I was arrested for trying to stop the transportation of abducted immigrants to an ICE detention center, but Mayor LaGrand says the GRPD are just promoting public safety

On Saturday, I was arrested with two other activists at the 517 Ottawa ICE office in the early part of the afternoon, which I wrote about yesterday.

I am a volunteer organizers with GR Rapid Response to ICE and we work directly with Movimiento Cosecha. Cosecha does the offensive part of the immigrant justice movement work. What this means is as immigrants, they fight for the rights of immigrants and have very clear goals, such as dignity, respect and permanent protection for all undocumented immigrants.

GR Rapid Response to ICE does the defensive work, which is really about reducing the harm that is directed at immigrants, from government policy, ICE agents, detention, deportation and racial discrimination. Therefore, we do the necessary work to minimize the harm that happens to immigrants in Kent County, which is mostly at the hands of ICE.

However, there are also entities that have contracts with ICE, like BI Incorporated, which runs the ISAP office at 545 Michigan, directly behind the Omlette Shoppe. BI Incorporated is a subsidiary of the GEO Group, which also runs the largest ICE detention center in the midwest at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan.

The other dynamic is that both the GRPD and the Kent County Sheriff’s Office collaborate with ICE. Kent County does it by working directly with ICE to engage in what are called ICE holds or ICE detainers. The GRPD collaborates with ICE by either assisting in an ICE arrest of an immigrant or at the 517 Ottawa ICE office, where they have repeatedly prevented volunteers with GR Rapid Response to ICE from attempting to stop the transport of undocumented immigrants to the GEO Group vans.

The context for my arrest at the 517 Ottawa ICE office is that this office is where ICE agents bring immigrants they have abducted from the community, to process them in the system and then prepare them for transport. The GEO Group has vans they use to transport abducted immigrants, just like the one that I was standing in front of to try and prevent them from going into the garage of the 517 Ottawa ICE office where ICE agents can transfer them to the van without interruption.

For undocumented immigrants, being in the US without papers is not a crime, rather a civil infraction. We know that most undocumented immigrants have no criminal record, so to abduct them at their home, their workplace or anywhere in the community is cruel and unnecessary. The immigrants that were abducted on Saturday were cousins of Mario David Coronado Juarez, who were on their way to work when ICE grabbed them.

Mayor LaGrand wrote a statement after the death of  Mario David Coronado Juarez, which I critiqued. One thing he said in his stated was: “The reality is, we cannot keep Federal agencies out of our city, however they act. But let me be clear: no law enforcement entity that traffics in fear is welcome here.” While we understand that the City of Grand Rapids can’t keep ICE out of this city, but they can make it so the GRPD does not assist ICE or the entities they contract with to allow them to, in the words of Mayor LaGrand, traffic in fear.

In the same statement from Mayor LaGrand he said:

This is a moment when we all have to stand for justice and real work for public safety. When government agencies cause harm instead of reducing harm, they are worse than useless.

I agree with this sentiment, but when the GRPD arrests members of the community that are trying to reduce harm it only emboldens ICE agents and the entities they contract with. How is allowing immigrants that have been abducted by ICE and are slated to be sent to the North Lake promoting public safety? When undocumented people are sent to the ICE detention center in Baldwin, it causes family separation, family trauma and adds unnecessary emotional and financial stress on immigrant families. When the GRPD arrests people who want to stop the GEO Group from making profits off of the suffering of immigrants in North Lake, they are not promoting public safety, rather they are perpetuating harm to the family that is now separated and it increases the level of fear that exists in this community that other immigrant families can be targeted.

I am asking everyone to contact Mayor LaGrand and demand: 1) that he adopt the sanctuary policies that Cosecha has been demanding since the beginning of 2025; and 2) that he prevents the GRPD from assisting ICE or entities that work directly with ICE to commit harm. You can either send an Email to Mayor LaGrand mayor@grcity.us or you can call his office at 616-456-3168. Demand an end to GRPD cooperation with ICE and an end to City complicity in allowing ICE to operate in Grand Rapids and perpetuate harm.