Merely observing the violence committed by ICE in Grand Rapids is not solidarity, it is performative white liberal feel good nonsense

Last month GR Rapid Response to ICE posted on social media a document entitled, GR Rapid Response to ICE statement on which groups we will work with. Part of that statement reads:

“A recent example of how white-led groups are ignoring or minimizing the importance of following the lead of affected communities and Movimiento Cosecha came to our attention when we found out that people were meeting at the Kent County Democratic Party headquarters. The purpose of this meeting was to create a separate group of “Peaceful Observers” who would position themselves near schools and other public places with the intent of documenting ICE activity.

The group that met at the Kent County Democratic Party headquarters included members of that political party, including Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand.

Movimineto Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE were not invited to that meeting, even though GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha have already been doing patrols in areas near schools and in neighborhoods, because affected communities have asked us to engage in patrolling, since affected community members have seen an increase in ICE activity in those areas.”

Well, the Peaceful Observers group is still moving forward and up til this writing has not communicated with Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE. The group also now has an online presence at https://www.grpeace.org/. Below is the information that group has posted on the site in italics, followed by my responses in bold.

We take no joy in saying, and hope we are wrong, but it appears that the United States is in serious peril—perhaps greater than at any time in living memory. If what ICE is doing is considered the greatest peril in living memory, then this centers whiteness and the white people involved. The genocidal against Indigenous people and the enslavement of Black people followed by decades of Jim Crow laws – just 2 examples – were worse than anything that is currently happening.

If we want to preserve a country grounded in justice and the value of every human life, we must act now. We cannot wait, and we cannot pretend we did not see the danger. The US is not now and has never been grounded in justice where everyone is valued. Believing this, is a reflection of the deeply privileged people who make up the Peaceful Observers group. ICE was created in 2003 and has been disappearing, detaining and deporting millions of immigrants since. The primary difference now is that they have a lot more funding that in pervious administrations.

The recent events in Minnesota are only the latest step down a dark road we must refuse to follow. Instead, we must choose another path: solidarity over fear, love and support over anger and reaction. Again, what happened in Minneapolis is not new per se, since immigrant communities have been criminalized, detained and deported since the Chinese Exclusion Act was adopted in 1882. See my History of US Immigration Policy slides linked here. I do agree with the comment about solidarity. 

There are lessons from Minneapolis—both what to emulate and what to avoid. From those lessons, we propose several guiding principles:

Trained, nonviolent observation matters. Accountability requires evidence, and evidence requires committed observers who follow a strict code: nonviolence, noninterference, and accurate reporting. The most troubling thing about what the Peaceful Observers group is doing is that they are doing nothing more than documenting the harm that ICE is committing in Grand Rapids. They explicitly say “noninterference.” How can you just witness ICE terrorizing immigrants and then not try to stop it. This is just the opposite of solidarity, since solidarity requires that we put ourselves at risk in order to prevent ICE from kidnapping, detaining and deporting immigrants.

Unity and clear identity are essential. A visible, organized group that can hold itself accountable is difficult to slander, misrepresent, or isolate. I find this statement strange. If they are merely observing and unwilling to interfere with ICE, then the notion of accountability sort of goes out the window.

We must move from rumor-driven reaction to steady presence. Community members working in shifts to monitor specific locations can reduce fear and prevent escalation. This statement is also somewhat strange and troubling. If the Peaceful Observers group is unwilling to call the GR Rapid Response to ICE hotline when they see ICE and are unwilling to interfere when ICE attempts to kidnap immigrants how will that “reduce fear and prevent escalation?”

None of us can delegate this responsibility. Democracy depends on all of us. This work carries cost and risk, but the opposite of fear is not safety—it is courage. The greatest danger in moments like this is complacency. The rhetoric here is sort of nice, but if Peaceful Observers volunteers are unwilling to interfere and disrupt the ability of ICE to kidnap and detain immigrants then there is nothing courageous about what they are proposing to do.

We, as GR Peaceful Observers, form a coalition of willing community members committed to peaceful, transparent, unified observation and support to keep our neighbors in our community and the threat of ICE away. Again, merely observing will not keep immigrants safe from ICE.

One thing that I find instructive in what the Peaceful Observers have articulated is that they never use the word immigrants or undocumented immigrants. Why are they not centering the very people/communities that ICE is targeting? If they had been working with Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE they would surely be centering the lived experience of immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants. However, since they have refused to work with these groups they have decided that as white people that they know what is best and are indeed perpetuating white saviorism.

As someone who has been working directly with political refugees and undocumented immigrants facing state terrorism in Grand Rapids since the early 1980s I would encourage people to take one of the GR Rapid Response to ICE trainings, which you can find on their Facebook page or send them an Email to info@grrapidresponsetoice.org.

Taking a GR Rapid Response to ICE training prepares people to be involved in the following work:

• Operating a hotline for people who are being threatened by ICE
• Rapid Response to ICE activity with trained people
• Patrols in neighborhoods
• Accompaniment for immigrants to appointments to reduce the risk of being taken by ICE
• Monitoring ICE activity in Grand Rapids
• Working with Movimiento Cosecha on local policy issues
• Mutual Aid support – legal, material, financial, transportation and offering sanctuary

Why would you want to merely observe the violence of ICE, when you can participate in any or all of these ways of being in solidarity with immigrants?

I want to end with another excerpt from the statement put out by GR Rapid Response to ICE recently, which says:

Lastly, we want to say that GR Rapid Response to ICE is not a humanitarian gesture. It is a political intervention rooted in a material understanding of power. In the context of ICE raids, deportations, and carceral violence, to show up is not to perform rescue, but to participate in collective resistance. This is why we say we are not protesting ICE, rather we are resisting ICE.