GRPD Chief denies that his department is cooperating with ICE during public forum

(Editor’s note: Please turn up the volume to hear the questions and response in the video provided below.)

On Wednesday, at a public forum hosted by Lincoln Up, GRPD Chief Joe Trigg was asked a question about GRPD cooperation with ICE.

The question came from Movimiento Cosecha, but was asked by someone else as they had a prior commitment. The questioner clarified that the issue of GRPD cooperation with ICE was particularly in reference to the GRPD role in allowing the transport of an ICE abducted immigrant from the 517 Ottawa ICE office on Tuesday, which GRIID also wrote about.

In the 5:25 video you can hear the question and the Police Chief’s response. I just want to highlight some of what Chief Trigg had to say. Trigg’s response begins at 1:22 into the video. The Chief mentions de-escalation and says that they received a call about a group of protesters who were blocking the alleyway behind the 517 Ottawa ICE office.

Eyewitnesses on the scene told GRIID that the GRPD were there way before anything had happened, which means they were called, most likely by ICE. Chief Trigg later admits they received a 911 call about protesters. Trigg says the GRPD has a duty to respond to that call. He then claims there was a valid violation, so the GRPD moves up and “tell them to move.”

A big part of the problem is this narrative. For the people on the scene they were responding to a GR Rapid Response to ICE call, where ICE had earlier abducted an immigrant in Grand Rapids and brought them to the 517 Ottawa ICE office. Once the abducted immigrant was processed the GEO Group-owned van that was parked inside the 517 Ottawa ICE office would then transport the abducted immigrant to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan. The people who were blocking the alleyway were attempting to prevent the GEO Group van from departing because ICE had abducted another immigrant from this community. Those responding would not call what they did a violation, rather they would call what they did their obligation to practice solidarity with immigrants targeted by ICE and to either disrupt or reduce that harm that ICE had committed and the profiting of the GEO Group, which has a contract with ICE to run the detention center in Baldwin.

Towards the end of the initial response from Chief Trigg he says that the GRPD asked them to leave and they left. This is also not true, as you can see from the picture above and the video linked here from Tuesday that the GRPD forcibly removed people, and at one point knock a BIPOC person over who was injured in the process.

Chief Trigg also claims that in his 25 years with the Grand Rapids Police Department he has never seen an ICE agent. I call bullshit on this one, as ICE has had multiple offices in Grand Rapids since 2003. There is no way he can claim to not have seen as ICE agent since 2003 in Grand Rapids, especially since the GRPD has had an ICE liaison for the past two decades.

When questioned about ICE in Grand Rapids Chief Trigg chooses to redirect attention away from the question of GRPD cooperation with ICE and talk about how “Grand Rapids has enough issues of its own.”

The questioner then asked if the GRPD would sign a statement saying that they will not cooperate with ICE. Trigg responds by saying, “we are not collaborating with them (ICE)”, which he says twice. Chief Trigg then continues to talk but completely avoids addressing the issue of GRPD collaboration with ICE, such as the incident with GRPD direct involvement in the ICE abduction of Byron Martinez earlier this year.