Grand Rapids City Commission meeting dominated by demands to adopt 6 sanctuary policies as activists shut down the commission chambers

One a night that was filled with irony and poor facilitation, during the last public comment period the primary topics were GRPD collaboration with ICE and Flock cameras.

I counted at least 21 people who spoke about the 6 sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding over the past 15 months. People talked about ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids, how the GRPD has been not only cooperating with ICE, but stoping people from attempting to interfere with ICE attempts to arrest and detain immigrants.

Other people spoke about public safety, about harm reduction, about supporting immigrant families and addressing the use of Flock cameras and how that type of surveillance systems puts everyone at risk.

The last person to speak read a statement on behalf of GR Rapid Response to ICE (see below) and when they finished the statement about 40 people stood up hold an enlarged photo of a GRPD officer collaborating with ICE to detain an immigrant, along with alternating chants “ICE and Cops go hand in hand” and “get the Flock off my block.”

After the activist refused to leave and continued to disrupt the City commission meeting, Mayor LaGrand decided to adjourn the meeting.

Statement by GR Rapid Response to ICE

As a volunteer organizer with GR Rapid Response to ICE, I, along with thousands of other people have been asking the City Commission to adopt the six sanctuary policies since January of 2025.

Since that time ICE has caused tremendous harm and separated hundreds of immigrant families living in Grand Rapids. We know this because we work directly with these families to provide Mutual Aid. We also know that ICE has attempted to arrest and detain many more immigrant families, but because of the work GR Rapid Response to ICE does, which is to disrupt the violence that ICE perpetrates, there have been fewer family separations and less family trauma.

By adopting the 6 sanctuary policies this commission would essentially be adopting harm reduction policies.

Unfortunately, since January of 2025 we have heard that adopting these sanctuary policies it would make Grand Rapids a target, we have also heard that there are likely pro-ICE people who haven’t communicated with this commission. We have also heard from the Mayor that he didn’t want to give immigrants a sense of false hope, and at other times we have heard that the city is already meeting some of these demands. Then at a recent commission meeting the Mayor said that even if they wanted to sign a 287g agreement city lawyers have told him that they couldn’t legally sign a 287g agreement. GR Rapid Response to ICE even sent an Email to the Mayor to provide some concrete evidence that signing a 287g agreement was not possible, but to date the Mayor has failed to respond to this simple request.

We have also heard from this commission that the GRPD is not collaborating with ICE, but we have witnessed on numerous occasions that they have, such as when a GRPD officer showed up at the same time as ICE to arrest and detain Byron Martinez, which we have on video that shows the GRPD officer directly assisting ICE. Mayor LaGrand has said repeatedly to let him know if GRPD is violating policy and directly cooperating with ICE. Countless community members have and he’s done nothing. But moreover, current policy has giant loopholes in that there are exceptions for “emergencies and supporting public safety”.

Now, we are fully aware of the fact that adopting the 6 sanctuary policies will not eliminate ICE violence in Grand Rapids, but we do believe that if the City of Grand Rapids doesn’t cooperate with ICE in any way and the GRPD doesn’t interfere with our efforts to prevent ICE from arresting and detaining immigrants that there will be less harm done by ICE in Grand Rapids.

Therefore, we are asking you once again to adopt these 6 sanctuary policies, to adopt these harm reduction policies, to practice immigrant solidarity and to be on the right side of history!