ICE abductions in Grand Rapids are nothing more than state terrorism

In recent months there has been an increase in ICE activity in Grand Rapids and throughout other parts of Kent County.

In the early part of summer ICE was abducting at least one person a day, abductions that result in family separation, family trauma, economic hardship and an increased level of fear within the immigrant communities living in the greater Grand Rapids area.

Since late July ICE activity has increased even more. ICE agents are abducting multiple people on a daily basis, with the majority of those abducted ending up in the privately run detention center in Baldwin, Michigan, known as the NorthLake Processing Center.

This increase in ICE activity is partly due to the added funding that the Grand Rapids ICE office has received, but also because so many people have moved on from the ICE terrorism that took place earlier this year in Minneapolis, along with people shifting attention to elections.

Right now several dozen immigrants are being abducted every week in Grand Rapids, then sent to the detention center in Baldwin, where they experience even more state terrorism through the privately contracted corporation known as the GEO Group.

Since I am involved with the autonomous group GR Rapid Response to ICE, I have spoken directly with many immigrants who are facing state terrorism right here in Grand Rapids because of ICE. Most of the people I have spoken with are from Mexico or Guatemala. These immigrants are here in the greater Grand Rapids area because they know someone else who is living in the area, have relatives here or someone from the same village.

As some of the readers of this blog know from my recently released book, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time, that I did accompaniment work with people who were being threatened by their own governments, which is a form of state terrorism.

Many of the people that GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha works with are from countries that suffered from state terrorism coupled with US-sponsored counterinsurgency. The immigrants who are being targeted by ICE are also experiencing state terrorism, despite the fact that the current administration, most members of Congress and the major news media don’t refer to ICE abductions as state terrorism.

I don’t know how else to see it. My country was a major cause of their displacement and now my country wants to arrest, detain and deport them back to the very countries the US has been waging economic and military war against for decades. Accompaniment work is personal, but it is also structural, just as the fighting for liberation is personal and collective.

The question I have for everyone is what will you do to slow down, disrupt or prevent more ICE terrorism in Grand Rapids? We have a pretty good idea of where people are being abducted, where ICE takes them initially and what detention center they end up in.

There are a fair amount of people who protest ICE, often with signs or letter writing campaigns. However, as GR Rapid Response to ICE likes to say, “we don’t protest ICE, we resist ICE.” We need people who are willing to actively resist ICE in Grand Rapids and when I say resist ICE I mean disrupt their ability to abducted and detain immigrants.  If you are interested in resisting ICE then please reach out to GR Rapid Response to ICE through their Email info@grrapidresponsetoice.org. Also, please attend the September 12 action shown in the flyer here on the right.