7 years ago we began a campaign to end a contract with ICE in Kent County: Today we are still resisting ICE in Grand Rapids and Kent County

It is exactly seven years since Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE began a campaign to get Kent County to end their contract with ICE. 

The Kent County Sheriff’s Department had a contractual agreement to hold immigrants in the Kent County Jail for ICE and ICE would compensate them per person, per bed for as long as they were in the County Jail.

In late June of 2018, there was a call to show up to the Kent County Commission meeting to pressure the commissioners to end the contract with ICE. Roughly 200 people showed up to that meeting, which I wrote about 7 years ago.

ICE eventually ended their contract with Kent County in September of 2019, some 15 months after the End the Contract campaign had begun. To be clear, ICE ended the contract, not Kent County. In fact, there was essentially no support from Republican and Democratic Commissioners to the demand to end their contract with ICE. However, because of the collective efforts of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to use a variety of tactics and strategies, ICE decided to end the contract because of all the publicity the campaign received, both locally and nationally. Here is a list of the tactics the End the Contract campaign used, which is included in my, A People’s History of the End the Contract Campaign in Kent County article.

• We held dozens of strategy meetings, which always resulted in planning future actions.
• We attended every Kent County Commission Meeting to continue to make our demands, to offer testimony on family separation that was happening by ICE in Kent County and to monitor any comments made by commissioners about the contract.
• Some of the people involved in the campaign met with individual commissioners
• We ran a petition campaign to End the Contract, which we delivered at one of the Commission meetings.
• We held a protest outside of Chairman Saalfeld’s home the night before one of the commission meetings.
• We organized several protests at the Kent County Jail.
• We organized several protest outside of the various ICE offices in downtown Grand Rapids.
• We organized a disruption protest during ArtPrize, on their main stage, drawing attention to family separation in Kent County.
• We created educational materials, which we distributed.
• We created artwork and had sign making parties.
• We spoke to community-based groups about the campaign.
• We utilized social media to educate and get the word out about the End the Contract Campaign.
• We held a People’s Commission action during one of the Kent County Commission meetings. 
• We worked with the Western Michigan branch of the ACLU and MIRC, who not only obtained their own FOIA documents, but offered their legal expertise on why Kent County was not legally obligated to cooperate with ICE.

Seven years later Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are still resisting ICE in Grand Rapids and Kent County 

Since the first Cosecha march in January, which coincided with the Presidential inauguration, there has been lots of organizing and efforts to get more and more people involved in resisting ICE and Grand Rapids and Kent County.

Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE began campaigns to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt Sanctuary policies. Hundreds of people have attended a GR Rapid Response to ICE training and after ICE agents abducted immigrants attending their scheduled appointments at the ISAP office, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been providing accompaniment to people who have appointments at the ICE and ISAP offices. 

Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE also organized an ICE out of Grand Rapids 10 days ago, in solidarity with how people are mobilizing in Los Angeles against ICE raids. Then last Saturday, GR Rapid Response to ICE did an action at the Kent County Airport to bring attention to the fact that Avelo Airlines now has a contract with ICE to transport immigrants to a prison in El Salvador. 

Upcoming Actions to resist ICE 

In July, there are several opportunities for people to get involved with Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE and resist Immigration and Customs Enforcement in this community.

On Monday, July 7th, there is a meeting at Linc Up at 6pm to update people about what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are doing. The brief meeting will be followed by a local action to resist ICE in Grand Rapids. You need to attend the meeting for details on the action. 

On Thursday, July 24th, people are invited to come to the Kent County Commission meeting to pressure that elected body to adopt Sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE initiated back in February. The Kent County Commission meeting will take place at 8:30am on July 24th, on the 3rd floor of the County Building. You can still sign the Action Alert to get Kent County to adopt Sanctuary Policies.

Lastly, On Tuesday, July 29th, people are invited to the Grand Rapids City Commission at 7pm to continue to demand that the City adopt Sanctuary policies that were introduced in January. People can still sign the Action Alert to demand that the City of Grand Rapids adopt Sanctuary policies, policies which are listed in the Action Alert.

Just like in 2019, when Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE organized to End the Contract with ICE and Kent County, these two groups believe that we can pressure Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt Sanctuary policies that make it harder for ICE to harm our immigrant neighbors in our community. #ResistICE