What are the Sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding from Grand Rapids and Kent County? Part II

This is the second in a series that will further examine the various sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding that the City of Grand Rapids and the Kent County Commission adopt. In Part I last week I looked at the policy that allows officers to provide assistance to federal immigration authorities when there is an emergency that poses an immediate danger to public safety or federal agents.

Today I will look at policies that would prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention. Kent County used to have a contract with ICE that began in 2012, a contract you can read here.

In 2012, then Sheriff Stelma agreed to a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a contract that saw an increase in arrests, detentions and deportation during the Obama administration and the subsequent Trump administration. In 2017, Kent County signed an extension of the ICE contract, a contract which provided financial incentives for the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff Stelma signed onto a letter from the National Sheriff’s Association in March of 2018, which is more of an ideological statement about immigration. Part of that letter reads:

Congress must act to pass legislation to secure our borders through enforcing immigration laws, tightening border security, support the replacement and upgrades to current barriers and fencing and construction of barriers along the U.S. and Mexico international boundary as requested by those areas where it is needed, suspending and/or monitoring the issuance of visas to any place where adequate vetting cannot occur, end criminal cooperation and shelter in cities, counties, and states, and have zero tolerance and increased repercussions for criminal aliens. I stand firm with my fellow Sheriffs throughout our nation to have our borders secured first, in full cooperation and support of our promise and mission to uphold and enforce our nation’s laws, and we expect nothing less from Congress.

During the entire time that Kent County had their contract with ICE, they were getting money from ICE to hold immigrants at the Kent County Jail until ICE took them to a detention facility. ICE paid the Kent County Sheriff’s Department per person and per day, so there was a financial incentive for them to cooperate with ICE.

After the Jilmar Ramos Gomez scandal, where a former US Marine was picked up by ICE in Grand Rapids after the GRPD called ICE on him, the Kent County Sheriff’s Department was forced to require ICE to get a judicial warrant in order to hold someone for them. The Trump Administration responded to this by referring to Kent County as a sanctuary county.

Kent County Sheriff LaJoye-Young took issue with ICE calling the County’s policy a “Sanctuary Policy.” IN the MLive article, the Kent County Sheriff is quoted as saying:

“We are not a ‘sanctuary’ department. I have no intention in being a shield for someone to avoid being held responsible for criminal violations to include criminal immigration violations.”

In June of 2018, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE had began a campaign to end that contract and were successful in ending that contract in 2019, which is documented here.

While the ICE contracted ended in the fall of 2019, the Kent County Sheriff’s Department continued to cooperate with ICE, by notifying ICE that an undocumented immigrant was in the jail and often times holding immigrants at the jail until ICE could take them to a detention facility. This practice of cooperation continues at the present moment between the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and ICE.

Many immigrant families and several immigration lawyers have shared stories with Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE about how an immigrant family member was in the Kent County jail for some minor infraction and were then scheduled to be released. Families would go to pick up their loved ones at the Kent County Jail only to find out that ICE was contacted by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and ICE took them just after the jail had released.

This is why Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have a campaign to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt sanctuary policies, because having policies like not cooperating with ICE to hold immigrants in the jail until ICE takes them clearly causes family separation and trauma.

In Part III, I will look at policies that could prevent immigration detention centers from being established in Grand Rapids.