If you are thinking about coming to the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting on 1/28, here are some talking points for why GR should be a Sanctuary City

As of this posting, the Action Alert from GR Rapid Response to ICE, already has 13,110  letters that were sent to Grand Rapids City officials.

However, groups have generated that many letters in the past, like in 2020, when groups like Defund the GRPD got thousands of people to send letters to GR City officials to reduce the amount of the City’s budget that would go to the cops.

We need people to show up in person and use their 3 minutes of public comment to pressure GR City officials to do the right thing and help create a social and political climate of safety for immigrants in this city.

There is a new Mayor and two new City Commissioners that are just getting their feet wet with city politics, so anything is possible. I will say, that in December, when I was in Lansing to support the Cosecha Hunger Strike, I saw the newly elected Mayor of Grand Rapids, David LaGrand. I pointed them out and one of the Cosecha organizers ask to speak with him, then asked if he would support Grand Rapids being a Sanctuary City. LaGrand took the conversation in a different direction and when Cosecha pressed him on what the City can do, he never committed to what they were asking him to support.

If you read the Action Alert for Grand Rapids to be a Sanctuary City, the language of that Action Alert says:

People in our city depend on and interact with immigrant neighbors every day: from the harvested food we eat, to the restaurants we patronize; from the construction of buildings we live and work in, to the manufactured products we use daily; from the clean hotel rooms and offices we visit, to the home health care we receive or provide for our loved ones. They are the children learning and playing in our schools, the drivers who stop and wave us through the busy traffic turn, and the neighbors who offer a smile on our daily walks and errands.

We must make clear that immigrants are valued members of our community and that their safety is a priority.

Adopting Sanctuary City status will mean that Grand Rapids:

1. Declares itself a sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, and;
2. Commits to preventing the Grand Rapids Police Department from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and any law enforcement agency that seek to arrest, detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

However, the letter itself has some important Talking Points, such as:

In declaring itself a Sanctuary City, Grand Rapids would implement and execute the following:

1. policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants;
2. policies restricting the police or other city workers from asking about immigration status;
3. policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law;
4. policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention
5. policies preventing immigration detention centers in Grand Rapids.

You should also think about making your message personal, especially if you are part of the affected community or you have relationships with the affected community, such as friends, co-workers, people who are part of your faith community, etc.

For me, this issue is deeply personal for two reasons. In the early 1980s, I was part of the Koinonia House, which was a Sanctuary House for political refugees from Guatemala. I learned a great deal from the families who we offered Sanctuary, and have written about it.

Additionally, Koinonia House became a foster family to a young Guatemalan who had been forcibly recruited into the military at age 13. He went AWOL at one point and was picked up by the Guatemalan military, tortured, then went AWOL again and made his way to the US border. Since he was a minor, we were able to become foster parents and worked through Bethany Christian Services to get him to Grand Rapids. 

For me, doing sanctuary work has been personal for several decades, so much so that it has been transformative work to engage in. I plan on sharing this story when I use my public comment time at the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting on January 28th.