Profits over people: The GR Chamber of Commerce meets in secret to discuss immigration policies

According to a Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article earlier this month, “The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce recently held a closed-door meeting for businesses to voice concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”

Has the GR Chamber of Commerce decided to stand with Movimiento Cosecha and make demands about ICE not kidnapping immigrants from Kent County? Are the businesses that are part of the GR Chamber of Commerce going to declare their business spaces sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants and share the GR Rapid Response to ICE hotline number with their employees?

Not so fast.

Again, the Crain’s article stated:

The Chamber co-hosted the ninth annual Global Talent Chamber Network Convening in late September with Global Detroit in downtown Grand Rapids. The event was closed to the media, giving business owners a “safe place” for companies to say how they’re at risk of losing workers and customers, chamber leaders say.

GR Chamber spokesperson Omar Cuevas commented that, “We can not have policy that impacts growth. That is anti-business.” I see, so it’s about money, specifically money that will impact businesses who are members of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.

The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the American Immigration Council, a pro-business immigration entity to publish reports on the economic benefit of immigrants in Kent County. GRIID wrote an article about this report and how the GR Chamber is only interested in immigrant workers making money for the businesses that make up the membership of the GR Chamber of Commerce.

GR Chamber spokesperson Omar Cuevas emphasizing the point about economic impact of immigrants by saying: “We want to figure out how to maximize this talent where individuals are coming to our community with foreign degrees and certifications and work experience for jobs that we have open today.”

The Crain’s article does cite someone from the American Immigration Council who is the only person who mentions ICE, but no one from the GR Chamber of Commerce mentions the level of ICE terrorism in Kent County, which has been documented.

What the GR Chamber of Commerce is concerned about is the bottom line of the businesses that make up the GR Chamber of Commerce, not the level of fear that immigrants are experiencing because of ICE terrorism. In fact, the GR Chamber of Commerce is only concerned with immigrants who come with degrees or those who come through the H-1B program.

I get that Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reports on business issues, but that doesn’t mean they ignore groups like Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE, which are on the front lines of the fight against the federal government’s targeting of undocumented immigrants. After all, undocumented immigrants pick the food that businesses rely on, work in the kitchens and hotels for low wages and do an increasing amount of construction work that make roads and buildings possible, all of which businesses depend on. Maybe they ought to give a shit about undocumented immigrant workers and not just about expanding their profits.