5 reasons to support the campaign to get Grand Rapids to adopt Sanctuary policies at this Tuesday’s City Commission meeting

This coming Tuesday, July 29th, at 7pm, people have an opportunity come attend the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting to demand that they adopt the following 5 Sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE has laid out:

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. 
   1. Policies restricting the police or other city workers from asking about immigration status. 
2. Policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law. 
3. Policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention; 
4. Policies preventing immigration detention centers from being established in Grand Rapids. 
5. A policy that will not allow the GRPD to share Flock camera images or any other
   information gathered by the city of Grand Rapids with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants. 

GRPD Chief Eric Winstrom has repeatedly stated that the Grand Rapids Police Department does not engage in immigration enforcement. As someone who has followed these matters closely for years, the policy that the Winstrom often refers to, is known as the Foreign National’s Policy. 

This policy clear states:

The policy allows officers to provide assistance to federal immigration authorities when there is an emergency that poses an immediate danger to public safety or federal agents.  

This clause within the Foreign National’s Policy is designed to allow the GRPD to assist ICE, plus they get to determine when and how there is an immediate danger to public safety or federal agents. However, recent incidents show a disturbing pattern of cooperation between GRPD and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), directly contradicting the department’s public position and further endangering immigrant communities in Grand Rapids. 

ICE and Cops go hand in hand

• ●  June 4th, 2025: As ICE agents arrested immigrants during their ISAP check-in appointments, members of Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE mobilized to try to prevent detentions. GRPD officers arrived and threatened to arrest the community members, forcing them to leave the building and making it easier for ICE to intimidate and detain individuals that day. 
  
• ●  Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025: GRPD officers responded to the ICE office where members of GR Rapid Response to ICE were nonviolently attempting to support an immigrant being detained and prevent a family separation. In an unnecessary show of force, GRPD deployed eight police cruisers, arrested two volunteers, and impounded their vehicles—an unmistakable attempt to intimidate and suppress community efforts to defend immigrant families. Despite these unjust arrests, the volunteers remain committed to showing solidarity with their undocumented neighbors. These events have only made more visible the ongoing collaboration between GRPD and ICE. 

This comes at a time when the federal budget for immigration enforcement has increased by $170 billion under the “Big Beautiful Bill,” allowing for the hiring of more ICE agents and the expansion of immigration raids. As a result, more immigrant families will be targeted, traumatized, and torn apart in cities like Grand Rapids. This is why it is critical that the GRPD not assist ICE in their campaign of terror against immigrant communities, why they should not provide information about people’s immigration status or provide data on immigrants, along with not showing up to intimidate or arrest people who are acting in solidarity and accompanying members of the undocumented community. 

Then there is the issue of the GRPD’s use of the Flock camera technology, in which the GRPD and the City of Grand Rapids has denied in a statement from June 6th:

I want to assure our community that GRPD does not utilize license plate readers (LPRs) to conduct immigration-related investigations. A GRPD officer has been falsely identified on social media as conducting searches related to immigration enforcement actions. We are not the source of this document, and are unable to verify its origin, but can confirm no GRPD officers are using license plate readers to engage in immigration-related activity.

At the same time that the GRPD was denying using Flock camera technology against immigrants, GR Rapid Response to ICE had received a message from someone who has been tacking the use of the Flock camera technology in West Michigan. 

These are logs from the Flock License Plate Reader System that I obtained that show the searches that Grand Rapids Police have used on the system.  It shows the plate searched, the officer that conducted the search, the reason for the search and the time of the search.

In the image above, you can see the data described in the research, with the reasons listed, many of which were Deportation Warrant. This is certainly alarming information and further demonstrates that the GRPD is cooperating with ICE. 

One last example of the GRPD cooperation with ICE, has been seen directly by GR Rapid Response to ICE since they started offering accompaniment to people who have appoints at the ISAP office, which is near downtown Grand Rapids. Those who are providing the accompaniment will ask those with appointments if they want them to go inside til that person enters the office. Whenever this happens, the company which manages the ISAP office and has a contract with ICE, calls the GRPD. The GRPD cops then intimidate and threaten to arrest anyone who even goes in the building. 

Now, Grand Rapids City officials and the GRPD can continue to deny that these examples in no way demonstrate ICE and GRPD cooperation. Use your eyes and your common sense. Every time that GR Rapid Response to ICE has been attempting to prevent ICE from taking immigrants or accompanying immigrants to reduced the chance that ICE might take them during their appointments, the GRPD has been there to intimidate and threaten people who are practicing real community safety and solidarity. Immigrants aren’t asking the GRPD to accompany them during their appointments, because they know very well that they are at risk when the GRPD is present.

Lastly, here is an excerpt from a Media Release send out by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE:

A Call to Action for the City of Grand Rapids: 

The City of Grand Rapids claims to be a “Welcoming City,” but actions speak louder than words. The city has the opportunity to adopt six concrete Sanctuary policies that won’t stop ICE entirely but will ensure Grand Rapids is not complicit in immigrant family separation and state-sponsored terror. 

Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE will be speaking during public comment at the upcoming Grand Rapids City Commission Meeting on: 

Tuesday, July 29th, 7:00 PM
Gerald R. Ford Academic Center, Madison Ave SE, Grand Rapids 

We invite all who believe in immigrant justice to attend, show support, and demand that the City adopt the six Sanctuary policies to protect and stand with our immigrant neighbors.