Mayor LaGrand continues to dismiss calls for greater accountability in so-called statement after Cosecha-led public forum

Last Thursday, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE hosted a community forum after Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand refused to meet with them to discuss the six sanctuary policy demands.

The event was promoted by Cosecha as an accountability event, since the Mayor not only refused to meet with the immigrant-led group, but refused to have a good faith conversation about the six sanctuary policy demands. Those who spoke at the public forum were organizers with Cosecha, GR Rapid Response to ICE and the Grand Rapids chapter of DSA.

Besides talking about the Mayor’s refusal to meet with these groups, Cosecha also presented a draft of a 12-page ordinance proposal, which was crafted by a legal team that would consolidate the 6 sanctuary demands that Cosecha has put before the City of Grand Rapids since January of 2025.

There were several news agencies present for the public forum, but I want to address the coverage from WOODTV8. The channel 8 story that they broadcast, simply provided a summary of the public forum, along with comments from Cosecha organizer Gema Lowe. However, the story was updated to included comments from a “statement” released by Mayor LaGrand.

I checked the City of Grand Rapids webpage, their Facebook page, Mayor’s LaGrand’s Facebook page and even the Office of Public Accountability’s page, but could not find a released statement from Mayor LaGrand regarding the Cosecha accountability forum. When public officials make public statements they need to provide a paper or digital trail for the public, which provides not only greater transparency, but accountability.

In the online text story version from WOODTV8 Mayor LaGrand said:

“The bad news is that as a city, we are often unable to stop the actions of the federal government since the federal government is often able to simply override the wishes of our residents and city policies,” he said. “The good news is that as a city, we can craft city policies that implement our welcoming values.”

The truth is that if the City of Grand Rapids would adopt the sanctuary policy demands from Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE it would reduce the level of harm being perpetuated by ICE agents on the undocumented immigrant community. Also, notice how the Mayor does not name ICE abductions in his comments, but merely refers to them as “actions of the federal government.” Not naming the harm that ICE perpetrates also makes the Mayor complicit in the harm they are committing daily against immigrants in this city.

The channel 8 story goes on to quote LaGrand:

“While we cannot control federal actions with zoning policies, the city does not operate any detention facilities for violations of local, state or federal laws,” the statement reads. “Grand Rapids has a clear policy closely mirroring policies of other cities such as Ann Arbor and Chicago, preventing our public safety employees from assisting ICE agents in ICE investigations.”

The Cosecha sanctuary policy demands and the newly drafted 12-page ordinance are not “zoning” policies they are harm reduction policies that would commit the City of Grand Rapids from not cooperating or collaborating with ICE in any way. As to the Mayor’s comments about Grand Rapids not operating a detention facility, he is completely mis-representing what Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have been demanding in regards to not allowing an ICE detention facility to operate in Grand Rapids. What is being asked is that the City not allow any future ICE detention facilities in the City of Grand Rapids, like what was proposed in Romulus, Michigan earlier this year, which was to use an empty warehouse. Grand Rapids has numerous empty warehouse space, which could easily be converted into ICE detention centers, which is discussed in excellent article from the American Immigration Council earlier this year.

Lastly, Mayor LaGrand also said in the so-called released statement that he would listen to the concerns of those who addressed the Flock camera issue. Those who spoke at the Cosecha public forum were not asking concerns to be addressed, but to ban the use of Flock cameras and all ALPR systems. Grand Rapids did what systems of power do, they merely brought the GRPD’s use of Flock camera technology into their surveillance policy, claiming it will provide more oversight.