Last night about 30 people gathered at St. Dominic’s Church to hold a vigil for Byron Martinez, the young Ecuadorian man who was wrongfully detailed by ICE in February.
Movimiento Cosecha organized the vigil, which has been part of their Free Byron campaign that began in late February, which included a Press Conference. 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.
At the vigil Gema Lowe with Movimiento Cosecha provided an update on Byron, since several of their members had recently visited him at the ICE Detention Center in Baldwin, Michigan. They shared that after the community pressured the privately own detention center to provide proper medical care for Byron, his health did improve temporarily. However, after finally receiving antibiotics that reduced swelling in his face, Byron was now experiencing a skin condition which he believes to be the result of insects that are emanating from the sinks/drains in the Northlake Detention Center.
Cosecha organizers also told those in attendance that a judge had recently ruled that Byron was wrongfully detained by ICE. One would think that this would result in his immediate release, but that is not the case. In fact, Byron now goes before a judge on Monday for a bond hearing to determine if he is eligible for being released on bond.
A friend of Byron’s also spoke during the vigil and talked about how important it was for all of us to resist state carceral violence. There was also a member of GR Rapid Response to ICE who talked about their work and why it is vitally important that we resist ICE and do whatever we can to make sure that no one has to go through what Byron has gone through at the hands of ICE.
At one point during the vigil another Cosecha member read the name of people who have died in ICE detention facilities since the beginning of 2025.
People were also invited to write letters on Byron’s behalf, letters that would be delivered to the judge as part of the bond hearing on Monday.
When Cosecha members visited Byron on Thursday, they shared that he expressed immense gratitude for all the solidarity and support people were offering for him and that he was praying for everyone and hoping to be released on Monday.
Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time book/film event last night in Grand Rapids
Roughly 70 people attended the event I hosted last night to watch a film a made a few years ago about the work of accompaniment I did in Guatemala, El Salvador and Chiapas, Mexico, along with my book release.
The conversation was uplifting and the questions I was asked were heartfelt and important. Here are five points I wanted to make about the book:
- Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time is the culmination of the work I have been doing since the mid-1980s, around resisting US economic and military policies in Central America and Mexico, and how those policies are the root causes of people coming to the US as undocumented immigrants.
- What I mean by reversing the missionary position is that we need to both rethink how we show up in the world and how we need to take ownership of the fact that when we go to Guatemala, El Salvador or Mexico – either as tourists, Peace Corps workers or missionaries we are not practicing solidarity, but perpetuating white saviorism.
- Instead of telling undocumented immigrants what they should do, we need to walk with them in solidarity, listening to what they want us to do and then to leverage our privilege to resist state terrorism in the form of ICE.
- My book is also about how the people I worked with in Sanctuary in Grand Rapids and the people I did accompaniment with in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico and how they ultimately became my teachers, my mentors, especially around what solidarity looks like and how we need to show up for affected communities.
- When I was doing accompaniment with people in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, it was to reduce the chances of them being disappeared, tortured or murdered by their own military that the US was funding and training. Now, through GR Rapid Response to ICE we accompany people who fled state terrorism in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico only to be terrorized by the state in the form of ICE here in West Michigan. The reality is that many of the people GR Rapid Response to ICE does accompaniment with here in West Michigan are likely to have been from the same villages, same regions and maybe were even the children or neighbors of people I did accompaniment with in Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico.
I am including the 55 minute documentary here for those who were unable to attend last night.
I am hoping to screen this film again through West Michigan and to use it as a tool to talk about ICE terrorism in our communities. If you are part of community groups or organizations that would be interested in hosting a screening of the film please contact me at sjeff987@gmail.com.
You can also purchase copies of my new book from Schuler Books, you can contact me to obtain hard copies and for those who want it in digital form they can message me for PDF copies.
New Far Right news source tries to trash GRIID, but their article is full of misinformation and errors
There is a new online news source called The Grand Rapids Herald, which began posting articles in early March of 2026.
Not to be confused with the former Grand Rapids Herald that used to exist, which closed it’s doors in 1959, this Grand Rapids Herald is run by Jackson Walker. Walker seems to be the only contributor to the site, which is in its infancy.
I did some digging to find out that Jackson Walker has a history of working for news agencies such as being a digital news writer for Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair is regarded has a right wing media conglomerate that owns media outlets across the country. Walker also appears to have a history with Turning Point USA, which was founded by Charlie Kirk. You can check out his writings previous to starting The Grand Rapids Herald by going to this link.
Targeting GRIID
I fully expect to have far right or conservative news sources attack or make fun of the work I have been doing with GRIID since 1998, like an interview I did with a GVSU professor that talked about a student who wanted to censor an art installation on campus last year. That interview was then cited on a far right Christian blog where GRIID was referred to as a Socialist site.
In Walker’s article on GRIID, entitled GRAND RAPIDS ‘MEDIA WATCHDOG’ RALLIES ACTIVISTS AGAINST ICE, he acknowledges that he reached out to me for comment, but failed to include his questions, which were extremely leading:
Can you please address the below questions for our reporting?
1) Why did GRIID leave the Grand Rapids Community Media Center?
2) How is anti-ICE content a part of GRIID’s mission as a media watchdog?
3) How has GRIID’s work led to change in the local media ecosystem?
In Walker’s article, which primarily relies on what I have written on the GRIID site since 2009 when I shifted from being primarily a Media Watchdog and Media Literacy entity to a IndyMedia source or what I prefer to identify as Movement Media. As readers of GRIID will know I focus on two main areas – 1) documenting what the Grand Rapids Power Structure and other systems of power are doing in West Michigan, and 2) documenting the work of social movements in the greater Grand Rapids area.
What follows is a list of examples where Jackson Walker has either wrong information or uses misinformation.
- In the article about GRIID it says – Recently, however, GRIID appears to have pivoted toward promoting political activism rather than media monitoring. The reality is that GRIID has always “promoted political activism”, thus there is no pivoting. Anyone can go back to 2009 when the GRIID blog started and see that political activism – what I call movement work or community organizing – has always been part of the work of GRIID.
- The only author’s byline to appear on the site is Jeff Smith. This is also not true as there have been several people who have written for GRIID over the years. It is true that I have written the bulk of the articles, but I have never been the sole contributor.
- Smith also wrote about how he and a group of protesters swarmed the home of Kent County Commissioner Ben Greene to demand that he agree to not cooperate with ICE, despite publicly saying he would make no such concessions. Commissioner Greene said the protesters startled his young children who were in the house at the time. Here the founder of the Grand Rapids Herald makes several mistakes. First, those protesting outside of Commissioner Greene’s house never “swarmed” anything. People calmly and non-violently gathered outside the commissioner’s home and delivered a letter to him. The article primarily just parrots the interpretation of what Commissioner Greene had to say about what happened, even though the account on GRIID is first hand and a more honest assessment.
- Smith was once a part of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center (GRCMC), a local charity which connects several local media entities. He now operates independently, however, and focuses on power structure analysis that are critical of the philanthropic ecosystem GRCMC depends on. The Grand Rapids Media Center is not a charity, but a non-profit media entity that provides an array of non-commercial avenues for people to produce their own media. GRIID has also not critiqued the “philanthropic ecosystem” that involves the GRCMC. Instead, GRIID has regularly written articles how private foundations run by the DeVos, Van Andel and other powerful families.
- Among Smith’s other projects is Koinonia House, a housing collective which declared itself a sanctuary for Central American refugees. Smith also runs Catalyst Radio, a “public affairs program” run by GRCMC, and teaches workshops at Grand Valley State University. It is true that I was part of the Koinonia House for 27 years, but Walker’s description of the K-House is oversimplified and does not reflect the complete history of that community house. GRIID was involved in the founding of Catalyst Radio in 2004, but when GRIID left the GRCMC at the end of 2006, I was no longer a part of that radio project that aired on WYCE.
- Smith received a large speaking fee for hosting a book talk and signing event for “A People’s History of Grand Rapids” at the Grand Rapids African American Museum in 2024. This is laughable. If you go to the link that The Grand Rapids Herald includes. It lists that I was part of doing a presentation at the Grand Rapids African American Museum and Archives (GRAAMA), along with other projects and says that $40,000 in grant money was used. The fact is that GRAAMA paid me $100 to do a People’s History talk on White Supremacy and the Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, which is chapter two of my book. If the Grand Rapids Herald writer thinks that getting $100 to do a 90 minute presentation is sizable, then he has no idea how those of us who do community organizing are compensated in the real world.
I am personally used to these types of attacks, which comes with the work of doing community organizing, especially when you confront/expose systems of power. The article that attempts to trash GRIID primarily relies on copying and pasting quotes from GRIID articles without any real analysis or critique. It’s as if the writer is wanting to say to his audience of far right MAGA friends – look at how GRIID is promoting anti-ICE messaging and even promoting anti-ICE activism. No shit, that is what those articles are intended to do, since ICE is just one component of the larger carceral state and a system of power and oppression.
If you are going to come after me please make it interesting.
AI and data centers are not a problem if God is involved, says Doug DeVos and his fellow believers
Last month I wrote a piece about how the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has publicly endorsed Data Centers. I cited a recent report from Data Center Watch there has been $64 billion of data center projects that have been blocked because communities have become organized.
Last week I wrote a piece about the GR Chamber of Commerce annual Policy Conference, where they hosted a panel of pro-data center apologists.
Just yesterday I received my weekly Email from Believe! – the online journal put out by Doug DeVos. The featured topic for the most recent Believe Journal centers on AI and data centers, with the cover story entitled, God from the Machine.
Early on in the article from DeVos he states:
It’s certainly easy to get carried away by the AI wave. The technology is surely the most amazing invention in human history. But make no mistake: Artificial intelligence hasn’t destroyed humanity’s desperate need for God. And if we let AI further separate us from faith, this technology will quickly spin out of control, doing untold damage to the family, to community, and to the very fabric of our society.
Here DeVos seeks to reframe the debate around AI, not what it will do to eco-systems or how it will perpetuate the wealth gap by putting more money in the pockets of the tech industry, rather he fears that without a God-centered AI it will destroy us all.
DeVos continues in this same vein by writing:
And so we believe that God is necessary to save us from AI gone wrong. It’s deeply concerning that many—perhaps most—of AI’s developers don’t seem to understand or appreciate Christianity. Silicon Valley isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of faith. While there are certainly good Christians working in the AI industry, the ecosystem is steeped in secularism, shaping AI in ways that can undermine human flourishing.
So, secularism is the real culprit. AI won’t be a problem if God and specifically the Christian version of God is guiding society’s hand around AI and data centers. DeVos eventually acknowledges that AI could create problems for society, but in the end he uses the same arguments that AI/Data Center apologists are using when he says:
We absolutely need more people of faith and virtue building AI companies and tools, with the goal of expanding opportunity and uplifting the human experience. We can’t leave this brave new world of innovation solely to non-believers. By the same token, as families and citizens, we need to demand the moral and virtuous use of AI. In some cases, that means pressuring companies to avoid evil. In other cases, it could mean supporting laws to keep AI on the straight on narrow.
Make no mistake, Doug DeVos truly believes that AI/Data Centers can expand opportunity and uplift the human experience. His only caveat is to make sure that those making the decisions about AI/Data Centers are Christians, like DeVos and his family. Just to be clear DeVos and his family of Christians donated to and helped elect Donald Trump, have worked to undermine labor unions for decades, fought against public education, have opposed same sex marriage and trans rights, and have been the single largest political donor to the Republican Party in Michigan since 1990.
The DeVos family is worth $5.4 billion and is always seeking to expand their wealth, as good Christians, while there are thousands of families in Kent County that are struggling to survive. Despite their massive wealth, the DeVos family also uses hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to subsidize projects like the Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium, the Three Towers Project and possibly another proposed hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. Therefore, when Doug DeVos says that he wants good Christians to run and manage AI and Data Centers – not secularists – we should be looking at what the DeVos family of Christians has been doing for decades and discern whether or not they have a moral leg to stand on in regards to making sure that Christians are in charge of AI and Data Centers.
In his concluding remarks Doug DeVos says, “This will be a challenge, not least because so many Americans have fallen away from faith. But that should only stiffen our spines to fight for AI done right.” Like the billionaires behind the recent data center push in West Michigan, we need to recognize the DeVos family has more in common with the tech billionaires than they do with working class families that will struggle to survive in greater number when AI/Data Centers come to dominate more of our economy and our lives.
If Rep. Scholten really wanted a just housing system she would need to do three things
Last week Representative Hillary Scholten hosted a forum on the issue of housing at the downtown campus of GVSU.
Rep. Scholten was joined by people who provide housing support to families struggling to afford the high cost of owning or renting a place to live in the Grand Rapids area. The event only lasted an hour and the majority of that time was taken up by those on the stage.
Rep. Scholten did use data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition on the cost of rent for those living in the Grand Rapids/Wyoming. The current cost of rent would require people to earn at least $26.33 an hour to afford the average cost of rent in this area.
What was not a part of this conversation and is usually omitted from conversations around housing are three important points. First, there was no discussion about how housing is subject to the market as opposed to housing being a right for everyone. Housing is just another commodity in the economic system of Capitalism. The housing market is primarily a for profit system, which includes a small percentage of non-profit housing that relies on public subsidies to build new housing. If we believe that housing is a right for everyone, then we need to remove housing from the system of Capitalism.
A second critical point that was omitted from the forum on housing hosted by Rep. Scholten was the the issue that so many people don’t make enough money to afford a home or even the cost of rent. In a post in December, Rep. Scholten was cheering about the fact that Michigan’s minimum wage would increase to $13.73 an hour. This is grossly inadequate and it seems a bit out of touch to acknowledge that people need to earn at least $26.33 an hour to afford the average cost of rent in this area, without calling for a living wage in Michigan and around the country.
The third vitally important part point that was omitted during the conversation at the housing forum that Rep. Scholten hosted was on the issue of spending priorities. In January, Rep. Scholten voted for the US military budget ($840 Billion), which demonstrates that militarism is a priority, but not housing.
According to the National Priorities Project $2.01 billion in taxes leaves the 3rd Congressional district every year to fund US militarism. Imagine if that money was spent on meeting the needs of people in Rep. Scholten’s District. Unfortunately, voting for the $840 billion military budget demonstrates that Rep. Scholten is more committed to US imperialism than she is to making sure that people in her district have their basic needs met.
Until the issues of removing housing from the system of Capitalism, paying people a livable wage and prioritizing meeting people’s basic needs over US militarism are addressed we will always have millions of families in this country who can’t afford a place to live.
A new hotel is being discussed for downtown Grand Rapids, specifically for tourists and those attending convention center events. According to an article in Crain’s Grand Rapids Business:
The 2024 study conducted by Hotel Valuation Services found that DeVos Place loses out on 58 events annually because of inadequate event space and low hotel supply downtown.
The study was done by Loveland, Colo.-based consulting firm Hotel Valuation Services (HVS). HVS is the only global consulting firm focused exclusively on the hospitality industry, with 300 employees at 50 offices throughout the world.
The Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article also stated that the following groups are involved in the discussion – the Convention Arena Authority (CAA) board, hotel executives, Experience Grand Rapids, the city and county, and Grand Action 2.0 to discuss the results and decide whether to develop a project.
It is worth noting that each of the entities that will be involved in deciding that a new hotel would be necessary for Grand Rapids all have DeVos family involvement. Grand Action 2.0 was co-founded by the DeVos family. The DeVos family has representation on the CAA board and Experience Grand Rapids. The DeVos family controls most of the hotels in downtown, thus they also would represent most of the hotel executives. In addition, the DeVos family contributes more money to City and County officials than any other group or family. Therefore, the recommendation coming from this meeting will be to build a new convention center hotel.
According to the Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article, the proposed 600 room convention center hotel would cost $355 million. We are constantly hearing about the shortage of housing in Kent County, specifically affordable housing, so image if $355 million was spent on new affordable housing. If we estimate that a modest home could be built for $250,000, then $355 million could be used to pay for 1420 new and affordable homes for families. If we were looking at rental costs for a family and put monthly rental costs at $2000, then the $355 million cost of the proposed hotel could cover the rental fees over 1 year for 14,791 families.
It is clear that bringing tourists and people for the convention center is more important than meeting the basic needs of the thousands of residents in the greater Gran Rapids area that are economically struggling. City and County officials always seem to find money (public money) for projects that expand the wealth of members of the GR Power Structure, but never for the people who do the actual work in this city.
Add in the fact that the DeVos family will have the most say in the proposed convention center hotel, which ultimately means it’s a done deal. When are we going to build a movement to resist this dynamic and demand that funding should be used to support working class families?
Shortly after 9am during the public comment period of the Kent County Commission meeting, an activists read a statement and was joined by three others stating they would not leave the meeting until the Kent County Commission adopted the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding for the past 14 months.
Here is the statement:
For the past year, we’ve been helpless to watch the current administration utilize immigration agencies to invade cities all over the country, turning communities inside out, brutalizing innocent people, and leaving vulnerable families and children with no income to support them.
Over the course of that time, we experienced an increased ICE presence here in Kent County, and watched the federal government try to disappear our own neighbors.
No one in this world can be expected to do nothing when faced with the persecution of your peaceful, loving neighbors. We certainly do not expect this of you. We are all neighbors here.
We expect more.
We know that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office holds our immigrant neighbors for ICE.
The Kent County Board of Commissioners has authority over KCSO as well as a responsibility to their constituents.
As your constituents, and in solidarity with our friends, neighbors, and colleagues, we demand that the Kent County Board of Commissioners adopt the 6 sanctuary policies presented to them in January, 2025 by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE,
Until the Board proposes to adopt these sanctuary policies, ending its complicity in the racially motivated systematic violence sweeping the nation, we will not be leaving.
An estimated 20 officers with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department were called upon by the Chair of the Kent County Commission – Ben Greene – to remove people from the commission chambers. The four activists who were holding a banner with the words – End ICE Holds NOW – were arrested and taken into one of the conference rooms in the County Building.
Members and supporters of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE stayed in the building until the 4 that were arrested were released. While people were waiting someone who spoke in favor of ICE during the public comment had called the GRPD claiming that she was assaulted by an activists, something which never happened. In fact, the woman who called the GRPD was the aggressor in this case, which you can view in the video taken by Movimiento Cosecha.
Gema Lowe with Movimiento Cosecha said, “this action was planned as part of our campaign to get Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids to adopt policies that would reject local government from collaborating with ICE and keep immigrant families safe.”
Most of the people who spoke during public comment supported the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding for the past 14 months. There were a few dissenting views, but those people made outlandish claims about immigrants and cited no sources.
The four that were arrested were processed in the Kent County building and were not taken to the Kent County Jail. This is similar to the five that were arrested in January at the Kent County Sheriff’s office, since they were also not taken to the jail, rather they were process in the building that houses the Sheriff’s office.
Another activist who spoke during the public comment period distributed letters to all of the commissioners in attendance. The letter was the same that had been given to Commissioner Greene when activists visited his house last Saturday.
Here is what that letter says:
I, ____________________________ as a member of the Kent County Commission, am committing to adopting the six sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding for over a year. I will also commit to getting my fellow commissioners to endorse these policies as well.
The six sanctuary policies are:
- Policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants.
- Policies restricting the police or other county workers from asking about immigration status.
- Policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
- Policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention.
- Policies preventing immigration detention centers from being established in Kent County, which would include the use of the Kent County Jail as a detention facility for ICE.
- A policy that will not allow the Kent County Sheriff’s Department to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by county staff with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.
I understand that Immigrants continue to be held at the Kent County Jail for ICE, where they will be then taken to the GEO Group-own detention center located in Baldwin, Michigan. I also understand that the majority of immigrants in Detention have no criminal history.
The lives of thousands of immigrants are at stake, since ICE detention facility conditions are horrendous, on top of the fact that families are now economically suffering, along with the trauma that has been inflicted on immigrant families as a result of ICE holds that are happening at the Kent County Jail.
Sign here ________________________________________________________
Both members of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE shared that their efforts to get Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids to adopt these sanctuary policies is a campaign and that they have no intention of ending the campaign until these policies are adopted. One spokesperson said, “It took us 14 months to end the contract that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office had with ICE in 2018-19, so we knew this campaign would be a fight. However, we believe we can win because this is a growing movement for immigrant justice that also is about abolishing ICE.”
The political propaganda coming out of the action that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE organized at the home of Kent County Board Chair Ben Greene just keeps coming.
Commissioner Greene released his own statement where he creates a false narrative about the action from last Saturday, which I responded to a few days ago. In that article I stated:
It’s always convenient for politicians to demonize and exaggerate what community members do. In fact, it is intentional to engage in misinformation and refer to community members a “radical immigration protesters”, which plays well with Greene’s base of support and his major funders, including Dan, Doug and Dick DeVos, which contributed $1,225.00 each to his 2024 election.
On Tuesday, the Kent County Republican Party chair chimed in on this matter by defending Greene’s statement and engaging in their own bit of misinformation, which you can read here on the right. This statement appeared on their Facebook page.
Early on in the Kent County GOP statement it reads – Republicans believe deeply in the First Amendment. Really? If this is the case then why would the ACLU say this about the First Amendment under President Trump during the first 100 days?
“For the past 100 days, President Donald Trump has tested every limit, abused every power, and exploited every loophole to silence dissent, disenfranchise marginalized communities, and erode our rule of law. These are deliberate tactics designed to enforce compliance through fear, force, and censorship.”
President Trump’s executive order calling ANTIFA and domestic terrorist group, which includes anyone expressing ANTIFA principles will be a target of government suppression. Clearly a First Amendment violation. Or one only needs to look at people speaking out against ICE repression, some of who who have been arrested for criticizing ICE. Look at the case of a local Nashville journalist whose stories have been critical of ICE, which resulted in her arrest and detainment by federal agents recently.
The notion that the GOP supports the First Amendment is utterly laughable.
Here are some of the major pieces of misinformation from the Kent County Republican Party chair’s statement:
The claim that the non-violent protest intimidated Comm. Greene’s family. Watch the video and see if any of his family members was intimidated.
“Every American, regardless of party or position, has the right to the peaceful enjoyment of their property and the safety of their family.” There was no damage to Commissioner Greene’s property and at no point was the safety of his family threatened. His kids even waved at us at one point.
“Policy disagreements belong in public forums, at commission meetings, in elections, and in open debate. Not on someone’s front lawn.” First, no one was on Greene’s front law, since everyone stood on the sidewalk. Only three people came to the front door to ask the Commissioner to sign a letter committing him to adopting the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding for over a year. This was a public protest, thus making it a public forum.
We can strongly disagree in this country while still respecting each other’s rights. That means respecting both the right to peaceful assembly and the equally important right to private property and family safety. Apparently the GOP Party Chair is unaware of how many people have been targeted by local police when peacefully assembling in this county, especially BIPOC organizing, some of which have done jail time for engaging in free speech.
In addition, the GOP Party Chair says he believes in family safety. Ok, so what about the immigrant families that are being terrorized by ICE, that are experiencing family separation and family trauma? Does the GOP Party Chair support the right of immigrant families to feel safe? Of course he doesn’t, which is why his statement in support of Commissioner Greene is just plain hypocritical.
A pro-data center panel was featured at the GR Chamber of Commerce annual Policy Conference last week
Last month I wrote a piece about how the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has publicly endorsed Data Centers. I cited a recent report from Data Center Watch there has been $64 billion of data center projects that have been blocked because communities have become organized.
However, despite massive public opposition, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce is in favor of data centers. The Chamber’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Christine Simon wrote an article entitled, BUILDING NEXGEN INFRASTRUCTURE: DATA CENTERS IN WEST MICHIGAN, which was posted on February 6th.
At the GR Chamber’s annual Policy Conference, they had a panel discussion that not only features a representative of Microsoft, the entire panel was pro-Data Center. Crain’s Grand Rapids Business wrote about this panel discussion in an article entitled, Microsoft faces the public as it pursues two Grand Rapids-area data center projects.
The Crain’s article provides numerous comments from the panelists, especially Microsoft’s senior director of government affairs and infrastructure, Jonathan Noble. Noble made some claims about being responsive to public concerns, but he also laid out their strategy for increasing the number of data centers around the world. This strategy is called, Microsoft’s Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan. Despite the flowering pro-public rhetoric from Microsoft they have never in their corporation’s history been pro-community. Microsoft’s goal is to maximize profits and to answer to their board of directors and their shareholders, which is not the same as the public.
Another pro-data center member of the GR Chamber’s panel said:
“If Michigan wants to remain relevant in this space, we as an industry really need to embrace it, and we’ve taken the right steps to get there, We’re just starting to build this state up for this industry and what we really don’t want to see is kind of taking another step backwards. I would like us to continue to see the positive policies that were set forth for this industry a couple of years ago continue so that we can bring in great businesses like Microsoft to the state and really help build up the communities that we’re in.”
Wow, so this person thinks that Microsoft will be good for our communities and that we all need to embrace data centers.
The Crain’s article goes on to say:
Don Shoemaker, co-founder of Franklin Partners and part owner of the Lowell Township site, said Microsoft is under contract to purchase the property. Franklin Partners, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based commercial real estate firm, specializes in the sale and redevelopment of large industrial sites.
“We’ve gotten pretty much into the data center world,” Shoemaker said. “The demand isn’t slowing down. It’s about where you can get zoned with the community that wants us and get power. It’s all about getting the community support behind it, really.”
So, it’s all about getting community support. What Shoemaker did not say was that getting the public to support data centers means that companies like Microsoft want to con the public into believing that data centers will be good for the community regardless of all the evidence to the contrary. As I mentioned earlier, if data centers are so wonderful why have communities rejected data center projects to the tune of $64 billion that the public said no to?
On Tuesday, the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce provided a summary of their Policy Conference, which included a link to the slides from the Microsoft representative. The slides are primarily about Microsoft’s Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan, all to convince the public – or in the case of the GR Chamber Policy Conference attendees – that they really care about the public and that data centers are really about serving communities. Here is one slide that provided their definition of what a data center is:
Are we really supposed to believe that data centers are all about keeping our lives connected and efficient? Microsoft, and by extension the GR Chamber of Commerce, must really think that the public is so gullible that we would believe this shit. We never need data centers to keep our lives connected, since human beings have connected with each other for as long as humanity has existed, long before data centers ever existed. All the more reason to oppose data centers when corporations like Microsoft want to shovel more of their propaganda in our communities.
On Sunday, I posted a story about the action that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE organized at the home of the Chair of the Kent County Commission Ben Greene.
I would encourage you all to read my account, which you can read here, since I was a participant in that action. In fact, it is essential that people read this account first or watch the video that Movimiento Cosecha posted that includes the entire action, which you can find here.
On his Facebook page, Kent County Commissioner Ben Greene posted the statement here below, along with this sentence – On Saturday, radical immigration protesters came to my home.
It’s always convenient for politicians to demonize and exaggerate what community members do. In fact, it is intentional to engage in misinformation and refer to community members a “radical immigration protesters”, which plays well with Greene’s base of support and his major funders, including Dan, Doug and Dick DeVos, which contributed $1,225.00 each to his 2024 election.
Here are a few responses I have to the lies and misrepresentation of the action that took place at his home on Saturday.
First, when Greene says that his young children were there, we knew that since they looked out the window while we were there and waved at us. Several of the people who were there waved back. In addition, there were two dogs in the house, both of which also came to the window at the front of the house. Both dogs just stood there and looked at us, but never barked.
Second, Commissioner Greene claims that he has already laid out his position on sanctuary county status and that it is outside of the commission’s authority. This statement is rife with misinformation. Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE has never asked the county to become a sanctuary. These two groups have been demanding sanctuary policies, which are in effect public safety policies that would prevent the county from cooperating or collaborating with ICE in any way. All six of these demands are completely with the commission’s authority, since local governments throughout the US have adopted some form of a sanctuary policy.
Third, Commissioner Greene then says, “There is nothing left to protest – the answer is no.” This is instructive in that he is either oblivious to the fact that virtually every civil right in the US was because people organized and pushed politicians to adopt their demands. It is never “over” unless the people determine otherwise.
Fourth, Greene engages in more deceitful language by claiming that a “mob came to his front door.” A standard definition of the word mob is – a large crowd of people, especially one that is disorderly and intent on causing trouble or violence. Only three people came to his door, which would numerically not qualify as a mob. Only one person knocked on the door and handed him a piece of paper and spoke to him is a respectful tone. As for the other people who were standing on the sidewalk, they were chanting thinks like, No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are welcome here! Not exactly mob-like discourse, rather discourse they centered the demands that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been asking of Commissioner Greene over the past 14 months.
Lastly, Commissioner Greene tries to make the point that his family is off limits. The action on Saturday was non-violent, was non-threatening and was lawful. Instead of chastising those that took part Commissioner Greene could have used the opportunity to educate his children on what democracy actually looks like and how ICE operates. Greene could have told his children that ICE is violent and forcibly removes people from their homes, thus separating families, by sending immigrants to detention facilities and possibly deportation. Commissioner Greene could have been honest with his children by saying that those who came to their house were attempting to get him to adopt policies that would reduce family separation and family trauma.
Instead, the Chair of the Kent County Commission made the decision to put out a statement that is not only untrue, but it is misleading and communicates to the community that he is unwilling to adopt policies that would reduce the harm that ICE is inflicting in Kent County on immigrant communities.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 