Local news coverage of last night’s ICE Out of GR rally fails to provide context and misses the mark on what a sanctuary policy would mean for Grand Rapids

Last night Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE hosted a rally at Calder Plaza to denounce the violence that ICE is committing in Grand Rapids, which includes the monitoring, intimidation, arrest and detention of immigrants.

All four of the West Michigan TV stations and MLive reported on the rally, in varying degrees of accuracy. The Kalamazoo-based channel 3 did a short story, which spent as much time on President Trump’s Executive orders that criminalize immigrants as they did on what the rally organizers were calling for.

The WZZM 13 story was also fairly short, plus they did not provide sufficient context for the rally or the specific demands that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE were making.

WOODTV8 did a better job of covering the rally, specifically because the centered the voices of immigrants and those most impacted by ICE violence. The 3 minute and 21 second story also provided information about the harm that ICE has engaged in over the past two weeks, but the channel 8 reporter failed to provide details of what the adopting a Sanctuary policy would concretely mean.

The WXMI 17 story was also longer than most local TV news stories, with a running time of 2 minutes and 50 seconds. However, what was problematic about the channel 17 coverage is that they provided more time to Mayor LaGrand and City Manager Mark Washington, using clips from a story back in January, when local organizers first demanded the city adopt Sanctuary policies. The comments from the Mayor and the City Manager were not questioned, nor were those from Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE provided an opportunity to contest the claims of GR City officials

The MLive article came the closest to providing some information on what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are calling for regarding the adoption of Sanctuary policies by the City, stating:

“Lowe said the pro-immigration groups are demanding that the city implement six policies. Those policies include prohibiting law enforcement from detaining individuals on civil immigration warrants, and preventing the Grand Rapids Police Department and Kent County Sheriff’s Office from collaborating with ICE officials and not establishing detention centers in the city.”

Originally, there were 5 demands in the Action Alert – an Action Alert that people can still sign – that was presented to the Grand Rapids City Commission in January. Here is the wording of those demands:

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

– 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 city 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 in Grand Rapids.

Since then, the partner organizations of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have included one additional demand, which is for the City of Grand Rapids to not share license plate information with ICE, information that is obtained from the Flock cameras that exist in Grand Rapids.

While there was a great deal of coverage about last nights ICE Out of GR rally and several members of the immigrant community were centered, the local news missed the mark on providing accurate information on what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding of the City regarding the adoption of sanctuary policies.