No Justice, No Peace is not just a slogan, but a strategic and tactical approach to resisting systems of oppression like ICE

A common chant that can be heard at protests and rallies is, No Justice, No Peace. This phrase generally conveys the idea that if people don’t get the justice they deserve the the system of oppression that is being confronted will not be allowed to continue without disruption, without resistance.

The students from Southwest Middle High School used this same chant during their walkout last Friday. As I stated in a an article, the students shared stories about the harm and violence committed by ICE, with some of them talking about family separation that they have witnessed themselves. This is the injustice that they are experiencing, thus our response should be to not let ICE, their collaborators or the politicians that defend them have another moment of peace.

Resisting ICE in Kent County

ICE has been in Kent County since 2003. They currently have 3 offices and will soon have a fourth office. ICE has been arresting, detaining and deporting members of the affected community since 2003. The difference today is that they now have more funding, since Congress voted to give them billions more in funding.

Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been resisting ICE since 2017 in the following ways.

They have a hotline for people being targeted by ICE, with tips on what to do if ICE comes to their home, their workplace, their children’s school or anywhere else in the community. People can call that number to give GR Rapid Response to ICE information about where ICE is, then deploy people who have been trained to directly intervene with the goal of preventing ICE from taking people.

Since June 4th, when ICE agents arrested and detained at least 8 immigrants who were going to their appointments at the ISAP office, GR Rapid Response to ICE has offered to accompany people who have those kind of appointments to make sure that they get to those meetings safety without being taken by ICE. People can call the hotline number to request people to accompany them.

GR Rapid Response to ICE has also been doing patrols in neighborhoods where ICE has been spotted, with teams of people in vehicles monitoring ICE activity and calling the hotline if ICE is getting ready to arrested someone. This is one way that people can potentially preempt ICE from taking people.

GR Rapid Response to ICE does regular monitoring of the 517 Ottawa NW ICE office, which is their deployment office. That office has a holding cell and when ICE arrests immigrants from our community they process them in at the 517 Ottawa office. Once people have been processed in they are then taken to the ICE Detention facility in Baldwin, Michigan. GR Rapid Response to ICE monitors this office to determine how many ICE agents are out in the community at any given time, based on the number of vehicles there are at the office, along with documenting the types of vehicles, etc.

In addition, GR Rapid Response to ICE does safety work when members of the affected community or agencies that provide social services to affected communities want people there to provide security during a celebration or community benefit event. This is why GR Rapid Response to ICE people were providing safety during the student walkout last Friday, to make sure ICE did that threaten the students who were demanding that ICE be abolished!

Then there is all of the Mutual Aid work that GR Rapid Response to ICE offers. They have connected families with legal support, provide transportation to people who do not feel safe going to the grocery store and anywhere else in the community, provide material support like food or diapers, financial support for families who have little or no income coming in because the primary income earner is in detention, and they offer sanctuary for families who no longer feel safe where they live.

GR Rapid Response to ICE also offers an educational workshop on the history of US Immigration policy, which provides important historical context for what ICE is doing right now. This history demonstrates that the US has engaged in mass deportation previously and has discriminated primarily against non-European immigrants attempting to come to the US. People can schedule that workshop by sending an Email to info@grrapidresponsetoice.org.

Then there is the campaigns that Movimiento Cosecha has to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt 6 specific sanctuary policies that are public safety policies, but also make it clear that the City and the County will not cooperate of collaborate with ICE. Currently, it is well documented that the City and the County are cooperating and collaborating with ICE.

These campaigns not only include demands, but are designed to pressure politicians and to disrupt business as usual, like the civil disobedience that people did on January 5th in order to pressure the county to not engage in holds at the Kent County Jail for ICE.

All of these things listed here are designed to disrupt business as usual and to resist ICE repression. It is a manifestation of the chant No Justice, No Peace. It is a strategic and tactical approach to fulfilling the idea that if people don’t have justice, then we will not allow entities like ICE or the institutions and politicians that defend them to have any peace. Join the resistance!