Immigrant Justice organizers demand Grand Rapids adopt sanctuary policies, dramatize ICE terrorism and disrupt City Commission meeting

Last night members of Movimiento Cosecha, GR Rapid Response to ICE and those who support immigrant justice attended the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting to once again demand that the city adopt sanctuary policies.

The general public comment was moved to the beginning of the meeting, where some 40 people got in line and collectively spoke for nearly two hours about why the city should adopt sanctuary policies. There were a whole range of issues that people presented, some personal, while others addressed the ongoing and increased ICE terrorism that is happening right here in Grand Rapids.

One of the first people to speak laid out the concrete sanctuary policies that they have been pushing since January, when these demands were first presented to the Grand Rapids City Commission. Those policies are:

• 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 from being established in Grand Rapids. 
• 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.

There was a teacher who talked about how fewer and fewer immigrant students were coming to class because of the fear and trauma that many of them were experiencing. There were some who talked about due process and the legality of what ICE was doing, and there were some that spoke to the moral and ethical demands that were central to the sanctuary demands.

Several people who have been trained by GR Rapid Response to ICE spoke concretely about what they have been witnessing, as they engage in patrols or doing accompaniment with immigrants while they attend appointments required by ICE. Here people shared not just the overall fear and terror that immigrants were experiencing, but how the GRPD has repeatedly cooperated with ICE at both the ISAP office on Michigan and the ICE office at 517 Ottawa NW. 

One person also made the comment that with the Big Beautiful Bill’s passage, ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies will soon be receiving an additional $170 Billion to further terrorize immigrants across this country and in Grand Rapids. 

After nearly two hours of public comment, some of those present staged a little street theater to dramatize what ICE is doing in this community. Two white men, both wearing COVID masks got up and grabbed an immigrant speaker and took her away, since this is a concrete reality that immigrants have to live with. 

Right after the street theater began, people started chanting, ICE and Cops go hand in hand. Many people who had been sitting stood up and did this chant for the next 5 – 7 minutes, despite pleas from Mayor LaGrand that people were disrupting their meeting. Security people attempted to get people to be quiet or leave, and even the City Manager got up and came to the podium that the public had used to request that people stop interrupting the meeting. Eventually, the Mayor requested that members of the GRPD that were present deal with the disruption. Two GRPD officers then told those chanting near the front that if they did not leave they would be arrested. Movimiento Cosecha organizers decided that they had come to do what they want to do and agreed to leave, but everyone continued to chant loudly and slowly walked out of the gym at Gerald R. Ford Academic Center, where the City Commission was being held. 

Near the end of the City Commission meeting, beginning at the 2:09:00 point in the video, you can hear what Grand Rapids Commissioners had to say about the demands to adopt sanctuary policies

Commisioner Ysasi – She referred to the Jilmar Ramos Gomez case in 2018 and said that what happened shouldn’t have happen, but she failed to state that the GRPD’s ICE liaison had called ICE after watching a TV news story about Jilmar, which is why Jilmar was picked up by ICE and detained, despite the fact that he was a former US Marine and citizen of the US. Ysasi also expressed frustration that people didn’t stick around to have a conversation. This was bizarre, because there is no conversation that happens at this meeting, people say what they need to and Commissioner decide to address it at the end or not.

Commissioner Robbins – had nothing to say about the sanctuary policies

Commissioner Knight – she said there were 3 ways of seeing issues and that she needs to see for herself what is happening to immigrants, especially when they come to their ICE appointments. Of course anyone can sit near the ISAP office or the ICE office and watch, but members of GR Rapid Response to ICE have been trained and have been accompanying people since June 4th when there was an ICE raid. Saying she needed to see for herself is fine, but it also felt like she didn’t take about many people were saying as truth, especially from those who were have been witnessing first hand what is happening while they accompany immigrants.

Commissioner Kilgore – He referred to the Foreign Nationals policy, which is woefully inadequate and still allows for GRPD to cooperate with ICE. He also mentioned both federal and state legislative proposals around the issue of ICE agents not self-identifying and covering their faces. Both the federal and state legislation are fairly meaningless proposals, which do nothing to address the fact that ICE is terrorizing immigrants, arresting and detaining them. 

Commisioner Perdue – at one point she suggested that if people want to change things, that they needed to run for office. This tells me that she in unfamiliar with the history of social movements in the US, which is the real change agent, not electoral politics or politicians. She did speak to the issue of a lack of due process and did say she was willing to re-open conversation on sanctuary.

Belchak – She said she wished that people would stay. Apparently she was unaware of the fact that the GRPD threatened to arrest people if they didn’t leave. She also said how lucky we are to live in this country and have free speech??? Then she said that she was hearing people say they felt powerless. I don’t recall people saying they were powerless, rather that they were doing the work of practicing solidarity with immigrants. IShe did say that what ICE is doing is despicable, but didn’t commit to adopting sanctuary policies. 

City Manager Washington – he said that nothing came up in the Public Safety committee about sanctuary, so maybe we need to talk with Winstrom about addressing that in the future. Of course it didn’t come up in the Public Safety committee, since the GRPD dictates what happens in those meetings and they sure as hell don’t want to talk about how they cooperate with ICE. 

Mayor LaGrand had nothing to say!