GRPD once again coordinates with ICE by preventing resisters from stopping transport van with abducted immigrants in Grand Rapids

Saturday morning saw over 100 people participating in an action that attempted to prevent the for profit GEO Group Corporation from transporting ICE abducted immigrants from Grand Rapids to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan.

The action took place in the alley of the 517 Ottawa NW ICE building, which is their deployment office, meaning the office where ICE agents work out of to abduct immigrants, process them and then put them on a GEO Group van for transport to Baldwin, Michigan.

People noticed that the GEO Group van was in the ICE parking lot, which was around 11am, when most of the people who were resisting ICE had arrived. The GRPD arrived just minutes after those protesting ICE were on the scene, although the GRPD had a presence in the area at least an hour prior to the protest.

Several GRPD cruisers pulled in the alley from the north entrance and blocked the alley right about where the ICE parking lot and the building begins. The GRPD cruisers parked diagonally in two different directions, making it nearly impossible for people to no north in the alley. At the same time the GRPD had cruisers near the south entrance of the alley.

Protesters engaged the GRPD with chants and by calling them out on their ongoing collaboration with ICE. This went on for 5 – 7 minutes, when all of a sudden the GEO Group van was spotted coming out of the ICE parking lots going north in the alley. ICE had loaded immigrants they had abducted in the morning into the GEO Group van, which was a completely different tactic than people had seen previously. Of course ICE used this approach because those protesting made it so difficult for them to get the GEO Group van into the ICE garage, which means they were using the GRPD to prevent people from preventing the van from leaving the 517 Ottawa NW deployment office.

You can see in the picture above that the GRPD had cops blocking the north entrance of the alley and the white GEO Group van coming out of the ICE parking lots. In the picture below you can see a GRPD cruiser acting as an escort for the GEO Group van to make its get away.

Those who were protesting were so enraged by what had happened, especially since the GRPD played a critical role in assisting ICE abducted immigrants to escape without any interruption.

The GRPD then took a more aggressive stance towards those who were protesting ICE by repeating over and over that people needed to leave the alleyway, then stating – If you refuse this lawful order you will be arrested. At this point there were three people arrested by the GRPD, all of which told us that the cops were physically aggressive with all of them, even throwing two of them to the ground. You can partially see the three who were arrested in the video below.

There were two additional people arrested by the GRPD during the protest, making the total number of people arrested at five. The three who were arrested first said that while they were in the GRPD cruisers they could hear communication from ICE to the GRPD, which is one additional confirmation that the GRPD and ICE were coordinating how to deal with protesters.

After the protest many of the people went to the Kent County Jail to provide jail solidarity. Eventually all five were bonded out and released while supporters applauded them when exiting the jail.

The fact that the GRPD assisted ICE/GEO Group by preventing people from trying to stop immigrant family separation completely contradicts what Mayor LaGrand and the GRPD Chief of Police have been saying since January of 2025 when Movimiento Cosecha began their campaign to get the City of Grand Rapids to adopt six sanctuary policies. In fact, from where I sit, this recent GRPD collaboration with ICE/GEO Group signifies to me that Mayor LaGrand and the GRPD Chief have been lying to Cosecha, GR Rapid Response to ICE and the community at large.

The Mayor and the Chief of Police can hide behind the argument that the GRPD was there to prevent people from blocking an alleyway or for some notion of public safety, but the fact remains that ICE and the GEO Group (which has a contract with ICE to detain immigrants) are engaged in unjust, racist and oppressive practices by criminalizing undocumented immigrants, where ICE abducts immigrants and the GEO Group makes money from detaining them. More and more people are now opposing these ICE abductions and the resistance to ICE is likely to grow in the coming weeks and months.