Movimiento Cosecha occupies Senator Brinks’ office in Lansing: The frightening realities for oppressed people to be told to wait

Editors note: I acted as the police liaison during the Movimiento Cosecha action yesterday, which provided me with a first hand account of what happened.

Yesterday, members of Movimiento Cosecha occupied the offices of Senator Winnie Brinks to demand drivers licenses, something that was promised to them for the past several years.

However, before we talk about the office occupation, it is worth noting that last week Monday, members of Movimiento Cosecha attended a coffee & conversation meeting hosted by Rep. Glanville and Senator Winnie Brinks. Cosecha members asked why the Democrats, who have held the majority control of both of the House and the Senate since January 1st, have not adopted the Drive Safe bills, which would allow undocumented immigrants that right to once again obtain a drivers license in Michigan.

Senator Brinks said two things. First, she said that the did not have the votes to pass such legislation. To be clear, what Brinks actually meant is that there were not enough Democrats who were supporting the Drive Safe bills. Again, the Democrats control the House and the Senate in Michigan, so the only reason they have not passed the Drive Safe bills is because not all Democrats in the House support drivers licenses for the undocumented community.

The other thing that Senator Brinks told members of Cosecha was, “to trust the process.” Brinks said they were working on trying to convince Democratic members of the House who had not yet come out in support of the Drive Safe bills. Trust the process? The Democrats have had 10 months of complete control of the Michigan Legislature, and while they have adopted some progressive legislation, they have failed to adopt the Drive Safe bills. 

The Democrats promised the undocumented community that they would pass this legislation, yet they have not. Not only have they not passed the Drive Safe bills, they are now in a precarious position, which members of Movimiento Cosecha recently found out about. There are two Democratic members of the Michigan House who are running for Mayoral seats in their respective communities on November 7. If they win those seats, then they will vacate their position in the Michigan House, which will mean that the Democrats will not control the House.

In addition to this predicament, the word that Movimiento Cosecha members have heard, along with those involved in the Rent is Too Damn High Coalition, is that after November 7, the Michigan Legislature is not likely to pass any more bills for 2023. This means that the Democrats might not have the majority in the Michigan House after the New Year, plus the fact that 2024 is an election year. We all know that during an election year, candidates, specifically incumbents, are less likely to take a stance on potentially more controversial issues like drivers licenses for the undocumented community. What this would mean is that drivers licenses for the undocumented community will probably not be adopted in 2024, which means that those who have been fighting for this issue since 2017, will have to wait until 2025, and that might not even be an option, since the Democrats could lose control of the House in 2024.

Occupying Senator Brinks’ office

Now that we have some context for what took place yesterday at the Lansing State Capitol, it is worth noting that members of Movimiento Cosecha occupied Senator Brinks’ office as a last resort to force the Senate Majority Leader to put the Drive Safe bills to a vote. 

In the photo above, you can see the 5 people standing in Senator Brinks’ office, with their shirts demanding drivers licenses. What you can’t see is that they were also wearing masks that had pass the bills written on them. There were a few of us doing crowd safety in the office, to make sure that no harm would come to the 5 who were occupying the space.

There were 6 to 8 members of the State Capitol security personnel that were also in the office with the Cosecha activists, so I was the person tasked to communicate with them throughout the action. Initially they were telling the Cosecha activists that they could not be in that space or they would get arrested. The Capitol building security then came back and said that the Cosecha activists could stay in the office until 5pm, but after that if they didn’t leave they would be arrested or they would be given a ticket to appear before a judge at a future date. In order to just get a ticket, the Cosecha activists would have to provide ID to the Capitol building security, which ironically they could not, since they did not have drivers licenses.

At the same time that this was all happening, there were at least three staffers from Senator Brinks’ office who were unhappy with the activists making noise and disrupting their ability to do their work. I found this claim interesting, since I noticed in the main office space there were at least two posters with the image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At that moment I thought to myself, that what the Cosecha activists were doing is likely the same thing that Dr. King would have done, which was to disrupt business as usual.

“We do not need allies more devoted to order than to justice,” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in the spring of 1964, refusing calls from moderate Black and White leaders to condemn a planned highway “stall-in” to highlight systemic racism in New York City. “I hear a lot of talk these days about our direct action talk alienating former friends,” he added. “I would rather feel they are bringing to the surface latent prejudices that are already there. If our direct action programs alienate our friends … they never were really our friends.”

A year earlier, while Dr. King sat in a Birmingham jail, he wrote these words to white Clergy who criticized his use of Civil Disobedience, stating in part:

I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. 

After occupying Senator Brinks’ office for more than an hour, we began to notice that all of the staff members had left, leaving only the Cosecha activists and the Capitol building security personnel. Those who were in the role of Action Logic – making the quick decisions as actions unfold – talked with those who were occupying the office and together they decided that end the office occupation since disrupting business as usual had occurred, and because the risk to those in the undocumented community were potentially too great.

After about 90 minutes, the Cosecha activists who had been occupying Senator Brinks’ office left, a moment that was captured on video, with Movimiento Cosecha members talking about what had happened in Spanish and in English. Here is a link to that video.  La Lucha Sigue y Sigue!!!!