The Sheriff’s Office locked the doors to the public entrance of the jail to deter people demanding an end to ICE holds in Kent County

During Tuesday night’s Cosecha action at the Kent County Jail people encountered something that had never happened before for a protest at the jail. The doors leading into the jail where people come for visits or to post bond for people being held at the jail were locked.

When Cosecha organized an End the Contract with ICE campaign back in 2018, they held several rallies in front of the jail and even occupied the main lobby of the jail in 2019.

In January of 2025, Cosecha began a campaign to get the Kent County Commission to adopt 6 sanctuary policies, which has included protests at the Kent County Jail and the Administrative Offices of the Kent County Sheriff in early November and again just days before Thanksgiving.

Then in January of this year five people were arrested at the Kent County Sheriff’s Office to draw attention to the 6 sanctuary policies and the fact that the Kent County Jail is conducted holds at the jail for ICE. A statement released by Cosecha during this action read:

Since 2019, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office has publicly stated that it would only hold immigrants for ICE when presented with a judicial warrant for each individual. However, based on what we are witnessing in our community, we do not believe this policy is being followed. This is why we have protested at the Sheriff’s Office over the past months, and why we risked arrest today. When we asked for a direct answer, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office first instructed us to submit a FOIA request. Later, Sheriff LaJoye-Young refused to answer our question directly, despite being present and having the opportunity to clarify the policy. Instead, we were told that we would need to make an appointment.

The lack of transparency from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office is deeply disappointing, but the greater injustice is its continued cooperation with ICE in the persecution, racial profiling, and detention of immigrant workers in our community.

Tuesday’s action was also meant to draw attention to the 6 sanctuary demands and that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office is directly collaboration with ICE by holding immigrants at the jail for the federal agency. Those being held for ICE at the Kent County Jail are almost always taken to the GEO Group-owned North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, which is the largest ICE detention facility in the midwest.

Those who showed up to the protest at the Kent County Jail on Tuesday also tried to use a side entrance that is used for people who have come to post bond for people in the jail. That door was also locked, so the group decided to walk around the building to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

When the small group of protesters arrived to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office it was also locked, but people stayed in front of the building for the next 20 minutes or so. After about 10 minutes several Kent County Sheriff’s cruisers pulled up in front of the build and sat there to see if people were going to do anything. At one point the Sheriff’s officers got out of their vehicles and went in a side door, but left their vehicles running.

These type of actions that are part of the Cosecha campaign to get Kent County to adopt sanctuary policies are a vital part of the resistance against ICE. According to a recent report from the Prison Policy Initiative, “the federal government nonetheless relies heavily on state and local collaboration to enact its mass deportation agenda.” The report goes on to say:

Local jails and police departments are key to the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda because they facilitate ICE arrests of people who are already in police custody. In the first year of Trump’s second term, the administration has intensified the criminalization of asylum seekers and immigrants, pushed immigrant detention to all-time highs, and indiscriminately raided city after city. Despite all of this, the Trump administration remains well behind their mass deportation goals, in large part due to state and local efforts to protect immigrant communities and limit cooperation with ICE, Border Patrol, and other federal agencies.

If we want to resist ICE then local actions and campaigns like what Movimiento Cosecha are engaged are critical. Anyone who calls themselves any ally in the fight against ICE in Kent County needs to get involved in the work of Cosecha. Lastly, the Kent County Jail can lock all the doors they want to, but they will never be able to stop this movement for immigrant justice.