During the 4th of July parade Cosecha calls for ICE to be abolished, sanctuary policies for Grand Rapids and Kent County using creative street theater

Earlier today Movimiento Cosecha and several allies/accomplices participated in the annual 4th of July Parade in southeast Grand Rapids known as the Hollyhock Lane Parade. The last time that Cosecha joined a parade was in 2019 when they were working on getting Kent County to end their contract with ICE.

The main message of the Cosecha action today was to Abolish ICE, but one way to do that would be to get Kent County and Grand Rapids to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding since January of 2025.

Most of the parade participants were candidates running for local office, specifically Democrats. The primary message from the candidates was “vote for me” as opposed to the issues that they claim to stand for.

For Cosecha, beside communicating certain messages they wanted to make a point about why we need local government to adopt sanctuary policies and why we need to abolish ICE. Cosecha decided to dramatize the terror and harm that ICE inflicts on the immigrant community. Cosecha had a truck in the parade, which had a makeshift cage in the bed of the truck, with one of the Cosecha organizers sitting in the cage. There were also three people acting as ICE agents, two on either side of the truck and one walking directly behind the truck. The fake ICE agents all dressed the same in pants a basic shirt and a vest with the words Police and ICE on the back. Each of the mock ICE agents also wore baseball hats, sunglasses and covered their faces.

Besides the more theatrical aspect of the Cosecha action, there were two banners. The first banner said Abolish ICE, which was before the truck and the second banner said Sanctuary Policies Now, which was following the ICE agents. There were also allies/accomplices handing out information sheets, candy and shouting out statements like, “ICE is kidnapping our neighbors every day in this community”, “Sanctuary Policies Now”, and “freedom for everyone.”

It was interesting to watch and hear how people lined up along the parade route responded to the Cosecha banners, chants and street theater component. Quite often when approaching a new crowd of people they would applaud Cosecha’s message, repeat the abolish ICE demand and even say things like, “we are so grateful for your presence today and all the important work you do.”

It was also interesting to watch all of the conversations that parents were having with their children about the mock ICE agents and a Cosecha members sitting in a cage. At one point a group of young people began chanting abolish ICE, which prompted one of the mock ICE agents to walk over to one of the kids and say (with his face cover), “Don’t you know that being critical of the government can get you in trouble young man?” This kid was immediately uncomfortable, but then the mock ICE agent removed his mask and said that he wasn’t a really ICE agent and thanked the boy for chanting abolish ICE.

The parade lasted about one hour, but afterwards Cosecha decided to attend a post-parade event behind someone’s house in an alleyway. There was only one speaker, who identified himself as Anishinaabe and share great stories that were wrapped in powerful history lessons about Indigenous people and the history of settler colonialism in the US and in Michigan.

As the post-parade event was wrapping up people spotted the new Grand Rapids Police Chief Joe Trigg. Cosecha organizers wanted to confront him on the GRPD’s collaboration with ICE. The Cosecha organizer who was in the cage during the street theater had the 3 mock ICE agents present when talking to the police chief. They said to the new chief of police, “I’m here to talk to you, so what do you have to say to me? Do you have some sort of statement about the GRPD working with ICE?” Chief Trigg responded by saying, “We have put out a number of statements addressing this issue, so we are not going to do that here.”

A Cosecha ally then stated, “It seems like you are never available in the eyes of the public, you just want to meet in private so you can ly and misdirect.” Trigg responded with, “We don’t need a private meeting as we are open 24/7 (referring to the Police Department headquarters.)” The ally then asked the question, “when are you going to stop putting the Marshal’s access Flock data their sending to ICE? This is the space since we are celebrating freedom, while you are complicit and locking up our neighbors. This is definitely the space (to have this conversation).”

An additional Cosecha ally then said to Chief Trigg, “We have video evidence of your officers cooperating with ICE.” This was followed by people chanting, Cops and ICE go hand in hand. Not wanting to deal with confrontation, Chief Trigg walked away.

Cosecha and the allies/accomplices that joined them today did what they set out to do, which was to communicate a clear message about ICE, to demand the City and County adopt the 6 sanctuary policies and to confront city officials who are complicit in the harm that ICE is inflicting in this community on a daily basis.

You can watch most of the Cosecha action from July 4th by going to this link, where another Cosecha organizer was live-streaming and providing commentary in Spanish for their communities.

All of the photos used in this post were taken by the amazing Viviana Rubio.