The 5 arrested at Kent County Sheriff’s Office over ICE holds at the Kent County Jail plead not guilty at their arraignment

Editors note: I was one of the five that was arrested on January 5th.

On Wednesday, the five people who were arrested on January 5th for occupying the Kent County Sheriff’s office to draw attention to the fact that Kent County is holding immigrants at the jail for ICE, plead not guilty to the charge of trespass.

“We all plead not guilty because in our minds were engaging in an act of harm reduction, specifically to reduce the number of immigrants who end up in ICE custody in Kent County. The Kent County Sheriff’s Office through the Kent County Jail is holding people at the jail for ICE, which then transfers them to a detention center. Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young has refused to publicly acknowledge that her officers are collaborating with ICE to hold immigrants in the jail for ICE agents. This often happens after family members and supporters pay money to bond them out, but then are told that the jail will not release them, since they are holding then for ICE.

According to a recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative, “the federal government nonetheless relies heavily on state and local collaboration to enact its mass deportation agenda.” We have know for months now that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the Kent County Jail, has been holding immigrants for ICE. ICE then sends them to the detention center in Baldwin, Michigan resulting in immigrant family separation and immigrant family trauma.

The five of us acted in solidarity with the affected community and were following the lead of Movimiento Cosecha to engage in a non-violent act by occupying the Kent County Sheriff’s office. The five of us acted to draw attention and to apply more pressure to Kent County officials to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding since the beginning of 2025.”

The six sanctuary policies are:

• 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 county 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 Kent County, which would include the use of the Kent County Jail as a detention facility for ICE.
• A policy that will not allow the Kent County Sheriff’s Department to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by county staff with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.

We are also inviting other allies/accomplices in the struggle for immigrant justice to be part of this movement and to take bold actions with us in the future to resist ICE in Grand Rapids and Kent County.

Movimiento Cosecha hosted a short online discussion with the 5 arrested, where they shared why they were willing to risk arrest. You can watch that discussion here.