Those resisting ICE in Kent County showed up to the home of the Chairman of the Kent County Commission to demand he adopt sanctuary policies

On Saturday, in the early afternoon about 20 people went to the home of the Chair of the Kent County Commission – Ben Greene – to push demands that he and his fellow commissioners adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding over the past 14 months.

Those who participated in the action had handheld sign, noisemakers, and a few homemade yard signs that were left behind to send a message to Commissioner Greene, to neighbors and motorists passing by his house.

Earlier on in the action two people went up to the front door to deliver a letter to Commissioner Greene, which had a place for him to sign and commit to adopting the 6 sanctuary policies and get his fellow commissioners to do the same, which you can see here.

After several knocks on the door Commissioner Greene did come out and asked what was happening. Someone who was delivering the letter and attempting to get the Commissioner to sign said, “we are providing you an opportunity to publicly support the campaign from Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE to agree to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies the community has asked you to adopt.” Greene took the letter and then said, “Thanks for this. Let me look it over and get back to you.”

For the next twenty minutes people continued to hols sign, participate in a series of chants and continue to send a message to Commissioner Greene that he leads to be a real leader and agree to adopt these policies that would prevent Kent County from cooperating or collaborating with ICE in any way.

Those 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.

This action will be followed by having people attend the Kent County Commission meeting this Thursday, March 12 at 8:30am and continue to demand that they adopt these policies that would contribute to limiting the horrors that ICE is in inflicting in Kent County.

Movimiento Cosecha also taped the entire action, which you can find here.