Resolution to have East Grand Rapids not cooperate with ICE does not get adopted, instead they will post FAQs from the EGR Police Department

On Monday night the East Grand Rapids (EGR) City Commission voted to not adopt a proposed resolution that would not permit the East Grand Rapids Police Department and other city departments to cooperative with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The resolution, which had been proposed at a previous EGR meeting and reads as follows:

1. The documented and enforced policies and procedures of the Department of Public Safety shall specifically

a. Include “immigration status” as a named protected class in its Fair and Impartial Policing Policy; and

b. Prohibit officers and representatives from contributing resources or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities including, but not limited to:

i. Riding along with federal immigration and customs enforcement officers;

ii. Conducting joint investigations with federal immigration and customs

enforcement officers; or

iii. Sharing investigative information with federal immigration and customs enforcement officers.

2. The City shall not use, nor provide for use, any public land, facilities or other resources for the establishment of a federal immigration and customs enforcement detention center.

3. The City shall not enter into any 287(g) agreement with federal immigration and customs enforcement agencies.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT:

We call on the Kent County Sheriff to immediately cease compliance with any and all detainers issued by federal immigration and customs enforcement agencies and refrain from holding any person in detention at the request of federal immigration and customs enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigating immigration status or securing their presence for immigration enforcement actions.

Before the public was allowed to comment on the resolution, the EGR Police Chief gave a brief presentation about what the department already does. The Chief of Police published FAQ on ICE/immigration related matters, which you can find here, along with the March 2nd agenda, the resolution, the FAQs and other EGR Public Safety-related procedures.

The EGR Chief of Police expressed that he didn’t think the resolution was necessary, since his department already doesn’t cooperate with ICE.

Public comment period was then opened and of the 21 people who spoke on the proposed resolution, 19 were in favor and only 2 were opposed, which is a ratio that has been similar in Grand Rapids. The comments that supported the resolution were based on demonstrating compassion for immigrants, the cruelty that ICE has been inflicting around the country, the realities of what people have heard coming out of the GEO Group-owned ICE Detention Center in Baldwin, people’s faith which calls on them to welcome the stranger and to simply not want to see the horror that ICE has inflicted in communities like Minneapolis recently.

The elected officials and the City Manager then spoke about the resolution. Some commissioners asked specific questions of the Police Chief, while others addressed questions to the City Attorney.

The Police Chief said that the only way our cops would cooperate would be if ICE has a signed judicial warrant. This is a response that is often given, as if having a judicial warrant makes what ICE is doing any less repressive and unjust. The City Attorney stated that the resolution would not have the same weight as an ordinance, stating he was not sure what the resolution would actually do.

At one point, in response to a commissioner’s question the Police Chief said his reading of the proposed resolution would limit some things that his department would do. He followed up those comments by saying that his department would cooperate with ICE in order to keep the peace. This is similar to the City of Grand Rapids and their Foreign National’s Policy, which states:

The policy 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. 

There were two EGR Commissioners that spoke out emphatically against the proposed resolution, arguing that they would not support the resolution as they did not want to tie the hands of the EGR police and did not want to make East Grand Rapids a target of ICE. This is also a common retort from people who are not being targeted by ICE. What Movimineto Cosecha says is that they are constantly being threatened by ICE and have been since ICE was created in 2003. Making a public statement in solidarity with undocumented immigrants is a statement of solidarity.

In the end the East Grand Rapids City Commission did not vote on the proposed resolution, but it did decide to post the FAQs that were created by the Police Department, which is not a statement of solidarity with members of the affected communities, undocumented immigrants.

The only news coverage was from WXMI 17, which acknowledged that the majority of those who spoke during public comment were in favor of the resolution. However, the only public comment that viewers heard in the story was from a person who opposed the resolution. In addition, most of the voices heard in the Fox 17 news story were the Police Chief and the City Attorney, both of whom were not in favor of the resolution.