Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding that ICE be abolished, while some local Indivisible groups want to merely reform ICE

Ever since Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE were founded in 2017, they have been clear that the function of ICE is to terrorize immigrant families, to separate immigrant families and cause lifelong trauma to immigrant families.

These two groups have been on the ground in Kent County for nearly a decade resisting ICE and providing community care to families that have already been harmed by ICE. These two groups do educational work, outreach work, have a hotline for people to call when they are being threatened by ICE, provide accompaniment, do daily patrols, monitor ICE activity, connect families with legal resources, material and financial support, transportation and offer sanctuary to individuals and families that no longer feel safe where they live.

Movimiento Cosecha does these things because they are part of the affected community (they are immigrant-led) and GR Rapid Response to ICE does these things because they follow the lead of Movimiento Cosecha and affected communities.

The problem now is that there are groups like Indivisible Great Grand Rapids (IGGR) who don’t listen to the affected communities and don’t follow the lead of Movimiento Cosecha GR to demand that ICE be abolished. Instead, IGGR (in their weekly newsletter) is asking their members – people who are not being threatened by ICE – to adopt the so-called reforms that are being pushed by the Democratic Party, which I will list below. However, it must be stated first that Indivisible groups have existed since Donald Trump won the election in 2016. They are essentially a Democratic Party front group. I say this because after Biden was elected Indivisible was no where to be found. After Donald Trump was elected again in 2024 Indivisible magically re-appeared.

What Movimiento Cosecha has said all along is that under Democratic Administrations immigrants are also being arrested, detained and deported. ICE violence doesn’t stop when Democrats occupy the White House or control Congress, it continues with millions of immigrants being arrested, detained and deported. The following so-called ICE reforms will not end family separation, trauma and harm for immigrants, but it will make those who are not being terrorized by ICE feel better because the optics of ICE won’t seem so cruel.

Here is the list of reforms from the Democratic Party that are highlighted, followed by my response.

• Requiring a judicial warrant to enter private property (as the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment already requires) – this sounds nice, but ICE tactics have been to wait til people they are after leave their house/apartment and then apprehend them and send them to a detention center.
• Verification of non-citizenship before detention and banning racial profiling and profiling based on job, language, and accent – again, this sounds nice, but immigrants from the global south have been racially profiled ever since the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. US immigration practices is rooted in racial profiling and simply verifying non-citizenship will not stop ICE from racial profiling.
• Prohibiting immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and requiring them to wear ID and body-worn cameras – this is all about optics and does nothing to stop ICE from terrorizing immigrants. Making ICE have badges and not covering their faces makes white people feel better, but will do nothing to prevent ICE from arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants.
• Prohibiting arrests at hospitals, schools, daycares, churches, polling places, and courts – a nice sentiment, but why limit ICE from arresting immigrants at just these locations? Terrorizing immigrants at their homes, their workplaces or when they are out shopping and going to the pharmacy are equally cruel. Again, this demand is about optics and makes white people feel better about ICE .
• Allowing states to investigate potential crimes committed by DHS and to sue DHS over detention conditions, and requiring state coordination for large-scale operations – This isn’t a bad idea, but how will this be enforced? Also, we know that local police are cooperative with ICE all around the country, so will people/communities be able to sue local police departments for assisting ICE in their terrorizing of immigrants?
• Safeguards including immediate access to attorneys for detainees, allowing states to sue DHS for violations, and unlimited congressional access to ICE facilities – also not a bad idea, but why didn’t Democrats demand this during the Biden and Obama Administrations? Immigrant detainees were being mistreated and many of them died under those administrations as well.
• Prohibit tracking and databases of individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment – Again, these activities have happened under Democratic Administrations, plus government surveillance of people in the US has been happening for a very long time regardless of who sits in the White House.
• Codification and enforcement of a use of force policy – Use of force policies by ICE and local law enforcement always protects the cops. This is why groups like Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE use the phrase – ICE and Cops go hand in hand. The carceral state has always used the threat of force to manage populations, especially BIPOC populations, so simply codifying use of force policies will provide even greater legal protections for ICE and local cops.

As a white ally and accomplice in the struggle for immigrant justice, I call on other white people and white-led groups like IGGR to stop using partisan politics to direct your actions and follow the lead of immigrant communities that are demanding that ICE be abolished now!!!