Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE kickoff a Boycott Mayor LaGrand campaign over his refusal to adopt sanctuary policies in Grand Rapids

Nearly 30 people gathered today outside of the West Leonard bar known as Long Road Distillers to kickoff a campaign to pressure Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand who is a co-owner of the business.

Since January Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been pressuring the City of Grand Rapids to adopt several sanctuary policies, policies that would solidify the city’s commitment to not cooperate with ICE and the businesses that profit from ICE arrests, detentions and deportations.

Here are the sanctuary policies:

• 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.

The City of Grand Rapids has chosen to ignore these demands, despite the fact that there have been dozens of immigrant families impacted by ICE violence. Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to give immigrants a false sense of hope, plus the Mayor has even referred to the sanctuary policy demands as “silly” and “bizarre.”

Two weeks ago, Cosecha invited Mayor LaGrand, the other City Commissioners, along with all 21 Kent County Commissioners to a community forum to hear from immigrants directly affected by ICE. Mayor LaGrand chose to not attend, as did most of the other commissioners.

During the Boycott Campaign kickoff held on Saturday, someone read the following statement:

Since Mayor LaGrand has chosen to ignore these sanctuary policy demands, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are calling for a boycott of all the businesses and properties that Mayor LaGrand has ownership in.

We stand here in front of Long Road Distillers today, which Mayor LaGrand partially owns and call on people to not spend their money here or purchase Long Road Distillers products, which are sold in many retail stores. We also call on people to Boycott the Long Road Distillers at 959 Cherry St in Grand Rapids, which is called the Less Traveled, and the Long Road Distillers in Grand Haven.

Additionally, Mayor LaGrand owns a 3 unit apartment building at 151 Prospect St NE, Grand Rapids, MI and a 6 unit apartment building at 21 Gay St SE, Grand Rapids, MI. Boycott these places by not renting from Mayor LaGrand. Mayor LaGrand also owns Marshall St LLC, Inc: A company owning a warehouse at 1600 Marshall St SE, Grand Rapids, MI, and a warehouse at 1750 Elizabeth Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI. Boycott these spaces by not renting space there.

Boycotts have been an effective tactic used by countless social movements throughout history, and affecting Mayor LaGrand’s ability to make money is what it will take for him to meet the Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE demands for the City of Grand Rapids to adopt the sanctuary policies presented to them at the beginning of the year.

However, boycotts are only effective if we can get as many people to not only commit to not buying Long Road Distillers products and going to their three locations in West Michigan, we need people to get their friends, neighbors coworkers and anyone else who wants to practice immigrant solidarity right now to join the boycott as well. If you are part of an organization, a church, a community group or a labor union, we encourage those groups to publicly endorse the boycott!

Those participating in the boycott action stood outside of the Long Road Distillers making noise and disrupting business as usual using several chants like:

“Mayor LaGrand where do you stand?

Sanctuary policies Now!”

Movimiento Cosecha live-streamed the action, which you can view here.

We know that ICE will be adding more agents in Grand Rapids, which means ICE terrorism will only increase. We need to collectively resist ICE terrorism and practice immigrant solidarity, and this boycott is one way to get involved!