Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE members go on a Tour of Shame to confront state legislators that want to criminalize support for undocumented immigrants

Early Saturday morning, members of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE gathered to take part in what they were calling a Tour of Shame. A caravan of cars visited State Representatives Bryan Posthumus and Angela Rigas, since both of the were co-sponsors of several bills that would punish solidarity with immigrants.

In April I wrote about these bills when they were first introduced, stating:

House Bills 4336 & 4337 create criminal penalties for individuals and organizations who knowingly assist or encourage immigrants without legal status in entering, residing, or being transported within the United States.

House Bills 4338, 4339, and 4342 prohibit a local municipality from enacting or enforcing any policy that limits communication or cooperation with federal officials concerning immigration. Any existing policy that governs how a municipality cooperates with federal immigration enforcement would be voided. Any municipality that violates these laws would have their state funding withheld.

When the group arrived in Rockford at the address for Rep. Posthumus they discovered that this was not his home, but an address he used during his last campaign for State Representative, a tactic that politicians often use to get elected in districts they don’t even live in.

Undeterred, the group then went to the  home of Rep. Angela Rigas in Alto, Michigan. The address was the correct one for Rep. Rigas who was home with members of her family. The group attempted to get Rigas to come out and have a discussion with them, along with attempting to get a commitment from her to retract her co-sponsorship of the bills mentioned above.

Rep. Rigas would not come out, so the group attached the document to her front door – shown here above), a document which read:

Rep. Rigas, we demand that you retract your co-sponsorship of Michigan House Bills 4336, 4337, 4338, 4339 and 4342, all of which will increase the terrorism being perpetrated by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents and criminalize anyone who shows any compassion or demonstrates any solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Shame on you for co-sponsoring these abhorrent bills. We are giving you the opportunity to change your position and support undocumented immigrants by signing this document.

Sign here _________________

It document ended with this sentence: The following people are already showing compassion towards undocumented immigrants and they will defy the Michigan bills that you have endorsed. There were numerous people who signed the document.

The group also place some homemade yard signs, seen here on the right. After continued chanting and calls to have her come out to talk and sign the document, Re. Rigas eventually opened the inner door, but slide the top window of her storm door down to tell everyone to leave. One activist made the point that this display of protesting was nothing compared to what immigrant families go through when ICE shows up to take a family member, regularly with force and often at gunpoint. When ICE shows up it is always violent, where immigrant families are traumatized for the rest of their lives.

About 5 minutes after Rep. Rigas refused to talk with those confronting her on co-sponsorship of terrible pieces of legislation a guy in a truck came down the road – a narrow road – and tried to hit people with his sideview mirrors. This same guy parked his truck and walked towards the home of Rep. Rigas and told everyone to leave. The guy went in the house briefly and then came outside and sat on the porch filming everyone there. This white dude had a decal (shown here on the left) attached to the window of his truck that was right behind the driver’s seat.

The action at the home of Rep. Rigas lasted about an hour, when Cosecha organizers decided it was time to go as the action accomplished what it set out to do.

The last stop on the tour brought the caravan to the home State Senator Winnie Brinks. Now, Brinks had nothing to do with the proposed bills that would criminalize acts of compassion and solidarity with immigrants, but as Michigan Senate Majority Leader she said nothing to condemn these bills. What Cosecha decided to do was to offer Sen. Brinks a gift by sharing pro-immigrant legislation that was introduced in New Jersey, the Immigrant Trust Act shown here below. In all, the Tour of Shame was a success and demonstrated that the public can confront politicians outside of the stale and anti-democratic spaces that local and state governments are made up of.