Responses from Grand Rapids City officials on the matter of the GRPD killing of Da’Quain Johnson and sanctuary policies

On Tuesday night during the Grand Rapids City Commission meeting there were at least 20 people who spoke during public comment period about the GRPD killing of Da’Quain Johnson and the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding for the past 15 months.

Those who spoke covered a lot of ground, with some talking about witnessing the GRPD collaborating with ICE, while others listed the demands that the mother of Da’Quain Johnson has put forth. There was also one important question put to the City Commission and the question was – Who’s decision was it to give these police officers their anonymity?

You can watch for yourself in the video of Tuesday night’s meeting all of the responses from Grand Rapids City officials, beginning at 1:55:40.

Commissioner Kilgore – I don’t take what was for granted, what people said tonight. I went to the No Kings Rally. He also claims that action will come later this summer around the issue of officer involved shootings.

Commissioner Knight – I appreciate the voices that are lifted up. Wish we could make things happen with a snap. We want justice to be served, but we have to wait patiently to see what is next. Grateful for the Officer Involved Shooting presentation earlier today.

Commissioner Perdue – She responded to the question “where have you been and do you care? I have been here and I do care. I work on policy and advocate for changes. List of accomplishments in the private and public sector. Sanctuary City conversation – will be putting the city in more dangerous for affected people if adopting Sanctuary City status. Called for changes on Civilian Review Board and Canine Unit practices…….. My point is that it is impossible for you all to keep up with what we do. I do 3rd Ward talks in order to have conversations.

Commissioner Belchak – we need to start talking with each other as if we were actually people. We need to grow into a leadership roles, in all kinds of ways. We have to hold tension. We need to not jump to conclusions. We have to listen to each other and I’m sorry if it feels like a brick wall. If we want trust, then we need to resolve trauma. We need to open our minds to accept another possibilities.

City Manager Mark Washington – thanks the GRPD for their presentation on officer involved shootings. People got to be reasonable. “We can’t expect police officers to be fired upon, charged with weapons and not respond. It is unrealistic to do that. They have the right to use deadly force when they feel like their lives or others are at risk.”

Mayor LaGrand – He talked about owning a radar gun to track speeds in Grand Rapids for about 2 minutes, but said absolutely nothing about the GRPD killing of Da’Quain Johnson.

On the matter of the six sanctuary policies, the Mayor said that a couple of those don’t apply to the city. Those are really county or jail policies. We don’t have 287g policies and we can’t have them. City officials could not even sign off on a 287g policies. (This is the first time that the Mayor has made this claim, yet he provides no concrete evidence that it is true.) We have non-cooperation policies with ICE. (Here he is referring to the Foreign Nationals policy, which does include language about cooperating with ICE if public safety is at risk) If people think they see violations of this then they can go to OPA and those complaints will be investigated. We do indeed have sanctuary policies, with similar language to cities that are sanctuaries and I would be happy to talk to anyone about that.

What Mayor LaGrand said on Tuesday was similar to what he said in January in response to pressure from the community to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies. (See those policies below)

Look politicians can use whatever rhetoric they want, but this means little while immigrants in this city and this county are living in constant fear, while immigrant families are being separated in this community, while immigrant children are being traumatized by seeing a parent taken away, and while immigrant families find themselves in a position of economic hardship, because the primary income earners have been taken by ICE.

Equally important is the fact that members of Cosecha and GR Rapid Response have witnessed the GRPD and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department cooperate and collaborate with ICE, along with documented evidence, reflected in the photo above. You can engage in as much rhetoric as you want and have police policies that the city decided on, but the reality is that the City and the County are collaborating with ICE on a regular basis and that collaboration is causing real harm.

Lastly, the evolution of how Mayor LaGrand has responded to these demands to adopt 6 sanctuary policies is instructive. In January of 2025, when the community generated over 3,000 letters to the City, LaGrand said that he wasn’t hearing from the immigrant community. This is absurd, since Cosecha’s members are part of the immigrant community.

In March of 2025, during another GR City Commission meeting, the Mayor said he didn’t want to give immigrants a false sense of hope.

In May, during the annual May Day march that Cosecha organizes, the GRPD threatened people with arrest before they marched and the arrested two people who were doing crowd safety.

In June, the GRPD showed up to harass and threaten members of GR Rapid Response to ICE that showed up when ICE arrested 8 people going to their appointments at the ISAP office at 545 Michigan.

In late July, people spoke for 2 hours during the City Commission meeting and then engaged in street theater and other forms of disruption, where Mayor LaGrand threatened to have people arrested if they didn’t leave. In September, Mayor LaGrand said some awful stuff about Cosecha and the sanctuary policy demands, which was followed up by a forum hosted by Cosecha where all City and Kent County Commissioners were invited to hear directly from immigrants affected by ICE violence. Because the low commissioner turnout, Cosecha then began a campaign to boycott the businesses owned by Mayor LaGrand beginning in October.  This action was followed up by a second action that was at another Long Road Distillers location in November.

In December, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE attended an event hosted by Mayor LaGrand, which resulted in him giving a verbal commitment to talking with city commissioners about adopting sanctuary policies. Now Mayor LaGrand is saying that the city is fulfilling some of the demands from Cosecha. So, what’s next? Will the Mayor start claiming that he and the GRPD are actually keeping immigrants safe from ICE?