Grand Rapids Hip Hop station does a story about the effort to get Grand Rapids to become a Sanctuary City

Local radio station, Magic 104.9, known as GR’s Hip Hop station, posted a story on Wednesday regarding the effort of GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR to pressure the City of Grand Rapids to declare itself a Sanctuary City.

As many would say, all press is good press. In this case the information is pretty good, since it seems to use some of the language around the Action Alert directed at Grand Rapids City officials.

The Magic 104.9 also mentions the Action Alert to pressure the Grand Rapids Public Schools to adopt a Sanctuary Policy for the district, which GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR began on January 13th.

Unfortunately, the only concrete source that was cited on the radio station’s website was the far right anti-immigration group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). According to SourceWatch, The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is an anti-immigration group that has been branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). FAIR calls itself an “organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation’s immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest.” It was formed in 1979 by population control advocate and nativist John Tanton, who believes that immigration is a significant part of the US population “problem,” and is part of the anti-immigrant John Tanton Network. 

It should also be noted that John Tanton was from Michigan, and created a number of Far Right groups that embraced White Supremacy and eugenics. Tanton died in 2019 and was from Petosky, Michigan.

While I support the efforts of Magic 104.9, it would have been best to contact GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR directly, since those two groups are the ones behind the push for institutions to declare sanctuary in Grand Rapids, plus Cosecha is made up of immigrant organizers who are directly impacted by ICE violence.