims.
Three years ago I deconstructed one of the claims about Grand Rapids, especially to notion of Grad Rapids being an affordable city. The article was entitled, Grand Rapids is the 2nd most beautiful and affordable city: Affordable for whom?
DeVos goes on to write:
When I look back on Grand Rapids transformation, I’m most inspired by how people rallied around a shared vision of the city. My hometown, like America, has never been a place where everyone agrees. But it’s harder to stoke division when you’re working together to tutor struggling students or fund inner-city entrepreneurs.
Of course, DeVos is talking about himself here and the other people who make up the Grand Rapids Power Structure. When DeVos uses phrases like funding inner-city entrepreneurs, he is referring to groups like State Garden, which promotes a false solution that everyone needs to create their own wealth and start their own business. This is simply a lie we are all taught about Capitalism, which disproportionately benefits the super rich and widens the wealth gap.
In 2024, I wrote a piece based on the ALICE report – ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. In that report it stated that 41% of Michigan households live paycheck to paycheck. I go on to write:
As the MLive headline said, 41% of Michigan households live paycheck to paycheck, but that number goes up to 47% for Grand Rapids households. This means that nearly half of the households in Grand Rapids are living paycheck to paycheck! You wouldn’t know this, since the local news doesn’t really talk about it much, nor do the politicians, hell even faith leaders to make economic justice a priority when they preach.
Doug DeVos can try to control the narrative around recent history, but we all know that he and his family are the primary beneficiaries of the Grand Action 2.0 projects. Just within the past few years, the DeVos family has been the primary driving force behind the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium and even convinced City officials to provide $565 million is subsidies for their Three Towers project, which will provide housing to people who are well off. Below is a list of GRIID articles on the Three Towers project.
It is a given that people like Doug DeVos want to control the narrative about local history. If people were provided a counter-hegemonic narrative about Grand Rapids history, it would put their wealth and their social status at risk. It is imperative that we tell a different story and gather as many stories as possible, especially from communities that are either omitted from history or are a mere footnote.
No Justice, No Peace is not just a slogan, but a strategic and tactical approach to resisting systems of oppression like ICE
A common chant that can be heard at protests and rallies is, No Justice, No Peace. This phrase generally conveys the idea that if people don’t get the justice they deserve the the system of oppression that is being confronted will not be allowed to continue without disruption, without resistance.
The students from Southwest Middle High School used this same chant during their walkout last Friday. As I stated in a an article, the students shared stories about the harm and violence committed by ICE, with some of them talking about family separation that they have witnessed themselves. This is the injustice that they are experiencing, thus our response should be to not let ICE, their collaborators or the politicians that defend them have another moment of peace.
Resisting ICE in Kent County
ICE has been in Kent County since 2003. They currently have 3 offices and will soon have a fourth office. ICE has been arresting, detaining and deporting members of the affected community since 2003. The difference today is that they now have more funding, since Congress voted to give them billions more in funding.
Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been resisting ICE since 2017 in the following ways.
They have a hotline for people being targeted by ICE, with tips on what to do if ICE comes to their home, their workplace, their children’s school or anywhere else in the community. People can call that number to give GR Rapid Response to ICE information about where ICE is, then deploy people who have been trained to directly intervene with the goal of preventing ICE from taking people.
Since June 4th, when ICE agents arrested and detained at least 8 immigrants who were going to their appointments at the ISAP office, GR Rapid Response to ICE has offered to accompany people who have those kind of appointments to make sure that they get to those meetings safety without being taken by ICE. People can call the hotline number to request people to accompany them.
GR Rapid Response to ICE has also been doing patrols in neighborhoods where ICE has been spotted, with teams of people in vehicles monitoring ICE activity and calling the hotline if ICE is getting ready to arrested someone. This is one way that people can potentially preempt ICE from taking people.
GR Rapid Response to ICE does regular monitoring of the 517 Ottawa NW ICE office, which is their deployment office. That office has a holding cell and when ICE arrests immigrants from our community they process them in at the 517 Ottawa office. Once people have been processed in they are then taken to the ICE Detention facility in Baldwin, Michigan. GR Rapid Response to ICE monitors this office to determine how many ICE agents are out in the community at any given time, based on the number of vehicles there are at the office, along with documenting the types of vehicles, etc.
In addition, GR Rapid Response to ICE does safety work when members of the affected community or agencies that provide social services to affected communities want people there to provide security during a celebration or community benefit event. This is why GR Rapid Response to ICE people were providing safety during the student walkout last Friday, to make sure ICE did that threaten the students who were demanding that ICE be abolished!
Then there is all of the Mutual Aid work that GR Rapid Response to ICE offers. They have connected families with legal support, provide transportation to people who do not feel safe going to the grocery store and anywhere else in the community, provide material support like food or diapers, financial support for families who have little or no income coming in because the primary income earner is in detention, and they offer sanctuary for families who no longer feel safe where they live.
GR Rapid Response to ICE also offers an educational workshop on the history of US Immigration policy, which provides important historical context for what ICE is doing right now. This history demonstrates that the US has engaged in mass deportation previously and has discriminated primarily against non-European immigrants attempting to come to the US. People can schedule that workshop by sending an Email to info@grrapidresponsetoice.org.
Then there is the campaigns that Movimiento Cosecha has to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt 6 specific sanctuary policies that are public safety policies, but also make it clear that the City and the County will not cooperate of collaborate with ICE. Currently, it is well documented that the City and the County are cooperating and collaborating with ICE.
These campaigns not only include demands, but are designed to pressure politicians and to disrupt business as usual, like the civil disobedience that people did on January 5th in order to pressure the county to not engage in holds at the Kent County Jail for ICE.
All of these things listed here are designed to disrupt business as usual and to resist ICE repression. It is a manifestation of the chant No Justice, No Peace. It is a strategic and tactical approach to fulfilling the idea that if people don’t have justice, then we will not allow entities like ICE or the institutions and politicians that defend them to have any peace. Join the resistance!
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been terrorizing immigrants since they were founded in 2003.
White people and the politicians they have voted for – both Democrats and Republicans – have been approving billions in funding for ICE since 2003, while undocumented immigrants were being arrested, detained and deported, along with hundreds being killed. You can read about these immigrant deaths by reading reports from Detention Watch Network and the ACLU.
White Liberals are now outraged after ICE shot and killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, but more often than not they continue to put their faith in the state when it comes to how to deal with ICE.
For example, in a recent weekly message from Indivisible Greater Grand Rapid, they included the following:
Share the State of Michigan ICE Activity Reporting Form with everyone you know. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel launched an “Immigration Action Reporting Form” encouraging residents to report ICE and Border Patrol activity and warning that some federal immigration actions are putting Michiganders at risk. Other ways to report ICE: ICEActivity Tracker and Stop ICE Alerts and GR Rapid Response Hotline: 616.238.0081 (call, don’t text)
The first link takes you to way for you to report immigration-related matters, but never even mentions ICE. The link does tell people that for “emergencies or crimes in your area to local law enforcement.” The Michigan Attorney General does not support the abolition of ICE. More importantly, the Michigan Attorney General puts their faith in law enforcement, which includes ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, along with state and local cops. We can never rely on the carceral state and violence workers – ICE and cops – to ever bring about an semblance of justice. If you believe that ICE is about justice then you are naively misinformed.
The other two links in the IGGR weekly newsletter are both insecure portals that if used could put you at risk of being tracked by the government, plus amongst Rapid Response to ICE groups across the country, many believe that both of them were created by ICE.
The only information that IGGR includes in their weekly newsletter that does not rely on the state to fight ICE is GR Rapid Response to ICE. However, they only include that groups hotline, without telling people what they do or that people should sign up to take one of their trainings. The GR Rapid Response to ICE trainings provide people with concrete ways to resist ICE in Kent County and they never rely on the carceral state while organizing to resist ICE.
GRIID Class on US Foreign Policy since WWII – Week #5
In week #1 I provided some foundational documents and a framework for how to look at no what country the US is engaged in. I also used the framework document to assess the history of Iraq, particularly the US relationship with that country. For week #2 we focused on US government efforts, primarily through the CIA to undermine the elections in Italy 1947-48, and to orchestrate coups in Iran in 1953 and Guatemala in 1954.
For week #3 we continued to used William Blum’s book, Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since WWII. The three countries we focused on were the Congo, Indonesia, and Chile during the 1960s. In week#4 we discussed how the US undermined Angola, Libya and Nicaragua in the 1970s and 80s. Today, we are looking at Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991, Afghanistan 1979 – 1992, and Haiti 1986 – 1994.
Bulgaria 1990/Albania 1991
This section of Blum’s book is essentially what was happening right at the time that the Soviet Union was collapsing, thus at the end of the Cold War. Regarding Bulgaria, the US intervention involved the CIA at a lower level, since the US was interested in preventing Socialists from winning the upcoming election.
The US turned to the, as Blum notes:
The National Endowment for Democracy, Washington’s specially created stand-in for the CIA, with funding in this case primarily from the Agency for International Development, was pouring some $2 million into Bulgaria to influence the outcome of the election, a process the NED calls promoting democracy.
The student movements were amongst the recipients of National Endowment for Democracy grants, to the tune of $100,000 “to provide infrastructure support to the Federation of Independent Student Associations of Bulgaria to improve its outreach capacity in preparation for the national elections”. The students received “faxes, video and copying equipment, loudspeakers, printing equipment and low-cost printing techniques”, as well as the help of various Polish advisers, American legal advisers, and other experts – the best that NED money could buy.
But for Washington policy makers, the important thing, the ideological bottom line, was that the Bulgarian Socialist Party could not, and would not, be given the chance to prove that a democratic, socialist-oriented mixed economy could succeed in Eastern Europe while the capitalist model was failing all around it.
Nor, apparently, would it be allowed in nearby Albania. On 31 March 1991, a Communist government won overwhelming endorsement in elections there. This was followed immediately by two months of widespread unrest, including street demonstrations and a general strike lasting three weeks, which finally led to the collapse of the new regime by June. The National Endowment for Democracy had been there also, providing $80,000 to the labor movement and $23,000 “to support party training and civic education programs”
Afghanistan 1979 – 1992
Consider Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security advisor to Jimmy Carter. In a 1998 interview he admitted that the official story that the US gave military aid to the Afghanistan opposition only after the Soviet invasion in 1979 was a lie. The truth was, he said, that the US began aiding the Islamic fundamentalist moujahedeen six months before the Russians made their move, even though he believed – and told this to Carter, who acted on it – that “this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention”.
Brzezinski was asked whether he regretted this decision.
Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.
We ow know that the US provided billions to the moujahedeen for training and weapons to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, even though many of these people later took action against the US, like Osama bib Laden, who was part of the moujahedeen. Blum then tells us:
Like many other CIA clients, the rebels were financed as well through drug trafficking, and the Agency was apparently as little concerned about it as ever as long as it kept their boys happy Moujahedeen commanders inside Afghanistan personally controlled huge fields of opium poppies, the raw material from which heroin is refined. CIA-supplied trucks and mules, which had carried arms into Afghanistan, were used to transport some of the opium to the numerous laboratories along the Afghan-Pakistan border, whence many tons of heroin were processed with the cooperation of the Pakistani military. The output provided an estimated one-third to one-half of the heroin used annually in the United States and three-quarters of that used in Western Europe. US officials admitted in 1990 that they had failed to investigate or take action against the drug operation because of a desire not to offend their Pakistani and Afghan allies. In 1993, an official of the US Drug Enforcement Administration called Afghanistan the new Colombia of the drug world
The moujahedeen regularly committed human rights abuses, against both Russia soldiers and Afghani civilians, using torture and murder, particularly with women. Once the Soviet military left Afghanistan, the US abandoned that country, allowing the Taliban to come to power.
Haiti 1986 – 1994
The US has had an obsession with Haiti every since the Haitian revolution at the beginning of the 19th Century, when they gained their independence from France. In many ways the US punished Haiti because they did not approve of a Black-led revolution.
The US military occupied Haiti from 1914 – 1934, then eventually installed the Duvalier family dictatorship, first with Papa Doc, followed by his son Baby Doc. The Duvalier dictatorship used their own death squads, known as the Tonton Macoute, which suppressed any opposition. In addition, the Duvalier family plundered the national treasury all the way up til they fled the country during a popular uprising in 1990 that led to the election of a Catholic Priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide,
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The US State Department and the CIA immediately worked to overthrown Aristide. Here Blum states:
Jean-Bertrand Aristide served less than eight months as Haiti’s president before being deposed, on 29 September 1991, by a military coup in which many hundreds of his supporters were massacred, and thousands more fled to the Dominican Republic or by sea.
The Clinton administration was as hypocritical on the Haiti question as were its predecessors, exemplified by its choice for Secretary of Commerce – Ron Brown had been a well-paid and highly-active lobbyist for Baby-Doc Duvalier. Cédras’s spit-in-the-face deceit on the Governors Island accord appeared to bother Washington officials much less than the fact that Aristide would not agree to form a government with the military. By February 1994, it was an open secret that Washington would as soon be rid of the Haitian priest as it would the Haitian strongmen. The Los Angeles Times reported: “Officially it [the US] supports the restoration of Aristide. In private, however, many officials say that Aristide … is so politically radical that the military and the island’s affluent elite will never allow him to return to power.”
The US continued to intervene, supporting another coup against Aristide, followed by supporting numerous oppressive governments that kept Haiti unstable and one of the most impoverished countries in the world. As was stated earlier, the US has been punishing Haiti for more than 2 centuries, because it dared to fight for independence from colonial powers and not follow US plans for the region.
Student Walkout from Southwest Middle High School was emotional and a powerful statement about ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids
Students from Southwest Middle High School, also known as Academia Bilingüe, took part in a student walkout on Friday. Similar to the student walkout I reported on from February 4th, but in this case virtually all of the students that participated are from families of recent immigrants.
The Southwest Middle High School is located just off of Grandville Avenue/Cesar Chavez Way. The students asked members of GR Rapid Response to ICE to provide safeties for the day and members of the West Michigan Care Collective also joined the walkout to provide safeties and street medics.
The students marched all the way to City Hall, as they wanted to send a message to Grand Rapids City officials that they are mad as hell about what ICE is doing to their families and that the City should take the necessary steps to not collaborate with ICE.
Several students had megaphones to amplify their voices and to lead chants that were done in both Spanish and English. Chants like, “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here!”, and When I say Abolish, you say ICE, Abolish ICE, Abolish ICE!”, were just some of they chants that students used during the walkout.
The march wove throughout downtown on Monroe until the students arrived at City Hall. They took the stairs up to the Calder Plaza area and then spent the next 30 minutes making statements and sharing stories.
Several of the student organizers shared statements about why they organized a walkout and then named the Latin American countries of that student’s families originated from. The list was pretty long and you could tell which students were from countries like Mexico or Guatemala, since the cheers from the crowd were the loudest.
More importantly, the Southwest Middle High School students shared stories about the harm and violence committed by ICE, with some of them talking about family separation that they have witnessed themselves. This student group in particular understood the urgency of resisting ICE, since they and their families are part of the communities most affected by ICE terrorism. Their stories were powerful and you could hear how deeply personal it was for the students, many of which fought through tears as they spoke.
Emotions were high and so was the energy from these students. They were just as animated during the march back, maybe even more so after they had collectively communicated their fears, the pain and their anger at ICE and at City officials who have done nothing to help keep their families safe.
When the march was nearing the school along Grandville Avenue/Cesar Chavez Way, residents came out of their homes or honk their car horns in support. There were parents and supporters standing outside of Grandville Avenue Arts and Humanities cheering them on and offering water as the students were ending the march.
Once they were back at the school, many of the students, especially the student organizers, offered thanks and hugs to the safeties who walked with them that day. Again, several of the students fought through tears knowing that people were supporting them and wanting them to be safe from government repression. I was personally inspired by the whole walkout, they student’s vulnerability and thought that they too were teaching the rest of us on how we fight ICE!
The GRPD showed up to a meeting where GR Rapid Response to ICE was invited to speak
Editor’s note: for transparency sake I was the GR Rapid Response to ICE volunteer who attended the meeting mentioned in this post.
For people who are don’t already know, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE has campaigns to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt 6 specific sanctuary policies, policies that are fundamentally public safety policies for affected communities.
Both Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids have been dismissive of these demands, both the last time people went to the Kent County Commission meeting in early January and based on the response from Mayor LaGrand during a City Commission meeting on January 27.
Volunteer organizers have witnessed throughout the past year incidents where ICE called the GRPD, along with instances where the GRPD showed up the same time as ICE did while GR Rapid Response to ICE was responding to an ICE alert.
On Wednesday, GR Rapid Response to ICE was invited to speak at Madison Square Church during a regular networking meeting they host with people and agencies in the community. I arrived maybe 15 minutes before the meeting started and right away noticed a GRPD cruiser parked in the adjacent parking lot to the building. The parking lot was full, so I went to the next parking lot just south and Parker there, only to see two more GRPD cruisers pull in and park as well.
When I came into the building I checked in with the person taking names and there was already a GRPD cop in the building. I then tracked down one of the organizers of the event and told them that GR Rapid Response to ICE will not share what we do if the GRPD is present.
The response from this organizer was that the GRPD rarely attends these events and I said there were at least two more coming. I then asked if there was a public notice for the event that mentioned that GR Rapid Response to ICE would be speaking? The organizer responded yes, which led me to believe that this was why so many cops were present.
I continued to have conversations with other event organizers to share that GR Rapid Response would not be speaking with the GRPD present and that we have witnessed GRPD/ICE collaboration on a consistent basis.
Eventually, I left the building and went home. However, within the next hour I received several messages from people who stated that the GRPD got up to speak and here are some of the things they said:
The GRPD got to speak in lieu of your (GR Rapid Response to ICE) absence at the meeting today. They said they will not use force or target ICE in their arrests, because they took the same oath they did. And that force is sometimes necessary.
When I asked if people pushed back on what the GRPD said, this person stated: Many leaders did. To the point that the Captain left quickly after her pedestal speech.
Another person wrote: The conversation centered on how people should comply with law enforcement and how they are “not cooperating with ICE” and basically ignored when people said what about Miranda rights and being protectors of the community. Basically still saying the show up when ICE is there to just try to keep the peace.
The other person who messaged me stated: A community officer spoke for a while to this, and then took questions for a while as well. Essentially, she stated that GRPD doesn’t coordinate with ICE but that if they are called out to a contentious scene that they will keep the peace. She also said that jails will notify ICE if someone who has an outstanding ICE warrant is taken into custody for a different criminal offense. There was a lot of pushback and conversation but it was healthy… good to have these conversations, even if they are unsatisfying to everyone involved (they certainly were unsatisfying to us).
I was delighted to get this feedback from people who attended and to know that there was a significant amount of pushback to what the GRPD had to say. Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE invite people to join their campaigns to pressure the City and the County to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies listed here below so that local cops do not collaborate with ICE in the arrest and detention of immigrants in this community.
There is significant pushback on data centers, but the organized resistance cannot get comfortable here in West MI
In recent weeks there have been numerous news stories about public opposition to proposed data centers.
Monitor Township has become the latest Bay County municipality to issue a temporary moratorium on the use of data centers within its borders. Sterling Heights city council approved a one-year moratorium on new data centers Tuesday, Feb. 3, putting a temporary pause on approvals while the city updates zoning rules. Similar opposition occurred in Kalamazoo.
In West Michigan this opposition is also happening. In Solon Township there will be no date centers for at least six months and the organized effort in Lowell and Lowell Township has also been substantial.
Just last week, MLive reported that the Microsoft Corporation, in a letter to the Gaines Township Planning Commission, wants to delay the public hearing scheduled for February 12, “until late March to give the tech giant time to update its rezone application and organize a community meeting to share the revised preliminary concepts and answer questions.” The tactic to delay public hearings is a old tactics used by large corporations so they can buy time to better prepare for public opposition. The delay tactic also gives companies like Microsoft additional time to influence local news media, to get groups like the Chamber of Commerce in to provide more credibility or to offer kickbacks for groups that are willing to support their plans for the data center.
The MLive article did not really explore the reasons behind the Microsoft letter, nor did they provide readers with additional information or analysis of the economic, social and environmental impacts of data centers. MLive could have told readers that the Microsoft corporation already has 133 operational data centers, with 139 more planned. Based on the most recent quarterly earnings, Microsoft data centers are a large part of their profits.
With so much money on the line for big tech companies, they will not give up easily in their efforts to con the public into more and more data centers. According to a recent report from Data Center Watch there has been $65 billion of data center projects that have been blocked because communities have become organized.
However, this type of opposition cannot let up. In a recent article on Truthdig entitled, The Fight to Stop Data Center Creep, the writers states:
Finally, we need to continue publicizing the very real environmental costs of data centers, because their advocates are going to push a narrative that they’re not a problem. There’s already a movement to downplay the groundwater that they’re using up. Thirty years ago, consensus on climate change was bipartisan and broad, but decades of astroturfing and right-wing echo chambers undermined it. The AI industry is going to run the same playbook this time; we need to be louder.
I would also say that we need to be strategic and we need to not rely on local, state or federal governments to protect us from Big Tech’s data center projects. Also, there is a pro-data center/AI forum in Grand Rapids tonight, shown here in the graphic.
New ICE commercials airing in Michigan are based on a false narrative about what ICE does
There is a series of new ICE commercials running in several states over the past few weeks. The ads are currently running in Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia. These ICE commercials eve ran during last Sunday’s Super Bowl game. You can watch two of the ICE commercials here.
Here is the narrative from one of the ads:
Immigration and Customs Enforcement have removed thousands of criminal, illegal aliens from the US. They entered the United State illegally and committed crime against our mothers, children, and friends. Every day Immigration and Customs Enforcement take them off our streets. Every removal makes us safer and America stronger. This is what ICE does. This is Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
There is a great deal with these ICE commercials that are deeply problematic, however, the main issue is that that these commercials are presenting lies.
The first lie is that immigrants entered the US illegally. Undocumented immigrants who entered the US without papers did nothing illegal. Being in the US without papers is a civil infraction, but not a crime.
The second lie is that ICE is “removing” immigrants who commit violent crimes. There is no definitive consensus on how many undocumented immigrants have committed violent crimes, like the kind that are listed in the ICE commercial – murder, child predator, drug trafficker, kidnapping, child pornography, rape and child molestation. David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, (which has been funded by the Koch brothers, so not exactly a leftist think tank) analyzed nonpublic data from ICE leaked to Cato, and he found that among those with criminal convictions detained by ICE, 8% were convicted of violent or property crimes (about 5% were violent criminal convictions). “And that includes very minor assaults. I mean, not like rape and murder,” Bier said in a radio interview with KPFA on Jan. 22. “These are someone had an altercation at a bar or things like that, not serious violent criminals who committed murder and rape.” Thus, only 5 percent had a violent criminal conviction.
The third lie is that ICE arrests are making “us safer and America stronger.” The reality is that when ICE arrests people they are causing harm directly to immigrant families, both economic hardship since the majority of those taken were the primary income earners, along with the trauma that families experience when someone is taken. This harm doesn’t make people and communities safer, instead it harms us as well. ICE is arresting people who are our neighbors, co-workers, friends, ad people we attend religious services with.
Lastly, it is important to note that the entity paying for these ICE commercials is America Sovereignty. American Sovereignty lists some of its priorities as border security, protecting taxpayers and public safety, according to its website. The website doesn’t provide further details about who the group comprises, where its funding comes from, nor in what ways it works toward its mission.
According to a recent Mother Jones article:
American Sovereignty has a bare-bones website created in January, where you can sign up for a mailing list and read its privacy policy. But, otherwise, basically nothing is known.
We couldn’t find any publicly available corporate registration documents, and we got no response today when we reached out to the email address on the website to ask about the background of the group. It’s been the same for other news outlets: After American Sovereignty put up a pro-ICE billboard in San Francisco in the run-up to the Super Bowl, multiple journalists reached out to the group but didn’t get a response.
Regardless of the fact that we know very little about who is behind these pro-ICE commercials, we do know that they are based on lies and they are seeking to change public opinion about Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE was created in 2003, yet the most recent polling shows at least half the country not only opposes ICE, but wants the federal agency to be abolished. Abolishing ICE is exactly was Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding.
The local news media has once again done a disservice to the people of Grand Rapids. Since it was announced that Chief Winstrom might be headed to Florida, the news media has not only fawned over Winstrom, they have provided him with a platform to create his own narrative about the last 4 years as the top cop.
An excellent example of how Winstrom got to create his own narrative is the 11 minutes and 32 second piece from WZZM 13. One instructive comment from Winstrom had to do with his complaint that there is an “anti-cop” sentiment in Grand Rapids. Winstrom gave two examples, which included the difficulty of getting drones for the GRPD and then the docu-series (Winstrom’s description), which he got complaints about because it “showed the police department in a positive light.”
While I am happy to see Winstrom leave, he will be replaced by another cop who will continue to do what cops to, which is to protect power and privilege. The City of Grand Rapids will conducted another “search” and even provide some public forums, but make no mistake, there is no democracy when it comes to the next Chief of Police, just like there wasn’t the last time 4 years ago.
What I intend to do in this post is to provide a more honest assessment of policing in Grand Rapids under Winstrom or at least a more community-based assessment on what has happened while Winstrom was in charge of the GRPD.
Right after Winstrom arrived in 2022 a GRPD cop killed Patrick Lyoya
The City of Grand Rapids and the GRPD attempted to control the narrative about what happened to Patrick Lyoya, often wanting to blame Lyoya for not “cooperating with the cop who shot him in the back of the head. From the first Press Conference the City had, to the release of the body cam footage , to the City’s attempt to silence those demanding Justice for Patrick, over the past 3 years and 9 months the City officials and the Chief Winstrom have not been willing to take responsibility for Patrick Lyoya’s death.
There have also been several FOIA requests related to the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya and how the GRPD has responded to those organizing to demand justice for Patrick Lyoya. In both cases, there were large sections of the FOIA documents redacted.
For a more detailed overview of the government, media and community responses to the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya, go here.
In June of 2022, Chief Winstrom held another Press Conference about an “officer involved shooting,” where Winstrom talked about what he referred to as the “Ferguson Effect.” In response, this is part of what I wrote:
At 7:10 into the video, another reporter asked whether this shooting might have been retaliation for the Christopher Schurr (now an ex-cop) shot and killed Patrick Lyoya. Winstrom responded by saying, that was his concern, and then he goes on to use the phrase, the “Ferguson Effect.” Winstrom then refers to the Michael Brown incident – he was also shot and killed by a cop in Ferguson, Missouri – and claims that there is a correlation between police killings of Black people and an increase in violent crime. Winstrom says this happened after the police murder of George Floyd, with “record levels of violent crime.” Winstrom then says this was his concern after the April 4 police shooting of Patrick Lyoya – again referred to as the “April 4th incident.” Throughout all of this commentary by Chief Winstrom, he offers no evidence that there is a clear correlation between police murdering Black people and an increase in violent crime.
The phrase “Ferguson Effect”, was coined by Heather MacDonald, which Chief Wonstrom named during the Press Conference. What Winstrom didn’t mention is the fact that Heather MacDonald is a senior fellow at the right-wing Manhattan Institute. The use of the phrase, the “Ferguson Effect” was looked at in an article by the media watchdog group, Fairness in Accuracy & Reporting in June of 2015. The article states:
The point of the “Ferguson effect,” though, is not to be accurate. It is instead to distract us from the growing evidence about the magnitude and extent of police use of lethal violence in the United States—as powerfully documented just this week by the Guardian and the Washington Post—and to besmirch the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
It’s a strategy that Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater inaugurated in his campaign in 1964, almost single-handedly turning crime into a political weapon against the civil rights movement.
In December of 2022, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce sent a letter, followed by over 100 signatures of some of the most powerful property owners in Grand Rapids to get the city to adopt an ordinance that would criminalize the unhoused. Chief Winstrom consistently supported that effort.
In February 2023, the GRPD released their new Strategic Plan, which was the first under Chief Winstrom. Here is a GRIID assessment of that Strategic Plan.
In April of 2023, there was a public hearing about the GRPD’s request for funding to purchase drones. There was overwhelming opposition to this proposal and the GRPD intimidated people during that hearing. However, despite significant public opposition to the GRPD using drones for surveillance and to track activist activity, City officials approved additional public dollars for the drones.
Just one week after the public hearing on drones for the GRPD, Chief Winstrom made callous remarks about activists, claiming they didn’t care about their neighbors. One month later Winstrom once again was dismissing activist saying that their goal was merely to get on TV. As I note in the article Winstrom’s claims are completely false.
In July of 2023, the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union began a campaign that generated thousands of electronic messages to city hall, along with urging people to attend a public hearing to oppose a city ordinance that would criminalize the unhoused. Chief Winstrom and his department were more than happy to enforce this ordinance, despite overwhelming opposition.
In November of that year, the GRPD requested an additional $200,000 to hire more staff to respond to FOIA requests, which were primarily because people and organization were scrutinizing GRPD practices.
In December, people organized a march to and action at the home of Rep. Scholten because of her unconditional support for Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Chief Winstom deployed 10 police cruisers and showed up himself, which resulted in arresting someone who was driving behind the march to prevent any harm to those marching.
In March of 2024 I wrote an article headlined, GRPD Chief Winstrom exploits the memory of Breonna Taylor, while his department continues to harass, monitor and repress activists challenging policing in Grand Rapids. In that article I wrote:
The arrogance of cops and of white people, like Chief Winstrom, to take up space at an event about a Black woman murdered by cops is disgusting. Such an event should be an opportunity to center the voices of those who have been most affected by police murders. White people, especially cops, should not only keep their mouths shut during such events, they should not attend an event that commemorates a victim of police violence.
In April of 2024, the Comrades Collective held a non-violent march on the second anniversary of the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya. Lyoya’s parents joined that march only to witness the GRPD harassment of activists, along with an arrest of one organizer at the event. However, the harassment and targeting of activists didn’t end that day. Two BIPOC organizers were charged by the GRPD weeks later. GRIID interviewed both Jose and later Ky about the blatant targeting of BIPOC activists by the GRPD.
I then followed up these interviews with a post entitled, The criminalization of dissent in Grand Rapids. Four days later Chief Winstrom outright lied to an MLive reporter about the GRPD’s constant harassment and suppression of any dissent or disruption to business as usual in Grand Rapids.
In September of 2024, GRIID posted a story on FOIA documents regarding the GRPD suppression of activists responding to the GRPD killing of Patrick Lyoya. The FOIA request took 16 months to obtain, plus the GRPD redacted a great deal of those documents.
In November the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce invite Chief Winstrom to speak on the theme of leadership lessons. This invite demonstrated exactly who Chief Winstrom and the GRPD primarily serve.
Later in November the GRPD shot and killed an African America man near Trinity Health Hospital, a man who was unarmed and struggled with mental health issues. The Kent County Prosecutor found no wrong doing on the part of the GRPD officers who shot an unarmed Black man.
Two weeks later a Black youth’s body was found after he had been reported as missing. Chief Winstrom created a narrative about what happened, but family members were not buying it.
In January of 2025, immigrant justice activists pressured the Grand Rapids City Commission to adopt concrete sanctuary policies that would prevent the GRPD and City staff from collaborating with ICE. Chief Winstrom claimed that his department wouldn’t, but that is not what the City’s Foreign National policy states.
In April, I posted a story about the pro-cop media bias in the lead up to the Christopher Schurr trial, I pointed out that some of that bias was determined by Chief Winstrom’s control of the public narrative. Then in May, Cosecha held their annual May Day march, but even before the march began the GRPD threatened to arrest people if they stepped into the street during their non-violent action.
In mid-May, Chief Winstrom went public by stating that had the GRPD not been understaffed, Patrick Lyoya would not have been killed.
In late May of 2025, the Grand Rapids City Commission approved their 2026 fiscal budget, which included fully funding the GRPD. Just days later I completed an 8-part analysis of the GRPD TV show that was on HBO MAX, a show that Chief Winstron said was an honest depiction of his department. At the end of my post about the TV series, I stated:
Lastly, it should be stated that the All Access PD: Grand Rapids TV series is ultimately about controlling the narrative about policing. Ever since the 2020 uprising in Grand Rapids, there has been an all out war to control the narrative about the GRPD, because more than anything those in power do not want to succumb to the will of popular social movements, and they will not allow any conversation about defunding/abolishing the Grand Rapids Police Department. Grand Rapids is in a narrative war about the GRPD, and this was ultimately why Grand Rapids politicians and members of the Capitalist class have endorsed it.
In June, members of Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE showed up to prevent additional ICE arrests at the ISAP office on Michigan Street in Grand Rapids. The GRPD came to harass and threaten activists attempting to keep immigrants safe. Two days later GRIID posted an article which demonstrated that the GRPD was sharing information with ICE, with the use of Flock cameras.
In mid-June, two Boston Square community organizers came upon the GRPD holding young Black men, so the organizers began filming what was happening. Eventually, the two community organizers began asking questions while they were filming and then the GRPD took one of them down with force. Both community organizers were arrested and Chief Winstrom justified his department’s arrests with claims that the two organizers “inserted themselves” into a situation they shouldn’t have. Community organizers shared a much different narrative about how the GRPD responded in this situation.
In late July, immigrant justice organizers spoke for 2 hours on why the City of Grand Rapids should not collaborate with ICE. The organizers dramatized this reality with street theater, then disrupted the City Commission meeting, only to have Mayor LaGrand threaten activists with arrest by the GRPD.
Throughout the rest of 2025 and in the beginning of 2026, organizers with Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE documented several instances where the GRPD was clearly cooperating with ICE in their efforts to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants, thus separating immigrant families.
This documented account of Chief Winstrom’s time in Grand Rapids is a clear counter narrative to what he and the local news media would have us believe. Winstrom, who came from Chicago, was the consummate PR man, who continued the GRPD tradition of over-policing in Black and Brown neighborhoods, protecting system of power in Grand Rapids and criminalizing dissent.
Recently, I posted an article that was critical of the GR A250 group, which was created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US and the 175th anniversary of the founding of Grand Rapids.
I have also noted in a previous post that the steering committee for the GR A250 group is dominated by members of the GR Power Structure. Additionally, what this group posts on their Facebook page is primarily history from the perspective of those with economic or political power, which was the subject of my last post regarding GR A250.
The GR A250 once again made a post that is reflective of people with power, in this case specifically economic power. The post included the following commentary, along with an picture of the old Lear facility.
Before innovation reached cruising altitude, it lifted off in Grand Rapids.
Long before his name became synonymous with business jets, Bill Lear built and scaled much of his early success right here in Grand Rapids through Lear Service. From pioneering radio technology to advancing aircraft systems, Lear’s work helped push American innovation forward by proving that world-changing ideas didn’t just come from the coasts, but from communities like ours.
Grand Rapids wasn’t a witness to innovation. It helped launch it.
Once again, the emphasis is on business people, without ever mentioning those who actually made Lear’s wealth, the workers. More importantly, the Lear company, which later became Lear Siegler, didn’t just make jets, they also has contracts with the Department of Defense to make weapons, including nuclear weapons.
An anti-nuclear campaign against Lear Siegler began in fall of 1983, with students from the Aquinas College Social Action Committee raising awareness about the military contract that the company had to make flight systems for nuclear weapons In the Spring of 1984, Aquinas students, several of which were seminary students, organized a Good Friday Stations of the Cross action from the campus to the Lear Siegler plant several miles away.
Some 200 people took part in this action, which got a fair amount of news cover-age with information about the fact that parts for nuclear weapons were being manufactured right there in the Grand Rapids area. Students who had organized the action were then confronted by the Aquinas College President who told them that this action was “shameless and judgmental.” The students said they were acting on the US Catholic Bishop’s recent pastoral letter, which called nuclear weapons immoral. It was later discovered that the CEO of Lear Siegler was a major financial contributor to Aquinas College.
The Aquinas students who were involved in that effort, then began a weekly leaf-letting campaign outside of the Lear Siegler manufacturing facility, with leaflets focusing on the dangers of nuclear weapons proliferation and economic conversation. However, the leafletting campaign only lasted for five months and then Lear Siegler was bought by a British corporation called Smith Industries.
I completely get why those who run the GR A250 project want to highlight business achievements, since many of them are business owners. But this is exactly why I will continue to provide analysis and counter narratives around Grand Rapids history, specifically a people’s history.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 