Last week Crain’s Grand Rapids Business posted a story with the headline, GE Aerospace lands $33M Air Force contract to redesign F-16 black boxes.
The business press article talks about the contract, the commitment from GE Aerospace and what it means for the company.
There were numerous omissions from the article, beginning with the fact that this was a Department of Defense contract, which means that the public is subsidizing GE Aerospace to make the F-16 black boxes.
The other more important omission in the Crain’s article has to do with that fact that the US sells F-16s around the world to numerous countries. According to a recent Slash Gear article the countries that have purchased F – 16s “outside of the United States are Turkey, which has roughly 230 F-16s. Egypt, with 218 F-16s, comes in second place, and Israel, with 174 active F-16s, takes third place.”
The fact that Israel has purchased 174 F – 16s from the US is alarming and instructive, especially while the US is continuing to support Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.
This is not the first time that companies in West Michigan are manufacturing weapons that will be sold to Israel, as I noted in a 2024 article listing several local companies making weapons systems being used by Israel.
Such an announcement is equally disturbing now that we are three years into the hell that Israel is unleashing on Gaza. Many scholars are calling what Israel is doing as genocide, along with international organizations, even B’Tselem, an Israeli Human Rights organization. For Crain’s Grand Rapids Business to not report on this crucial aspect of the GE military contract is unacceptable.
It is not unusual that people will make threats against me, since I have received letters in the mail threatening me with death, E-mails doing the same, but with social media it has definitely ramped up in recent years.
The Grand Rapids Businessman Facebook page used some of the images I shared and then wrote the following:
POLICE: A local activist is circulating the names and photos of more than a dozen Grand Rapids police officers, alleging they assist federal immigration enforcement. The post, shared by a self-described activist-journalist and “ICE resister” Jeff Smith, encourages supporters to further distribute the information and identify officers involved in immigration-related activity. Activists continue to pressure the city over ICE, sanctuary policies, and Flock cameras in Grand Rapids.
These comments aren’t threatening, but as I mentioned in an article I wrote last month, the Grand Rapids Businessman page essentially is a platform for the far right, MAGA supporters, white supremacists and other hateful individuals that are generally misinformed or just like to attack people for not believing in the dominant narratives about the US, about cops or other systems of power and oppression.
Many of the comments from the GR Businessman post naming me are awful, shitty and hateful, but what is worse is that people are sending me threatening messages directly. I don’t like it, but I, nor my family, are not being abducted by ICE.
Speaking of ICE, the post I shared with pictures of GRPD cops and listing their names was because these individual GRPD cops have been assisting ICE in various capacities, including harassing, intimidating and arresting anti-ICE activists who are trying to prevent ICE from abducting people or trying to prevent the GEO Group from transporting abducted immigrants to their privately run ICE detention center in Baldwin, Michigan.
In addition, none of the information, nor photos of the GRPD cops are private. These cops are paid with public dollars and their information as cops in part of the public record. Also, the Grand Rapids Businessman FB page says “alleging they assist federal immigration enforcement.” It is not an allegation, but a fact. Hell, I was arrested on Saturday, along with two others, for trying to stop ICE abducted immigrants from being sent to a detention center in Baldwin, MI.
The City of Grand Rapids, Mayor LaGrand and the Chief of Police have been telling us for the past 20 months that the GRPD does not cooperate with ICE. This is an outright lie and we have plenty of video and photo evidence to back it up.
The Grand Rapids Businessman Facebook page owner – who refuses to tell us who they are – always leaves out the most important information about whatever issue they have an opinion about. Again, they thrive off of using content taken from somewhere else on hot button issues, primarily to get a response from their base of followers that embraces far right values, such as white supremacy. Please don’t share their content or give them any oxygen. It is a waste of time trying to argue with these people.
On Saturday, I was arrested with two other activists at the 517 Ottawa ICE office in the early part of the afternoon, which I wrote about yesterday.
I am a volunteer organizers with GR Rapid Response to ICE and we work directly with Movimiento Cosecha. Cosecha does the offensive part of the immigrant justice movement work. What this means is as immigrants, they fight for the rights of immigrants and have very clear goals, such as dignity, respect and permanent protection for all undocumented immigrants.
GR Rapid Response to ICE does the defensive work, which is really about reducing the harm that is directed at immigrants, from government policy, ICE agents, detention, deportation and racial discrimination. Therefore, we do the necessary work to minimize the harm that happens to immigrants in Kent County, which is mostly at the hands of ICE.
However, there are also entities that have contracts with ICE, like BI Incorporated, which runs the ISAP office at 545 Michigan, directly behind the Omlette Shoppe. BI Incorporated is a subsidiary of the GEO Group, which also runs the largest ICE detention center in the midwest at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan.
The other dynamic is that both the GRPD and the Kent County Sheriff’s Office collaborate with ICE. Kent County does it by working directly with ICE to engage in what are called ICE holds or ICE detainers. The GRPD collaborates with ICE by either assisting in an ICE arrest of an immigrant or at the 517 Ottawa ICE office, where they have repeatedly prevented volunteers with GR Rapid Response to ICE from attempting to stop the transport of undocumented immigrants to the GEO Group vans.
The context for my arrest at the 517 Ottawa ICE office is that this office is where ICE agents bring immigrants they have abducted from the community, to process them in the system and then prepare them for transport. The GEO Group has vans they use to transport abducted immigrants, just like the one that I was standing in front of to try and prevent them from going into the garage of the 517 Ottawa ICE office where ICE agents can transfer them to the van without interruption.
For undocumented immigrants, being in the US without papers is not a crime, rather a civil infraction. We know that most undocumented immigrants have no criminal record, so to abduct them at their home, their workplace or anywhere in the community is cruel and unnecessary. The immigrants that were abducted on Saturday were cousins of Mario David Coronado Juarez, who were on their way to work when ICE grabbed them.
Mayor LaGrand wrote a statement after the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez, which I critiqued. One thing he said in his stated was: “The reality is, we cannot keep Federal agencies out of our city, however they act. But let me be clear: no law enforcement entity that traffics in fear is welcome here.” While we understand that the City of Grand Rapids can’t keep ICE out of this city, but they can make it so the GRPD does not assist ICE or the entities they contract with to allow them to, in the words of Mayor LaGrand, traffic in fear.
In the same statement from Mayor LaGrand he said:
This is a moment when we all have to stand for justice and real work for public safety. When government agencies cause harm instead of reducing harm, they are worse than useless.
I agree with this sentiment, but when the GRPD arrests members of the community that are trying to reduce harm it only emboldens ICE agents and the entities they contract with. How is allowing immigrants that have been abducted by ICE and are slated to be sent to the North Lake promoting public safety? When undocumented people are sent to the ICE detention center in Baldwin, it causes family separation, family trauma and adds unnecessary emotional and financial stress on immigrant families. When the GRPD arrests people who want to stop the GEO Group from making profits off of the suffering of immigrants in North Lake, they are not promoting public safety, rather they are perpetuating harm to the family that is now separated and it increases the level of fear that exists in this community that other immigrant families can be targeted.
I am asking everyone to contact Mayor LaGrand and demand: 1) that he adopt the sanctuary policies that Cosecha has been demanding since the beginning of 2025; and 2) that he prevents the GRPD from assisting ICE or entities that work directly with ICE to commit harm. You can either send an Email to Mayor LaGrand mayor@grcity.us or you can call his office at 616-456-3168. Demand an end to GRPD cooperation with ICE and an end to City complicity in allowing ICE to operate in Grand Rapids and perpetuate harm.
On Saturday morning, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE found out that four of Mario David Coronado Juarez’s cousins were abducted by ICE and brought to the 517 Ottawa ICE office. Activists mobilize and encouraged the community to show up to witness and disrupt the transfer of abducted immigrants to the GEO Group van, which takes people to the North Lake Facility in Baldwin, Michigan.
Around 11am, activists noted that two ICE agents exited out the north side of the 517 Ottawa building to the parking lots that is exclusively for ICE agents and staff. Both ICE agents went to their cars and attempted to exit the gated parking lot, but activists told them that they would not allow them to leave. After several minutes or verbal volley the ICE agents then each got out of their vehicles pepper sprays canisters in the hopes that it would intimidate those resisting. The threat of being pepper sprayed did not work, so the ICE agents retreat back into the 517 Office.
More than an hour had passed by, when all of a sudden a GEO Group van was spotted near the 517 Ottawa ICE office and tried to turn in to the alley behind the building. Fortunately, there were people nearby who stepped in front of the van to prevent it from entering the garage, where abducted immigrants would be loaded up to be taken to the North Lake Facility in Baldwin, Michigan.
At least 5 GRPD cruisers showed up on the scene, which meant they were staging somewhere near the ICE office, since they arrived within 60 seconds from the time that activists stood in front of the GEO Group van.
The GRPD cops wasted no time threatening people with arrest if they didn’t move away from the van and allow the GEO Group to pick up abducted immigrants to be transferred to their private for-profit detention center. One activist said, “ICE agents killed Mario and this morning they abducted 4 of his cousins who were on their way to work. By threatening to arrest us you are now complicit in these abductions.” One GRPD cop responded by saying that we should talk to the government if we have issues with what happened.
Three activists were arrested for blocking the GEO Group van and were taken to the Kent County Jail. Fortunately, all three were bonded out after a couple of hours and will now await arraignment dates.
After people were arrested, the GRPD then made sure the GEO Group van was able to leave, along with ICE agents who had waited several hours to depart from their gated parking lot. Once again the GRPD collaborates with ICE to perpetuate harm against the immigrant community while claiming they are simply promoting public safety.
I was one of the three that were arrested on Saturday for blocking the GEO Group van. I took part in this action because not only do a carry a shit ton of privilege, but because the Guatemalan immigrant community and the family of Mario David Coronado Juarez did not deserve more trauma nor suffer more state violence.
ICE agents are abducting immigrants every fucking day in Grand Rapids, while the GEO Groups generates more profits by transferring abducted immigrants to North Lake and the GRPD is complicit in the harm by protecting death squad-like ICE agents and profiteers like the GEO Group.
If you want to resist this shit please contact Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE.
Join the campaign to Vote No on more funding for the Kent County Jail on November 3rd
Last month the Kent County Commission voted to adopt the FY2027 budget for Kent County, which will be $668 million. Just over 40% of that budget will go towards the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, the Kent County Jail, the Courts and the Prosecutor’s office, a system known as the Prison Industrial Complex.
Taxpayers in Kent County are being asked to give the Kent County Sheriff’s Office even more money with the November 3rd Ballot that includes a millage to increase funding for the Kent County Jail, which is listed as the Kent County Millage Renewal and Increase Corrections and Detention Facilities. The language of this ballot initiate reads as:
Shall Kent County levy 0.98 mill ($0.98 per $1,000 of taxable value) on the taxable value of all real and personal property subject to taxation for the period 2026 through 2045 inclusive to expand, remodel, equip, operate, maintain, and defray debt service for Kent County Correction and Detention Facilities? This millage is a renewal of the previously authorized millage which expires following the 2029 levy as well as an authorization to increase the existing millage by 0.2468 mill ($0.2468 per $1,000 of taxable value). The amount raised by the proposed levy in the first calendar year is estimated at $37,326,699.00.
To the extent permitted by law, a portion of the revenues from this millage will be captured by local authorities for authorized purposes. The total amount of captured tax increment revenues from such millage in the first calendar year of the levy is estimated at $1,497,204.07. The authorities in Kent County capturing a portion of the revenues from this levy include the following: the Downtown Development Authorities for the Cities of Cedar Springs, Grandville, Lowell, Rockford, Walker, the Charter Township of Cascade, and the Townships of Bowne, Sparta, and Tyrone; the Brownfield Redevelopment Authorities of Grand Rapids, Grandville, Kentwood, Rockford, Walker, and Wyoming; and the Monroe North Tax increment Financing Authority of the City of Grand Rapids, Local Development Financing Authority of the City of Grand Rapids, and the Corridor Improvement Authority of the City of Grand Rapids.
As expected the language for this millage is vague and confusing. On top of that, the Kent County Sheriff presented on this millage to the Grand Rapids City Commission’s Committee of the Whole meeting, using misleading talking points, which I pointed out in a previous article, plus you can watch the Sheriff’s pitch for more funding at 44:30 in the video.
Fortunately, the Urban Core Collective’s Power Fund has a well organized campaign to counter the narrative from the Sheriff’s Office with solid information and analysis on their Vote No campaign website linked here.
The campaign presents three main reasons for voting no on this millage, which are shown in the graphic here above. However, we encourage you to do a deep dive into the large narratives that have been created on their website, along with the Frequently Asked Questions section at the bottom of the website.
Some of the critical talking points deal with the fact that the County has mismanaged their existing funds (our tax dollars) and with the increased cost of living it would be unfair to demand more from taxpayers. Other important issues are the fact that the Kent County Jail is currently cooperating with ICE by engaging in ICE detainers. Lastly, it is important to note that there is a serious racial discrimination dynamic at the jail. In Kent County, Black people only make up 11.1% of the total population, but 47.5% of the incarcerated population.
The Urban Core Collective’s Power Fund is inviting people to share the information on the website and to follow this campaign on Facebook.
In addition, the campaign is inviting people to be involved in the following ways:
- Please follow the campaign’s Facebook and Instagram pages and invite 5 friends to follow the Vote No On Detention pages too. Please share the website link far and wide.
- Click here to sign-up to get involved with the campaign. We’re inviting groups and orgs to join us for an “adopt a precinct” effort to help expand our canvassing efforts. If you know a group or
- RSVP for our campaign launch event on Saturday, October 10th from 10am-12:30pm at the UCC office. Please invite a friend or two to RSVP.
- RSVP for Vote No rally on Monday, October 12th from 6-7pm at the Kent County Sheriff’s office (701 Ball Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503).
This campaign also includes numerous community-based groups and individuals who have been involved in grassroots organizing for several decades. If you believe in economic justice, racial justice and oppose government surveillance, then you should definitely Vote NO on this millage November 3rd.
It would appear that the GR Chamber of Commerce doesn’t believe that the GRPD is collaborating with ICE
In their regular summary of local government happenings, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce wrote something that really pisses me off. In their summary of the September 22nd Grand Rapids City Commission meeting the GR Chamber wrote that protesters shut down the meeting over the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez, a Guatemalan national who was being chased by ICE.
The GR Chamber then states, “Activist groups have continuously accused GRPD of supporting ICE.” Accusing someone of something means to make a claim without proof. If the GR Chamber of Commerce writer was actually paying attention they would know that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are not accusing the GRPD of collaborating with ICE, they have provided actual evidence of this collaboration at City Commission meetings and made available pictures and video on social media that clearly confirms the collaboration with ICE and the GRPD. I will provide three concrete examples with visual proof.
September 12th Example
People noticed that the GEO Group van was in the ICE parking lot, which was around 11am, when most of the people who were resisting ICE had arrived. The GRPD arrived just minutes after those protesting ICE were on the scene, although the GRPD had a presence in the area at least an hour prior to the protest.
Several GRPD cruisers pulled in the alley from the north entrance and blocked the alley right about where the ICE parking lot and the building begins. The GRPD cruisers parked diagonally in two different directions, making it nearly impossible for people to go north in the alley. At the same time the GRPD had cruisers near the south entrance of the alley.
Protesters engaged the GRPD with chants and by calling them out on their ongoing collaboration with ICE. This went on for 5 – 7 minutes, when all of a sudden the GEO Group van was spotted coming out of the ICE parking lots going north in the alley. ICE had loaded immigrants they had abducted in the morning into the GEO Group van, which was a completely different tactic than people had seen previously. Of course ICE used this approach because those protesting made it so difficult for them to get the GEO Group van into the ICE garage, which means they were using the GRPD to prevent people from stoping the van from leaving the 517 Ottawa NW deployment office.
You can see in the picture above that the GRPD had cops blocking the north entrance of the alley and the white GEO Group van coming out of the ICE parking lots. In the picture below you can see a GRPD cruiser acting as an escort for the GEO Group van to make its got away without interference from those protesting. For more details go here.
July 28th Example
GR Rapid Response to ICE showed up to the 517 Ottawa ICE office on July 28th. This was because they received a call about ICE abductions and the 517 Ottawa office is where ICE takes people to process while they are locked up in a holding cell ICE has on site.
Movimiento Cosecha was also on site and filmed part of what happened. Here is the video link. The first thing you see in the video is a white van pulling out of the ICE office garage and the white van is a GEO Group-owned vehicle to transport immigrants picked up by ICE to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, which is owned and operated by the GEO Group.
People who have been trained through GR Rapid Response to ICE stood in front of the GEO Group van, since they were transporting someone ICE had abducted. You can see GRPD cops on the scene about 1 minute into the video, which means ICE likely contacted the GRPD to assist them, in this case to prevent people from blocking the GEO Group van.
At about 1:40 into the video you can see the number of ICE agents present while they stood inside the 517 Ottawa ICE office garage to watch the GRPD assist the GEO Group van make a get away.
February 3rd Example
Byron Martinez was stopped by ICE agents on February 3rd in Grand Rapids, with the assistance of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the GRPD.
Witnesses reported that agents did not give Byron the opportunity to present valid immigration paperwork that he had in his possession, including documentation related to his asylum case. Instead, he was forcibly removed from his vehicle, pushed against it while pleading to identify himself, and then thrown face-first into a snowbank. Community members describe the incident as excessive, unjustified, and emblematic of a broader pattern of racial profiling and escalating immigration enforcement.
Cosecha organizers showed video of how Byron was treated by ICE agents, the ATF and the role of the GRPD in this arrest, video which you can see at this link.
There are numerous other first hand accounts from volunteer organizers with Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE where they witnessed direct cooperation between ICE and the GRPD at both the 517 Ottawa ICE office and the 545 Michigan ISAP office. In most of these cases there was no video or photo evidence, just the word of those who were present.
It is not surprising that the GR Chamber of Commerce would side with Grand Rapids City Officials and the GRPD on this matter, since the GRPD supported their campaign to get the City of Grand Rapids to adopt policies that would criminalize the unhoused and protect monied interests in downtown Grand Rapids. This is how systems of power have each others backs, especially when protecting the status quo.
History of US Immigration Policy: Summary of GRIID Class week #2
For anyone who could not join the class tonight or who couldn’t find time to be part of this class, I want to share a summary of what was discussed. I also want to provide links and resources for anyone who wants to do their own investigation on the history of US immigration policy.
As with each of the 8 weeks of this class we will rely on the Popular Education resource I created and update regularly. The Popular Education resource provides an important overview of this history, along with a list of books and online resources that can help us with developing a robust analysis of the history of US immigration policy and how to frame it.
In week #1 we relied heavily on the book, No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US/Mexican border, which look at the way that Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Jewish and even German immigrants have been treated since the mid-1800s.
In week #2 we the responded to the question about why so many immigrants were coming, especially those who were risking their lives to enter the US/Mexican border at unsanctioned border points. We then talked about the reasons for people taking such risks when crossing the US/Mexican border, along with trying to understand the root causes of why people were leaving their countries and coming to the US. I identified three main reasons, three root causes for why so many people from Mexico and central American were coming to the US especially from the 1970s through to the present.
The first reading assignment was from the book, No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US/Mexican border, specifically chapters that provided historical context around US military and economic policy that were two of the major contributing factors for why so many people from Mexico were being displaced and entering the US without documentation.
The second reading focused on the history of immigration detention, using two chapters from Silky Shah’s book, Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition.
The author provides us with a clear understanding of the evolution of immigrant detention in the US. One point that is critical to understand was that immigrant detention was an outgrowth of the further criminalization of Black communities after the Civil Rights era. Shah writes in Chapter 1:
“Since the 1980s, a combination of economic restructuring and increasing tough-on-crime policies have produced devastating results: the highest rates of incarceration in the world and the greatest number of deportations in US history.”
The author notes that immigration detention essentially began during the Reagan Administration in the 1980s. Shah argues that immigrant detention centers were meant as a deterrent for Central Americans that were fleeing by the thousands during the US funding counter-insurgency wars at that time. The detention of undocumented immigrants were mandatory, with the belief that it would minimize the number of undocumented immigrants crossing in to the US at the southern border. While the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) passed in 1986 and provided amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants, new undocumented immigrants were criminalized, with the administration using language that would demonize anyone coming to the US without papers.
The growth of mass immigrant detention continued during the Clinton years, with the adoption of more Neoliberal economic policies, like the end of welfare, which took away basic safety net resources to economically desperate population, including undocumented immigrants. In addition, several states were adopting policies to further criminalize immigrants, like with Prop 187 in California in 1994. The author goes on to say:
“Both the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA) were passed that year. Together they changed the paradigm on immigration to one that emphasized citizenship rather than residency and laid the legal foundation for the expansion of the deportation machine that emerged following 9/11.”
The George W. Bush administration continued the further criminalization of undocumented immigrants, especially after 9/11 with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and the creation of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) in 2003. ICE was created with complete bipartisan support.
With the creation of ICE, which a more militarized version of the INS, this increased the number of immigrant detention centers around the country, which fit within the framework of the War on Terrorism. The Obama Administration continued much of the same criminal immigrant framework when he took office in 2009.
According to the author, the Obama Administration made the immigration system bigger and more effective, but not in a good way. His administration created new programs and partnerships and increased family detentions and creating the Secure Communities program, which got county sheriff departments involved in immigration enforcement, like what happened in Kent County in 2012.
The Obama Administration was referred to as the “Deporter in Chief”, since he deported more immigrants (3.5 million) during his tenure, which was the most at that time for any administration.
Lastly, the author makes the point, stating: “the Obama administration expanded and set up a powerful machinery for Trump to exploit by plugging in the detention and deportation system much more closely to criminal law enforcement across the country.”
We also discussed why there hasn’t been as much organized opposition to US immigration policy, especially during the Obama and Biden years. One could argue there has only been organized opposition from affected groups, but most white liberals who are now outraged at what the Trump Administration’s treatment of immigrants did not oppose what recent Democratic Party Administrations have done.
Immigrants are being abducted by ICE every day in Grand Rapids, so come to the Cosecha Assembly on Friday to find out how to fight back
Over the past few months ICE has increased their activity in the Grand Rapids area, often abducting multiple people on a daily basis.
According to a recent MLive article the increase in ICE arrests over the past year has increased by 450%. There have been 779 immigrants taken by ICE in Grand Rapids since January of 2025, but the overwhelming majority of that number has happened in 2026, especially since the beginning of the summer months.
Grand Rapids groups Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have seen this escalation of ICE activity, both in terms of reports of ICE activity and the requests from immigrant families for support after someone was abducted. The Assembly this Friday at 6pm will provide information on ways for people to get involved in resisting ICE in Grand Rapids and Kent County. The assembly will be held at Servant’s Community Church, 53 Deloney Ave SW, Grand Rapids.
Since late July I have been reporting on increased ICE activity, along with an increase in resistance to ICE. On July 19th, ICE abducted someone at the ISAP office, an office where people go to appointments set up by ICE.
On July 28th ICE called the GRPD to come to the 517 Ottawa ICE Office to assist them by removing people who were trying to block the GEO Group van that transports abducted immigrants from Grand Rapids to Baldwin, Michigan.
During a public forum held on July 30th, GRPD Chief Trigg was confronted with questions about his cops collaborating with ICE. Chief Trigg denied any cooperation.
Cosecha held a Press Conference on August 11th regarding Mayor LaGrand’s refusal to meet with them to talk about ICE and the six sanctuary policy demands.
On August 12th I wrote an open letter to Mayor LaGrand challenging him on his silence and complicity with ICE violence.
Dozens of people spoke during the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting on August 25th to call for a ban on Flock cameras and for city officials to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies.
Cosecha continued to reach out to Mayor LaGrand’s office to set up a meeting, but he continued to refuse to meet with the immigrant-led group. Here is an article, which includes the Email exchange between Cosecha and Mayor LaGrand’s staff.
After refusing to meet with members of Movimiento Cosecha, Mayor LaGrand released a statement where he continued to deny GRPD collaboration with ICE.
During an action at the 517 Ottawa ICE office the GRPD once again coordinates with ICE and arrests 5 activist attempting to stop the transportation of abducted immigrants on September 12.
On September 22nd several immigrant justice groups held a Press Conference to condemn the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez because of ICE terrorism.
Abolish ICE activists shut down Grand Rapids City Commission meeting over the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez and the city’s failure to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies.
Cosecha, the Guatemalan community, and family members of Mario David Coronado Juarez hosted a vigil at the site of his death.
I wrote a response to Mayor LaGrand’s statement on the death of Mario David Coronado Juarez.
If people want to support immigrant families and reduce the number of ICE abductions then Friday’s Assembly is the place to be. The description for the Facebook event states:
The tragic death of Mario David Coronado Juárez by the violent actions of I-C-E doesn’t have to be in vain and to go unpunished. If you are outraged and wonder what else to do to resist I-C-E, be in solidarity and protect our immigrant neighbors. Join the movement that have been resisting I-C-E in the greater Grand Rapids area.
The DeVos family is proposing to build a private golf course in Ada Township that would be very exclusive in their ongoing efforts to expand their wealth
The thing about rich people is that they are never content with the wealth they have, so they are constantly figuring out ways to expand their wealth.
For members of the Capitalist Class expanding their wealth most often means exploiting workers, exploiting natural resources and getting the public to pay it, mostly through subsidies and tax incentives.
The DeVos family is a perfect example locally for how they are constantly looking to expand their wealth. According to a recent Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article, the DeVos family is “developing a new private golf club in Ada Township.”
Now, this is not just any golf club, it will be a golf club that specifically caters to more elite members. Again, according to Crain’s:
Unlike private country clubs that may feature amenities catering to a variety of members, pure-play golf clubs emphasize the game with a minimalist approach and top-tier design. Some clubs limit membership to just dozens.
The U.S. is experiencing a boom in new golf course projects, with private and high-end clubs accounting for more than half of the projects under construction or in-planning, according to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.
So, the DeVos family wants to build another golf course, but one that particularly involves a class of people that they are familiar with. This new golf course is not the first for the DeVos family, as they own two others, one near Traverse City and one in South Carolina. You can check out the golf course near Traverse City at this link, but the information is limited, unless of course you are a member.
In an article from Forbes you can read a bit more about the golf course near Traverse City, which would give you an idea of what the proposed golf course in Ada Township could look like.
“The vision for the club, is lofty, a private golf oasis on the level of a Butler National or Muirfield Village. They plan to open the club to 50-70 home members with a residence within a 100-mile radius of the club as well as 250 national members. The target is to do no more than 12,000 rounds per year with a season similar in length to what you’d find in the Hamptons or Nantucket, opening May and wrapping up around Halloween.”
This new golf course and several other business ventures is specifically part of an investment management company run by Doug & Maria DeVos called Continuum. Doug DeVos is also the current President of the Amway Corporation, runs a foundation with his wife and also started the Believe Journal a few years ago to honor his father by continuing to promote Capitalism and America.
As the great comedian George Carlin once said, “golf is a meaningless, mindless activity engaged in primarily by white, well-to-do male businessmen who use the game to get together to make deals to carve this country up a little finer amongst themselves.” The proposed Ada Township golf course will no doubt be made up of those kind of people.
Decades of US policies in Guatemala are why people like Mario David Coronado Juarez end up in this country
For anyone reading the GRIID blog it is clear that I spent a fair amount of time writing about the terrorism perpetrated by ICE, immigrants that are affected by ICE repression and what we can collectively do about it.
One question that rarely comes up in our conversations about undocumented immigrants is, What are the reasons for them coming to this country, especially with the risk of not coming with papers?
The bulk of undocumented immigrants that are crossing into the US every year are primarily Mexican, Central America and to a lesser degree, people from various Caribbean countries. Immigrants from the countries listed are coming to the US because of decades-long political violence, drug cartels, state repression, debilitating poverty that has been driven by de-valuing national currency, the displacement of people living off the land, and lastly, because of the growing ecological and social consequences of Climate Change.
Equally important is for us to ask the question – What has been the relationship of the US to the countries that undocumented immigrants originate from? This, along with the first question, is rarely about of the political discourse coming from elected officials and it is almost never part of the reporting that is done by commercial media.
To answer both questions previously asked I will use the recent death of Mario David Coronado Juarez, a Guatemalan national who came to the US as an undocumented immigrant as an example.
We know that Mario was in Grand Rapids primarily as a means to generate income in order to support his family back in Guatemala. In fact, a great deal of the undocumented immigrant community is here for the same reason, to earn enough money that will allow them to send some of it back home to support their loved ones. These funds are often referred to as remittances.
History of US relations with Guatemala
The US government has always had an interest in the rest of the Americas to the south, including Mexico, Central and South America, along with the Caribbean countries. In fact, the Monroe Doctrine adopted in the early part of the 19th century was essentially a policy that said that all of Latin America was the back yard of the US and only the US has a right to what happens in that part of the Americas.
During much of the first half of the 19th century the US was also pressing Latin American countries to maintain a slave system, since the US would also benefit from it, especially after Haiti rose up and defeated the French colonizers and ended slavery. The book, This Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy, documents this dynamic in detail.
However, a major driving force for US interest in Latin America was economic interests. With Guatemala it was coffee, then bananas. The US-based United Fruit Company quickly bought own a great deal of land in Guatemala, quite often the best land. Various Guatemalan leaders from the late 19th century into the 20th century were happy to support United Fruit’s exploitation of the land and the workers of Guatemala. In fact, by the 1930s people were referring to the United Fruit Company as El Pulpo, the octopus, because the company had its tentacles in everything.
However, Guatemalans became increasingly frustrated with being exploited, so in 1944 then they ended the dictatorship of Jorge Ubico (who was a fan of the Nazis) and elected a progressive government that made significant reforms, especially land reforms. The United Fruit Company was so enraged by these policies that the sough assistance from the US government to overthrow the Guatemalan government. In 1954 the CIA organized a coup and Guatemala and put in place another military dictator, since the interest of the United Fruit Company was more important than the people of Guatemala, You can see from the graphic here on the right how integrated the United Fruit Company was in the US government.
During the Cold War Guatemala acted as a proxy for the US, even allowing for US military to use Guatemala as a base for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961. Beginning in the 1970s, there was a growing insurgency movement throughout Central American and many Guatemalans began to support an armed uprising. Various Guatemalan administrations, beginning with Rios Montt, engaged in massive repression of the civilian population, disappearing tens of thousands, displacing 200,000 and murdering over 100,000, in what Amnesty International referred to as a genocidal campaign. Throughout all of this the US was providing millions in weapons sales, training and advisors to the Guatemalan military. (See Aviva Chomsky’s book, Central America’s Forgotten History: Revolution, Violence, and the Roots of Immigration)
Eventually, there was a ceasefire in 1995, following by an internationally observed elections. However, root causes of the conflict were not resolved nor did the military reduce their numbers or end their repressive tactics. Guatemalans are still uncovering clandestine mass graves, plus those seeking justice are being targeted by the Guatemalan authorities.
In 2006, Guatemala, along with the rest of Central America, adopted a so-called trade agreement with the US, known as the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). CAFTA provided easier access for multinational corporations to exploit Guatemalan resources and labor. According to a report entitled, CAFTA’s Tragic Legacy in Central America: Failed Trade Policy That Drove Millions From Their Homes, “from 2005 to 2014, the number of undocumented immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala living in the United States increased 49 percent, 122 percent and 73 percent, respectively.”
The Guatemalan currency has become increasingly devalued over the past several decades and the influence of US and other multinational corporations has been devastating for a large percentage of the Guatemalan population, which has forced thousands of them to flee the country and come to the US to earn a living and be able to support their families.
This is exactly why Mario David Coronado Juarez came to the US. Mario was unable to obtain a visa from his own government, primarily because it is too expensive for most people to afford. Due to limited economic opportunities Mario took the risk to come to the US in order to support his family.
Combined with over a century of US military and economic intervention in Guatemala, using violence and exploitation of land and workers, you can see why people like Mario make the difficult choice to do whatever they can to support their families. Guatemalans like Mario fled state terrorism and exploitation that the US funded only to end up being the target of state violence in the US. This is a reality for most undocumented immigrants and we need to come to terms with this reality if we ever want to have a truly just immigration policy.
Suggested Resources:
Doing Business with the Dictators: A Political History of United Fruit in Guatemala 1899-1944, Paul Dosal
Revolution in the Countryside: Rural Conflict and Agrarian Reform in Guatemala 1944-1954, Jim Handy
Bitter Fruit: The Untold Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, Stephen Schlesinger & Stephen Kinzer
Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) https://nisgua.org/
Guatemalan Genocide case https://cja.org/where-we-work/guatemala/
National Security Archives – declassified US documents from the 1954 CIA coup to the present https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/project/guatemala-project
Consequences of CAFTA reports https://www.citizen.org/topic/globalization-trade/central-america-free-trade-agreement-cafta/
