Community forum will share stories of how ICE is impacting the immigrant community, and an opportunity to discuss sanctuary policies in Grand Rapids

On Saturday, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are hosting an event entitled, How ICE does harm to families in Kent County: A Community Forum. The event description says: 

This forum is specifically designed for two reasons. First, we want to create a safe space for people who have been impacted by the harm that ICE/La Migra has done in Kent County to talk about the fear they experience and the trauma of having family members abducted by ICE. In addition, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have invited Grand Rapids and Kent County Commissioners to attend, listen to what the affected community is experiencing, and to have a conversation about the sanctuary policies that have been presented to City and County Commissioners since the beginning of 2025.

Hearing from members of the affected community is vitally important, not only to know how people are being impacted by ICE repression, but these stories can also act as a catalyst to move people to want to become involved. 

Movimiento Cosecha invited the Mayor of Grand Rapids, all 6 six City Commissioners, along with the 21 Kent County Commissioners, all of which would benefit from hearing stories of those most affected by ICE repression. 

During the late July Grand Rapids City Commission meeting, several commissioners said that they were open to having a conversation about the sanctuary policies being put forth by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapids Response to ICE. However, some commissioners thought it was “unfortunate” that the immigrant justice activists didn’t stick around after the commission meeting to further the dialogue. I’m not sure if the commissioners were even paying attention, since after roughly 50 people urged the city to adopt the sanctuary policies Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapids Response to ICE, the activist engaged in a disruptive action. The Mayor of Grand Rapids then instructed GRPD officers to arrest activists if they didn’t leave. Thus, the commissioner’s comments about people not sticking around had to do with the fact that they did not want to get arrested at that time. 

In addition, Cosecha organizers did not want to have a conversation about sanctuary policies and ICE repression in Grand Rapids behind closed doors with specific commissioners. Cosecha’s approach to being in conversation with local elected officials is to invite them to a public forum where people can hear each other openly, rather than meeting behind closed doors, which limits accountability.

As a reminder, here are the sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are wanting the City and the County to adopt:

• 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.

These policies are vitally important, especially now when the $170 billion of addition funding for immigration enforcement is being spent throughout the country. These additional funds for ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies will mean more ICE agents and more resources, such as the recent news about ICE looking to rent additional office space in Grand Rapids, which I wrote about earlier this week.

We are at a critical juncture right now, so it is vitally important that we do whatever we can to be in solidarity with immigrants in this community and not succumb to fear. 

The Cosecha hosted community forum begins at 12:00pm, this Saturday, September 27. The forum will be held at the SECOM Resource Center located at 1545 Buchanan Ave. SW, Grand Rapids. Members of GR Rapid Response will be there as Crowd Safety to prevent ICE or police repression.