With persistence Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE got Mayor LaGrand to agree to work towards prohibiting a 287g policy

Last night Mayor LaGrand hosted one of his Mayor’s Monday conversation around the theme of justice and policing.

The community forum was held at the Lincoln Park pavilion, which is also the office space for the neighborhood association. I counted 28 people in attendance, which included the Mayor, City commissioner Belchak, County Commissioner Womack and a few neighborhood association staff members.

The major of the rest of the people in attendance were members of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE. The Mayor spoke for the first 30 minutes, talking about related matters, but often in vague terms using made up scenarios and not really addressing the theme of justice and policing.

Mayor LaGrand did talk about moving from a punishment-based system to a system that embraces restorative justice, where victims of harm are centered. Gema Lowe with Cosecha said that she appreciated centering the idea of victims, which is exactly why she came to the meeting. The undocumented immigrant community is being terrorized by ICE right now and she asked the Mayor if he would make any sort of commitment to adopting the 6 sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response the ICE have been demanding since January.

Other Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE members also talked about how they have witnessed the GRPD cooperate with ICE when ICE is targeting undocumented immigrants. Mayor LaGrand said he believed that this was not happening, despite first hand accounts.

Several other people continued to press the Mayor on these issues, while others talked about why it is important for the Mayor to take a public position on this matters in support of immigrants who are being terrorized. Several people were clear about the fact that adopting the 6 sanctuary policies would not stop ICE from terrorizing immigrants, but it would send a powerful message to immigrants that the City of grand Rapids would not cooperate or assist ICE in arresting and detaining immigrants.

At one point someone began referring to ICE as the wolf that is terrorizing immigrants around the country and then Mayor LaGrand said that the wolf was not here in Grand Rapids. Immediately people pushed back on that comment stating that ICE is very active in the Grand Rapids area, arresting people, and separating families by sending the to the detention center in Baldwin, MI.

Another person then urged the Mayor to have the guts to take a stand on this, call a press conference at say that he and the City of Grand Rapids would not cooperate with ICE to terrorize undocumented immigrants.

Just before the meeting ended, Mayor LaGrand said he would be willing to talk more about these demands and specifically said he would be willing to talk with City Commissioners about adopting a policy that would prevent Grand Rapids from entering into a 287g agreement with ICE, which I have written about at length.

While many people were frustrated during the meeting, in the end it was the persistence of those who showed up that resulted in Mayor LaGrand making a verbal commitment to looking at the demands and a willingness to prohibit the GRPD from being deputized by ICE to enforce federal immigration laws, also known as a 287g policy.

I will certainly continue to write about this issue to see if Mayor LaGrand will follow up on his verbal commitments made during the meeting on Monday night.