Did property management companies or Real Estate Investment businesses lease office space to ICE in Grand Rapids recently?

Last week, the General Services Administration — the U.S. agency that manages government facilities and procurement – posted a solicitation for “as-is, fully-finished and furnished office space in support of administrative operations for law enforcement” in 19 cities across the country. The listing estimates each lease would include workstations for 70 people and notes the “unique” quick period of one week to submit bids, according to a report from NPR.

Of the 19 cities in the US that were named in the NPR story Grand Rapids is one of them. 

• Cities/States: Birmingham, AL; Boise, ID; Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC; Columbus, OH; Des Moines, IA; Fort Lauderdale/Sunrise, FL; Fort Myers/Naples, FL; Grand Rapids, MI; Jacksonville, FL; Louisville, KY; Milwaukee, WI; Oklahoma City, OK; Pittsburgh, PA; Raleigh, NC; Richmond, VA; Spokane, WA; St. Louis, MO; Tampa, FL

I did a quick search for office space that was available for leasing and found dozens of listings in Grand Rapids, which included on Wealthy Street, the Beltline, Knapp’s Corners, on Monroe Center and even in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market.  Most of these listing include the name of the company that ICE could rent space from, like NAI Wisinski of West Michigan.

In 2018, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE held and action and began a campaign to boycott the Edmark Development Company in Grand Rapids, which was renting space to ICE at that time.

The kind of office space that ICE wants to lease must be fully furnished and meet specific requirements, requirements you can read about at this link.

This scramble by ICE to rent office space is part of the $170 billion allocated for “immigration enforcement”, which was part of the Big Beautiful Bill Act that was adopted earlier this year. The $170 billion will be distributed to numerous immigration enforcement agencies and private entities, which the National Immigration Law Center breaks down in a recent post.

This money goes to federal agencies, with the largest amounts to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including:  

• $30 billion to detain and deport more immigrants, more quickly   
• $45 billion to build new immigrant detention facilities 
• $47 billion to build more border walls and other barriers 
• $16 billion for increased border security, including surveillance and technology 
• $14 billion for state and local agencies that participate in immigration enforcement  
• $12 billion for more Border Patrol checkpoints, vehicles, and agents 

An additional $11 billion goes to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Prisons for uses including immigration enforcement and detention. The Office of Refugee Resettlement gets $330 million for extreme vetting of unaccompanied children and their sponsors. 

The fact that ICE has probably decided to rent office space in Grand Rapids is probably a consequence of the Grand Rapids City Commission’s refusal to adopt the Sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been pushing for since the beginning of the year. It further demonstrates that the City of Grand Rapids puts undocumented immigrants at greater risk by not adopting Sanctuary policies that would make it harder for private entities to rent office space to ICE. Since the public cannot rely on local government to keep people safe, they should look to social movements to make that happen. If you have information on ICE renting office space in Grand Rapids recently, please contact GR Rapid Response to ICE info@grrapidresponsetoice.org. 

With the increase number of ICE agents that will be operating in Kent County, there will no doubt be an increase in ICE arrests. If you want to be part of the community-based work that is resisting ICE, contact GR Rapid Response to ICE and sign up for their next training on October 21st.