Those arrested for protesting ICE holds at the Kent County Jail were sentenced to community service

On Wednesday morning, the four people who were arrested on January 5th while protesting the Kent County Sheriff’s Office cooperation with ICE through detainers were in court again for their sentencing.

The sentencing did not include jail time, but it included either fines and court costs. The lawyers for the four defendants were able to get the fines and court costs reduced. In addition, the judge gave all four activists the opportunity to do community service instead of paying fines and court costs. All four agreed to community service.

After the sentencing the four that were arrested for protesting ICE holds and the Kent County Jail read the following statement:

We are John, Cindy, Jeff, and Sharon.

We chose to take action inside the Kent County Sheriff’s Office because we believe what is happening to our immigrant neighbors through ICE enforcement is wrong—and that our sheriff should not be helping it happen.

We attempted on multiple occasions to engage with the sheriff and ask her to listen to our concerns. When that did not happen, we felt civil disobedience was one of the few ways left to bring public attention to the issue.

People were being held for ICE after posting bond and without a judicial warrant. Families were being separated, due process was being denied, and racial profiling was creating fear in our community. Our immigrant neighbors asked us to stand with them.

We recognized that we have a privilege that many of our immigrant neighbors do not: we could choose to put ourselves at risk without facing the same consequences they face. We wanted to use that privilege to stand in solidarity with them.

We knew we might be arrested, and we accepted that consequence.

There is a painful contradiction in what happened: we were punished for standing up for our neighbors, while our sheriff’s office is assisting in actions that are harming those same neighbors. 

Our tax dollars should serve the people of Kent County—not help a federal agency cause unnecessary harm to members of our community. We also oppose the proposed sheriff’s millage. We cannot support raising our taxes for an office that is using public resources to assist in sending people from our community into inhumane detention.

If you want to stand with our immigrant neighbors, please consider supporting the work of Grand Rapids Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha. And when it comes time to vote, we encourage you to vote NO on the sheriff’s millage proposal.

We stood together because we believe:

Everyone deserves due process.
Everyone deserves dignity.
And when our neighbors are being harmed, we have a responsibility to stand with them.

John, Cindy, Jeff, and Sharon