Boycott targeting businesses owned by Mayor LaGrand shifts to the other side of Grand Rapids in front of the Less Traveled Bar
Roughly 20 people gathered in front of the LaGrand-owned bar known as the Less Traveled, to continue the boycott campaign that began last month in front of Long Road Distillers on the westside of town.
The boycott campaign, which is organized jointly by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE is attempting to impact the ability of Mayor LaGrand to make profits while he refuses to adopt sanctuary policies that both groups have been demanding since January of this year.
The City of Grand Rapids has chosen to ignore these demands, despite the fact that there have been dozens of immigrant families impacted by ICE violence. Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to give immigrants a false sense of hope, plus the Mayor has even referred to the sanctuary policy demands as “silly” and “bizarre.”
Referring to these demands as silly and bizarre reflects a clear insensitivity to the harsh realities that undocumented immigrants are facing in the greater Grand Rapids area, especially since the demands would clearly reduce the ability of ICE to target, arrest and detain more immigrants. Here are those sanctuary policies that the affected community has been demanding:
- Policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants.
- Policies restricting the police or other city workers from asking about immigration status.
- Policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
- Policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention;
- Policies preventing immigration detention centers from being established in Grand Rapids.
- A policy that will not allow the GRPD to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by the city of Grand Rapids with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.
The boycott on Saturday targeted the Less Traveled bar, which is part of Long Road Distillers, but branded differently in a different part of the city. People who showed up for the boycott campaign on Saturday handed out flyers to people walking along Cherry Street and those that were coming out of or going into one of Mayor LaGrand’s bars. Other people held signs and most people participated in the chants that were led by members of Movimiento Cosecha.
Several people took flyers and a few people stopped by to inquire about the boycott, with several of them unaware that Mayor LaGrand was a partial owner of these bars. Additionally, someone who works at Books and Mortar, which is just across the street from the Less Traveled bar offered to take extra flyers to have in their bookstore to let customers know about the boycott. Another reason to love independent book stores.
Some of the boycott participants also wrote messages on the sidewalk in chalk, in order to generate more attention to the campaign. People spent about 1 hour in front of the bar, but there will be lots more opportunities for people to get involved with or support the boycott as it moves forward.
Anyone wanting to get involved can contact Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE on their Facebook pages.
Epilogue for my forthcoming book, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time
What follows is the text of my epilogue for my third book, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time. The book will be available after the New Year.
In recent months the level of repression by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increased exponentially throughout Kent County. GR Rapid Response to ICE has been receiving calls on a regular basis, with those from the affected community sharing stories of ICE terrorism, often resulting in requests for Mutual Aid for the now deeply traumatized immigrant families.
GR Rapid Response to ICE has continued to expand the scope of their work, especially since June of 2025, when ICE agents arrested and detained at least 8 immigrants at the ISAP office on Michigan Street in Grand Rapids. ISAP stands for Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which is a program operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that provides an alternative to detention for individuals in immigration proceedings. However, this so-called alternative forces members of the undocumented immigrant community to not only check in at the ISAP on a regular basis, it forces them to either wear an ankle bracelet, a wrist bracelet or download the SmartLINK app, which allows “for real-time communication between officers and clients,” according to the BI Incorporated. BI Incorporated is a subsidiary of the GEO Group, which operates ICE detention facilities all across the county, with the most recent being the North Lake facility in Baldwin, MI.
After the ICE raid at the ISAP office, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE has been inviting members of the undocumented immigrant community to call their hotline if they would like someone to accompany them to their appointments at the ISAP office or the ICE office at 517 Ottawa NW in downtown Grand Rapids.
Additionally, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been conducting patrols in 6 neighborhoods throughout the area, neighborhoods where ICE has frequently been seen by members of the affected community.
Lastly, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been working with Movimiento Cosecha to further their efforts to get the Grand Rapids City Commission and the Kent County Commission to adopt 6 concrete sanctuary policies that would not allow cops who work for both governing bodies to cooperate or collaborate with ICE, to not have relationships with companies that have contracts with ICE or are profiting off of ICE violence, to not allow detention centers to be built or existing spaces to be used as ICE detention centers, and to not share information on undocumented immigrants with ICE, including the data collected by the Flock cameras that are located throughout the greater Grand Rapids Area.
I have been involved in GR Rapid Response to ICE since 2017 and that group has also had a close relationship with Movimiento Cosecha, since those of us who are allies/accomplices always follow what Cosecha wants us to do. This is what solidarity looks like, when those of us who carry more privilege, can leverage that privilege to the benefit of those being targeted by ICE.
Accompaniment from Guatemala to Grand Rapids
This book is really about my own journey, from being bitten by the Central America bug to practicing solidarity, by doing sanctuary work in Grand Rapids in the 1980s to doing solidarity work in Guatemala, El Salvador and in Chiapas, Mexico between 1988 and 2006, to joining the immigrant-led work in Grand Rapids from 2017 to the present.
I would never have guessed that this is what I would be doing with my life, but I have nothing but deep gratitude for making these choices to be part of this work over the past 40 years, of practicing solidarity, and by learning from all of them amazing people that I have had the pleasure of accompanying.
For me accompaniment is not only being physically present with people who are being targeted by state violence, it is being present with them intellectually and emotionally. The people I have done accompaniment with over the past four decades, whether they are being targeted by death squads, military battalions in Guatemala, El Salvador and Chiapas, or those being terrorized by ICE in West Michigan, have taught me an important lesson I learned from the Zapatistas – We lead by following.
To lead by following means that I don’t have the answers and I follow what those who are being targeted by state violence want me to do. It is never on my terms, but on the terms of the person who has invited me to accompany them. If they want me to stay in their homes as a deterrent to state violence, ride in their car or stand next to them during a demonstration, then this is what is means to lead by following.
Accompaniment is a relational form of organizing, where we agree to do things that will contribute to the safety of those from the affected community and ultimately the liberation of all of us. Like the old Civil Rights saying that my liberation is directly connected to the liberation of those fighting for their freedom. We do this work together. We practice what the Zapatistas taught me, We build the road by walking it together.
The other important message I have tried to communicate in this book is what a Guatemalan organizer taught me back in 1988, while we shared a meal in her home. Maria worked with CONAVIGUA, an organization comprised of widows, since all of them had husbands who were murdered by the Guatemalan military.
Maria told me that quiet night in Quiche that she was grateful for our efforts to accompany them in their struggle. However, she then told me that when I got back to my country that I needed to work on changing the policies that the US government has towards Guatemala, since that would be another way that I could accompany them in their struggle for freedom. US military intervention, military funding, training Guatemalan soldiers in counterinsurgency and US trade policies is what Maria and CONAVIGUA was fighting against.
This call to action that has haunted me since 1988 is still being reflected not only in the US military Aid to Guatemala, the rest of Central America and Mexico, but the policies of NAFTA and CAFTA that primarily benefit US corporations and the wealthiest people in those countries, but promote economic violence against the majority of people in those countries. Ironically, US military and economic policies have displaced millions of people in those countries, many of whom have come to the US as undocumented immigrants.
In fact, many of the people that I and other volunteers with GR Rapid Response to ICE offer accompaniment and sanctuary to are the same people who have been forced to leave their own countries because of US policy and are now being targeted by ICE right here in West Michigan. Thus people fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico where I did accompaniment work over a span of two decades are likely relatives, friends and neighbors of the very people seeking accompaniment and sanctuary in West Michigan right now.
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. I am forever grateful for all of the courages people I have met in my journey, since they have played a huge part in making me who I am today. My liberation is truly connected to theirs. La Lucha Sigue! The Struggle Continues!
MLive and WZZM 13 were at the Cosecha/GR Rapid Response to ICE action at the Sheriff’s office on Monday, but didn’t report anything
On Monday, I reported about the action that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response engaged in at the Kent County Sheriff’s office, where a statement was read followed by pressuring the Sheriff’s office on whether or not they are holding people in the jail for ICE. The demands we presented in the statement and what was asked of one of the Sheriff Department’s staff were:
- Are undocumented immigrants being held for ICE in violation of the Sheriff’s own stated policy?
- Why are community members still being funneled from local custody into federal immigration detention?
These demands were asked because the Kent County Sheriff’s Office changed the policy in 2019, which stated that they would require a judicial warrant in order to hold someone at the Kent County Jail for ICE.
A reporter from MLive and WZZM 13 were present to record the statement made outside and to documented the interaction that GR Rapid Response to ICE members had with a Captain from the Kent County Sheriff’s office, which you can watch here.
Therefore, these two news outlets had both the statement and heard how the Kent County Sheriff’s office would not provide the information and clarification on ICE holds at the Kent County Jail.
Despite having all of that information, both MLive and WZZM 13 did not do a story on what happened on Monday. Why not, you might ask? When the group left the building of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department the two reporters wanted to know what the Guatemalan man (who was taken by ICE because of the hold the Kent County Jail had) was charged with by the GRPD. One of the GR Rapid Response to ICE members replied that it was not relevant, since the issue for the action hd to do with immigration status and the collaboration between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s office.
What MLive and WZZM 13 were both attempting to do was use the claim that the Trump Administration uses that undocumented immigrants are being rounded up because they are criminals. This issue was highlighted in 2024, after an undocumented immigrant killed his girlfriend and left her body on US 131. I wrote at the time that while domestic violence is never acceptable, it had nothing to do with the man’s immigration status.
Unfortunately, many Democrats, like Rep. Hillary Scholten are using the same narrative as the Trump Administration and voting to criminalize undocumented immigrants despite the data that shows that compared to US citizens, undocumented immigrants commit significantly less crime.
MLive and WZZM 13 chose not to report on the central issue, which is wether or not the Kent County Sheriff’s office is still requiring a judicial warrant in order to hold people at the jail for ICE. MLive and WZZM 13 failed the public by not reporting on this issue and showing the public how the Kent County Sheriff’s office would not answer any questions on Monday, but suggested that people submit a FOIA request on information that should be public.
Now, I am not surprised that MLive and WZZM 13 decided not to report on a critical ICE related matter in Kent County. These news agencies often normalize systems of power and oppression, like ICE and local cops, as is reflected in my 12 month study of local news from 2024. The public cannot rely on commercial news agencies when it comes critical matters like ICE and local cops, which is why we need movement-based media and Indy Media sources of information.
What a strange performative response from faith leaders and the Mayor of Grand Rapids: What solidarity really looks like
On Monday, several dozen “faith leaders” gathered at Calder Plaza to announce that they would begin a fast until SNAP benefits are restored to people around the country and the 70,000 residents in Kent County that rely on them.
An MLive article provided more details and quoted a few of the people who participated in the event at Calder Plaza, including Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand who was quoted as saying, “We cannot allow our neighbors to go hungry because of political gridlock.”
As a former Catholic I understand the role that fasting can play in building empathy and discipline for whatever issue or personal commitments you are seeking to strengthen. During the height of the Central American Solidarity Movement I went without food for 30 days to oppose US Military Aid to the Contras. The organized effort I was a part of in the 1980s engaged in regular actions against Congressman Paul Henry who consistently voted for US Military Aid to the Contras. However, my fast was only one tactic I used, but it did provide me focus to do the other work of direct action.
So, I don’t really think that faith leaders fasting until SNAP benefits are restored is a bad thing, but it is arguably the easiest thing to do and it is the least effective if your goal is to make sure that people who are food insecure don’t go hungry. What follows is a list of things that the faith leaders and Mayor LaGrand could engage in that is less performative and would go a lot further to reframe the issue and to provide Mutual Aid to those who are not receiving SNAP benefits in Kent County.
For faith leaders they should be using their position and their platform every Sunday to encourage people to not only donate food, but offer to transport food for people/families that rely on SNAP benefits.
Faith leaders could also turn the kitchens that more congregations have into a place where food in prepared and offered to people who are food insecure. Community Kitchen is something that congregations should be doing anyway, since it helps build community and connection with people who are being battered by Capitalism.
Faith leaders could also work with local food justice groups to turn much of the green space at GR places of worship that is primarily grass and use it for community gardens that would produce thousands of pounds of food. These same places of worship could offer their kitchen space for how to preserve items grown in these gardens, thus providing people with more skills that would be useful in working towards food justice and food sovereignty in Kent County.
Faith Leaders and Mayor LaGrand could be engaging in popular education and point out some crucial realities about what the government prioritizes over the well being of people who live in Kent County. First, they could put out a challenge to the two wealthiest families in Kent County, the Meijer Family (worth $16.5 billion) and the DeVos Family (worth $5.4 billion, according to Americans for Tax Fairness) and demand that each of these families give up $1 billion to fund not only robust food security programs, but assistance for skyrocketing rent and healthcare costs. This would leave both of these families with $15.5 and $4.4 billion left, which I assume they con continue to live off of.
Second, Mayor LaGrand and the faith leaders who stood on Calder Plaza on Monday could draw a direct link to how the federal government (and not just the Trump Administration) has always prioritized US military spending over the well being of those who live in this county. The US military budget is larger than the next 9 largest country military budgets combined. Having a vastly smaller US military budget would guarantee that there would be funds to make sure the millions of food insecure people living in the US would have enough food, health care, etc. From the 3rd Congressional District alone, taxpayers are paying $1.82 billion to the US military budget on an annual basis, according to the National Priorities Project. Imagine what kind of community care work could be done for people on an annual basis with $1.82 billion?
Third, faith leaders could pressure Grand Rapids City officials and Kent County officials around not providing massive tax breaks or subsidies to local developers for projects like the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium or the Three Towers Project (owned by DeVos and Van Andel) and prioritize public funds going to support families who are food insecure and housing insecure. The total amount of public funding that has been redirected by the Grand Rapids City Commission, the Kent County Commission and the State of Michigan is around $1 billion for the following projects: Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium, Three Towers Project and the Lyon Street upgrade project. Again, there it is not a question of funds being available for essential needs like food for families that rely on SNAP Benefits, rather it is a matter of priorities.
Fourth, local faith leaders could work on campaigns to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt Living Wage ordinances, which in this market would likely be about $40 an hour and allow individuals and families to have more economic independence and autonomy.
These are just a few ideas for how we can address short term and long term food insecurity issues, which are ultimately an economic issue where there is such a gap between the haves and have nots in this city and county.
The War Criminal Dick Cheney is dead and people gave him hell when he visited Grand Rapids while he was Vice President
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney is now dead, but as journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote, “He should have died in The Hague.”
There are already some good indy media posts about the legacy of Dick Cheney, such as this post from Democracy Now earlier today.
Dick Cheney, the former vice president and one of the key architects of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died Monday at age 84. Cheney served six terms in Congress as Wyoming’s lone representative before serving as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, when he oversaw the first Gulf War and the bloody U.S. invasion of Panama that deposed former U.S. ally Manuel Noriega. From 1995 to 2000, Cheney served as chair and CEO of the oil services company Halliburton, before George W. Bush tapped him as his running mate. As vice president, Cheney was a leading proponent of invading and occupying Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of people and destabilized the entire region. Dick Cheney also steadfastly defended warantless mass surveillance programs and the use of torture against detainees of the so-called war on terror.
For the rest of this post I want to focus on how people organized against Cheney while he was Vice President and one of the main architects of the US invasion/occupation of Iraq beginning in 2003 every time he came to Grand Rapids.
In May of 2003, the group the People’s Alliance for Justice and Change, which did the bulk of the early opposition to the US invasion/occupation of Iraq, organized a protest at a fundraiser in downtown Grand Rapids, where Dick Cheney spoke. The protest was organized under the banner of Occupation is Not Liberation.
In September of 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney again came to West Michigan, this time attending a GOP fundraiser at the home of Peter Secchia in East Grand Rapids. The group ACTIVATE organized an action near Secchia’s home, but were confronted by police and told that they could not protest since the City of East Grand Rapids had a “no picketing ordinance,” which was later contested by the ACLU and the ordinance was done away with.
In September of 2007, around 75 protestors gathered outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum to tell Vice President Dick Cheney that they support an immediate end to the United States’ occupation of Iraq, as was reported by the Indy Media site Media Mouse.
This protest, organized by the Grand Rapids antiwar group ACTIVATE/SDS, began at Rosa Parks Circle. Shortly after 10:00am, the group–led by a banner reading “US Out of Iraq”–marched to the Gerald R. Ford Museum to attempt to let Cheney know that they support an immediate end to the war. The group was able to get surprisingly close to site of Cheney’s speech–being stopped by police only fifteen feet from the Museum’s front door. Throughout the protest the protestors chanted “Cheney Out of Grand Rapids, US Out of Iraq,” “No Justice, No Peace, US Out of the Middle East,” and “War and Occupation does not bring Liberation.” The protestors made use of whistles and noisemakers to accompany their chanting in an effort to make themselves heard. After being moved from the Museum’s property (essentially twenty-five feet), the protestors continued to chant and wave signs before half of the crowd marched to the intersection of Michigan and Monroe where they waited until Cheney’s motorcade passed them on its way out of town.
For an overview of anti-Iraq occupation organizing that targeted the Bush Administration see part seven in the ten part series on organized opposition of that war/occupation by the Grand Rapids People’s History Project.
Kent County Sheriff refuses to provide information or practice transparency over ICE holds at the County Jail
Just before noon on Monday, several members of GR Rapid Response to ICE gathered in front of the Kent County Sheriff’s office at 701 Ball NE in Grand Rapids. The group was there to do two things, read a statement and to demand answers from Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young.
The statement that was delivered was jointly crafted by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapids Response to ICE, which stated:
“GR Rapid Response to ICE got a call on Sunday afternoon about a Guatemalan man who had been picked up by the GRPD on Saturday and taken to the Kent County Jail. The caller was requesting support with paying the bond. A member of the Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund went to the jail to pay it, and when they asked about a timeline for release, they were told that the man would be held for 48 hours to give ICE a chance to decide whether they wanted to take him into custody. The hold keeping this person in jail after the posting of the bond was listed on the online roster as an ICE detainer, DHS form I-247, despite the Sheriff’s claim in 2019 that Kent County would no longer hold people for ICE without judicial warrant. Read that statement here: Kent County Sheriff Statement, 2019 (ACLU of Michigan).
Longtime Immigration Lawyer Richard Kessler sent us a message stating:
Back in 2019 current Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young after the racist arrest and imprisonment of U.S citizen marine Jilmar Ramos announced a new policy of the Kent County Sheriff’s which would be to only detain and hold persons for the Immigration Customs Enforcement unless they received a specific judicial warrant from a Court. We have learned , however, that in recent times including today, the Kent County Sheriff’s office has changed their past policy and is now holding people pursuant to simple requests and not requiring Judicial warrants.
For several years, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE have received numerous reports from undocumented immigrants whose loved ones were transferred to ICE custody after being released from the Kent County Jail. These reports indicate ongoing cooperation between the Sheriff’s Office and federal immigration enforcement, despite public claims to the contrary.
Families are being separated, Our communities live in fear, ICE presence in Grand Rapids is growing. These are not abstract possibilities. They are lived realities.
Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE has been leading a campaign to demand that the Kent County passes sanctuary policies ensuring that local law enforcement does not cooperate with ICE or aid in the detention of our beloved community members.
We are here today to demand answers from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office:
- Are undocumented immigrants being held for ICE in violation of the Sheriff’s own stated policy?
- Why are community members still being funneled from local custody into federal immigration detention?
This situation demonstrates clear cooperation with ICE and undermines community trust. It also calls into question whether the Sheriff’s Office is upholding its own commitment to only detain individuals for ICE when presented with a judicial warrant.
We demand transparency.
We demand answers.
We demand justice for undocumented immigrants.”
After reading this statement, the 11 people who had gathered when into the building where the Kent County Sheriff’s office is located. One person asked to speak with Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young, saying it was an urgent matter.
After about 10 minutes someone other than the Sheriff came out, someone who identified himself as a Captain in the Sheriff’s department. He was asked if he could provide the group with information and clarification regarding the 2019 Kent County Sheriff’s decision to require judicial warrants in order for the Kent County Sheriff’s office to hold people in the jail for ICE.
The Captain would not answer the question and instead suggested that we submit a FOIA request to obtain that information. Someone responded by say, “You want us to submit a FOIA, which means you want us to pay money to submit a FOIA request, which will likely take months to get information about whether or not your office requires a judicial warrant to hold people for ICE?”
Several people asked follow up questions, but the representative from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office failed to provide any concrete information, with no commitment to transparency or accountability. You can watch the interaction between members of GR Rapid Response to ICE and someone from the Sheriff’s office.
Of course none of this was surprising, since this is how cops deal with the public, by making them jump through hoops to get information and disregard public concerns over the treatment of immigrants.
Lastly, it is important to note that the Guatemalan man who was arrested by the GRPD on Sunday was taken from the Kent County Jail by ICE just before GR Rapid Response to ICE members showed up to question the Kent County Sheriff.
New video shows how economic and political power functions in Grand Rapids to benefit the those who have deep pockets
A new Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce video was released last week and focuses on the progress of the CWD Real Estate Investment’s property at 111 Lyon in downtown Grand Rapids.
The video features the GR Chamber’s government affairs liaison Josh Lunger talking with one of the partners of CWD Real Estate Investment Sam Cummings.
The irony of having Lunger and Cummings featured in this video is that Cummings has been a part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure for decades and Lunger was instrumental in lobbying state legislators to change a law that will allow developers to use public dollars when converting former office space into housing.
In a July article I wrote about how the Chamber and Cummings collaborated to change state law to benefit developers:
At a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce event this past Spring, Sam Cummings talked about a state law that was adopted in 2023, which amended the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act. This amendment made housing development projects, like the One Eleven Lyon project eligible for brownfield capture. Cummings made these remarks at the Spring conference held by the GR Chamber of Commerce, which contributed to LaGrand’s campaign for Mayor and subsequence campaigns for State Representative, which is nothing more than influence peddling by people like Cummings, who has a long history of using public funds to expand his wealth.
Sam Cummings sent a message to the Grand Rapids City Commission in late 2020, where he berated City officials for not taking $500,000 from Kent County to purchase more technology for the GRPD, known as ShotSpotter. The community, particularly Black and Brown communities organized a campaign to defeat ShotSpotter, but that didn’t prevent Cummings from going off on City officials who, in this case, actually listened to people who don’t have deep pockets like Cummings.
As was mentioned, Josh Lunger helped to lobby state legislators to change a law that will allow developers to use public dollars when converting former office space into housing. As Cummings is giving a tour of the 111 Lyon building to Lunger, where they are talking about billiard tables and pickleball courts, Cummings says the new 140 apartment units will be the coolest place to live in Grand Rapids. What Cummings didn’t say was what these apartments will cost. We all know that these apartments will only be affordable for people who are part of the professional class, people who make well over six-figure salaries, which is the kind of people that the GR Chamber of Commerce and the City of Grand Rapids have been trying to attract in recent decades.
On top of all of that, it is important to note that Josh Lunger was also the main GR Chamber of Commerce person who initiated the discussion around the “problem” of unhoused people in downtown Grand Rapids. In the summer of 2022, Lunger sent a letter to the Grand Rapids City Commission on behalf of the GR Chamber of Commerce about how business owners and some residents of downtown GR were upset about the “homeless, which you can read here.
Josh Lunger then took the next step on behalf of the GR Chamber of Commerce in December of 2022, where he sent another letter that proposed the City of Grand Rapids adopt ordinances that would criminalize the unhoused in downtown Grand Rapids. Lunger and the GR Chamber got over 100 of their friends to endorse the proposal to criminalize the unhoused, which can read here.
In the summer of 2023, the City of Grand Rapids then adopted two ordinances that essentially fulfilled the GR Chamber’s proposal intent, despite their being significant public opposition to the ordinances.
This new video from the GR Chamber of Commerce is another clear example of how political and economic power function in this city and why we have to resist this kind of influence peddling. If we don’t resist, we allow members of the Capitalist Class to dictate the future of Grand Rapids.
Commemorating immigrants that have died while in US Detention Centers during a Day of the Dead vigil in Grand Rapids
On Saturday over 100 people gathered outside the ICE office at 517 Ottawa NW in downtown Grand Rapids to participate in an vigil cosponsored by Movimiento Cosecha, GR Rapid Response to ICE, No Detention Centers in Michigan and the ACLU.
The vigil was part of a national Communities not Cages campaign that was coordinated by the Detention Watch Network. In the Detention Watch Network toolkit for the event it states:
The Day of the Dead National Days of Action is designed to honor lives lost to immigration detention as a part of the Communities Not Cages campaign. Immigration detention is deadly and inherently inhumane — what we’re seeing now is heightened cruelty under the Trump administration. Shockingly, there have been at least 25 deaths in ICE custody since Trump’s inauguration, a record number of deaths within a calendar year since 2006. Take action as we collectively honor, remember, and grieve lives lost in ICE custody.
ICE detention centers have always been cruel spaces of oppression directed at undocumented immigrants since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003. In “Deadly Failures,” a 2024 report by the ACLU, American Oversight, and Physicians for Human Rights, independent medical experts found that 95 percent of deaths in detention were deemed as being preventable or possibly preventable if ICE had provided clinically appropriate medical care. Additional investigations into deaths in immigration detention include Code Red: The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention, Fatal Neglect: How ICE Ignores Deaths in Detention and Systemic Indifference: Dangerous and Substandard Medical Care in US Immigration Detention. These reports have found that ICE medical care has contributed to numerous deaths and that the agency lacks urgency and transparency when reporting deaths in its custody. 
The Day of the Dead vigil outside of the ICE office at 517 Ottawa was facilitated by Rev. Greta Jo Seidohl, who did a great job of creating an atmosphere of grief and mourning, for those that attended the vigil.
Gema Lowe with Movimiento Cosecha then provided clarity around the importance of Dia de Los Muertos in Mexican culture, which included handmade crosses that Cosecha members made to honor the 25 people who have died in ICE Detention Centers since the beginning of the 2025. Gema also talked about the work that Movimiento Cosecha is involved in, including the boycott campaign that is targeting the businesses that Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand owns.
Pastor Ricardo Angarita then addressed the crowd with additional comments about the significance of the Day of the Dead and how it relates to the national campaign to reflect on and remember the 25 immigrants that have died while in ICE Detention Centers throughout the US. Pastor Ricardo then offered up a Christian prayer.
Rev. Nathan Dannison from Fountain Street Church was the next person to address the crowd, specifically to read the names of the 25 immigrants who have died while in ICE Detention Centers in the US since the beginning of the year. Rev. Dannison asked people to say the word Presente! after each name was invoked and the location of the ICE Detention Center they died in. He also asked people to lift up the 25 crosses that Cosecha members had made while everyone said Presente!
Here is the list of those who have died in ICE Detention Centers since the beginning of the year:
After acknowledging those who have died in ICE Detention Centers a representative from No Detention Centers in Michigan played audio from someone who had recently been released from the North Lake ICE Detention Center in Baldwin, Michigan, followed by a second audio recording of someone who is still locked up there. Lauren Ann Coman then read in English what both men had said in Spanish.
Lastly, a representative from GR Rapid Response to ICE spoke to offer up ways that people can become actively involved in resisting ICE in the Grand Rapids area. One thing that they emphasized was that they did not want to come back here next year and listen to a new list of immigrants who had died while in an ICE Detention Center, saying, “we need to move from protesting ICE to actively resisting ICE terrorism.”
People who held up the handmade crosses when the names of the immigrants who have died in ICE Detention Centers since the beginning of this year were then asked to place them in front of the ICE Office at 517 Ottawa.
Someone from Movimiento Cosecha videotaped the entire vigil, which you can watch here, with the formal part of the vigil begins at 25 minutes into the video.
Photographs taken by Viviana Rubio
It has been 25 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Thousands of Unexploded Bombs Dropped by Israel Have Turned Gaza into a Minefield
The Aftermath of a Massive Wave of Israeli Airstrikes that Killed Over 100 Palestinians
The World Confronts the Genocide Washington is Trying to Bury
The Powerful Who Stand with Israel
A Torturous Sanitation Disaster Is Unfolding in Gaza’s Displacement Camps
UN Human Rights Office Warns Israeli Settler Violence in West Bank Is “Surging”
Israel and US Scorn ICJ Ruling Against Starving Civilians as Method of Warfare
WE ASKED PEOPLE IN GAZA WHAT THEY THINK OF THE CEASEFIRE: “JUST A DECLARATION, NOT REALITY”
Analysis & History
HI-TECH HOLOCAUST: HOW MICROSOFT AIDS THE GAZA GENOCIDE
Image used in this post is from https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/10/30/the-powerful-who-stand-with-israel/
I was invited to submit some entires for the Zinn Education Project’s social media popular education platform known as This Day in History
Last week someone with the Zinn Education Project sent me a message asking if I would like to submit some pieces for their online popular education tool known as This Day in History.
I was delighted and honored to be invited to submit some options and the three that I cam up with are: the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike, November 4, 1985 Calvin students take action on getting the school to divest from South African Apartheid, and June 28, 2018 – Beginning of the End the Contract with ICE Campaign.
I wanted to submit several clear examples over the past century, all of which demonstrate people power. Minutes after I submitted them, all three were approved by the Zinn Education Project and will be included on their social media platforms.
1911 Grand Rapids Furniture Workers Strike
The 1911 strike was founded on longstanding worker grievances. As early as 1909, the workers discovered that the price of the furniture they produced had increased by 10%, and they demanded that their wages be increased. Some of the workers who called for the increase were fired shortly thereafter for being agitators.
The furniture workers strike began in the Spring of 1911, with estimates of between 4,000 – 6,000 workers going on strike, and with thousands more in support of the strikers. Just prior to the beginning of the strike, the Grand Rapids Employers Association sent Francis Campau to deliver a message to the press, in order to influence public opinion, that workers were being treated fairly. Francis Campau was the grandson of the brother of Louie Campau, the so-called founder of Grand Rapids.
Furniture workers, on the other hand, had a very different view of life working in those factories. One important source that reflected the worker’s perspective was a booklet called, History of the Grand Rapids Furniture Strike: With Facts Hitherto Unpublished. This documented was created by Viva Flaherty, a secretary at Fountain Street Church and a known Socialist. Flaherty documented the 1911 strike because she believed that the “people of Grand Rapids are awakened and enlightened and they can be trusted with the whole truth.”
Flaherty makes it clear in her version of the story that the strike was able to endure because of the seven unions that were involved, with membership of over 4,000 workers in thirty-five shops in Grand Rapids. She also documented that the Christian Reformed Church would not grant their members the right to be part of the union, since labor rights and organizing were not “founded on divine right.”
Flaherty documents the kind of wages earned by those in the furniture industry, stating that of the eight thousand furniture workers employed in Grand Rapids, most made less than $2 a day.
The Catholic leader, Bishop Schrembs, came out in support of the strike, stating, “I consider the present labor situation in our city as a most deplorable one from every point of view.” Bishop Schrembs was later banished to the Diocese of Toledo for his solidarity with furniture workers.
The strike ended in August of 1911 and the workers did not win the demands they had hoped. However, they did win lots of public support. During the 1911 Labor Day parade, there were an estimated 10,000 people walking in the parade. The Grand Rapids Furniture Barons, were not happy with worker demands and how much support there was from the city government. In 1916, the Furniture Barons put forward a ballot initiative that changed the City Charter from a 12 ward system to a 3 ward system, in order to consolidate their power. The current ward system we have in Grand Rapids today, is a direct result of those in power punishing workers and their families.
For additional information, see the book, “A People’s History of Grand Rapids”, by Jeff Smith
November 4, 1985 Calvin students take action on getting the school to divest from South African Apartheid
The South African Anti-Apartheid movement was a global movement that took decades to dismantle the legal system of apartheid in South Africa.
In Grand Rapids, there were several anti-Apartheid campaigns that were successful, including the Grand Rapids Public Schools and the City of Grand Rapids. Both of those entities adopted resolutions and put in place practices to divest from companies profiting off of the racist system of Apartheid in South Africa.
A third campaign was led by students from what was then called Calvin College. The students would then recruit Calvin faculty to be part of the campaign, which was eventually successful. What follows is a letter from one of the student organizers to Calvin administrators, a letter that was dated November 4, 1985.
Dear Priorities Committee Member,
The following is a copy of a motion passed unanimously by Student Senate at its October 28 meeting. Part of the request was that the faculty join the Student Senate in making this resolution. This resolution now comes before the Priorities Committee for our discussion regarding its presentation to the entire faculty.
In the summer of 1984, the Synod of the Christian Reformed Church condemned the Biblical defense of apartheid as heresy. The the autumn of 1985 apartheid remains the official policy of the South African government. Under this system of racial segregation, the injustice of minority oppression continues. Therefore, in keeping with the spirit of the Synod’s decision, we the Student Senate of Calvin College, resolve to commit ourselves to take the following action as a manifestation of our strong disapproval of the policy of apartheid and as an expression of our sincerest desire to see the system of apartheid dismantled and replaced by a system that recognizes the equality and oneness of all people before God their Creator: The Student Senate strongly urges Calvin College to divest itself of all holdings in corporations currently doing business in South Africa or transacting business with the government of South Africa.
Student Senate also mandates the Student Senate Executive Committee to draft letters to the companies from which we are recommending the divestment of Calvin College’s holdings expressing Student Senate’s concern regarding involvement in South Africa and explaining the reasons for our action.
Student Senate urges the Faculty to join us in making this resolution.
Very Truly yours,
Craig Knot
Student Body President
For more information on the Grand Rapids anti-Apartheid Movement, especially source material, go to this link and read Chapter 6 of A People’s History of Grand Rapids by Jeff Smith.
June 28, 2018 – Beginning of the End the Contract with ICE Campaign
On Thursday, June 28th, 2018, roughly 250 people showed up to the Kent County Commission meeting, a turnout that is rarely seen at such meetings. People with Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE had been planning for months to attend the commission meeting and demand that they end the contract between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department.
Organizers waited until the Public Comment period of the commission meeting and after a few people spoke, a few dozen people occupied the space in the commission chambers, where the Kent County Commissioners sat during the meetings. Some people unfurled a large banner that said, Kent County Separates Families, End the Contract!
Most of the Kent County Commissioners got up and left the meeting, with a just a few of them remaining. The End the Contract campaign organizers asked people to come to the podium and have a People’s Hearing, where dozens of people, primarily those impacted by ICE violence, spoke about the fear they experienced, fear of arrest, fear of detention and fear of deportation. For more than an house the People’s Hearing was conducted, essentially taking over the Kent County Commission meeting.
This was the first action taken in the End the Contract Campaign, which lasted until the following year, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided to end their contract with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, primarily because of all the negative and national press generated from the protests and the abusive actions of ICE and Cops in Grand Rapids.
It should be noted that the Kent County Commission, nor the Sheriff’s Department, called for an end to the ICE contract. In fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), is the entity that ended the contract with Kent County, primarily because of how much media attention the End of Contract campaign was getting. The amount of attention was two fold. First, the 14 month efforts of Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE engaged in numerous Direct Actions that not only confronted Kent County officials, it engaged the public and generated a tremendous amount of media attention. Second, when an off-duty GRPD Captain contacted ICE about a former US Marine, whom the cop thought was an undocumented immigrant, the national media began to pay attention to the absurdity and immorality of the racist profiling of immigrants. Thus, ICE ended their contract with Kent County in September of 2019.
For additional information, see Chapter 9 from A People’s History of Grand Rapids.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 