MiBiz article on Drivers Licenses for All leaves out immigrant organizers in their reporting
Earlier this week, MiBiz published an article announcing that State Senator Stephanie Chang would be introducing legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a drivers license in Michigan.
The article provides some of the basic arguments for supporting drivers licenses for all, such as it increases public safety and it is good for the economy.
Besides the comments from Sen. Chang, there are also supporting comments from the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) and the Michigan Farm Bureau.
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce declined to respond, saying they “don’t have formal policy positions on the issue.”
The article does acknowledge that there is already clear opposition to the proposed legislation, coming directly from Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield, who said that providing drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants, “encourages undocumented immigration.” Chatfield’s position is naive and reflects that he has no idea why people who are undocumented takes such great personal risk to come to the US. This attitude was also recently expressed by State Senator Tom Barrett who voiced his opposition to drivers licenses for all, saying:
“We have to respect the laws of our country, not encourage or reward people for being here illegally.”
Another opponent to the proposed legislation that was cited in the MiBiz article, was Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young. The Kent County Sheriff stated immigrants who were able to obtain drivers licenses prior to 2008:
“That created identity theft issues. Essentially with a couple pieces of paper, someone could create an identification for themselves.”
The most glaring omission from the MiBiz article is that we don’t hear the opinions or perspectives of those who would most benefit from the proposed drivers license legislation, namely the immigrant community. This is a particularly egregious omission, especially since the largest immigrant led movement in Michigan, Movimiento Cosecha, has not only made drivers licenses for all the focus of their organizing over the past year, they also got Gov. Whitmer to publicly endorse drivers licenses for all in early August, when they spoke with Michigan’s Governor at the Democratic debates being held in Detroit.
In addition, one could argue that the whole reason that Senator Chang is going to introduce drivers licenses for all legislation in the coming weeks, is precisely because the immigrant community, especially through the organizing of Movimiento Cosecha, has made drivers licenses for all a central immigrant justice issue. Unfortunately, this seems to not be on the radar of the reporters at MiBiz.
The Business Roundtable, MiBiz and the free-market lie
On August 19, the Business Roundtable, a coalition of the most powerful corporations in the US, released a statement “revising” their Purpose of a Corporation.”
MIBiz reported on this announcement, included a copy of the text of the Purpose of a Corporation and provided two responses to the statement from the Business Roundtable. The responses were the CEO of Steelcase and a GVSU professor of business, Tim Syfert.
The Business Roundtable was founded in 1972. This group is different than the Chamber of Commerce, in that they are only made up of large corporations and not all businesses, like the Chamber.
The Business Roundtable also exists as a way for corporations to collectively lobby Congress at the federal level. According to OpenSecrets.org, the Business Roundatable spent $23 million on lobbying in 2018 and $27 million in 2017. Since 1998, when OpenSecrets started tracking this data, the Business Roundtable has spent on average $15 million a year lobbying Congress on public policy.
The responses from the CEO of Steelcase and the GVSU business professor both accept the fundamental premise of the statement and the purpose of corporations. And while the GVSU professor provides some mild criticisms around the issue of sustainability, neither of these responses provides any serious examination of the Business Roundtable Purpose of a Corporation statement.
An anti-Capitalist response
The Business Roundtable statement begins with this sentence:
We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.
There is no evidence to support such claims that the free-market system will do all the things this statement claims. The notion that the free-market generates “good jobs” is a joke. How many people in the world have a job that pays a living wage, provides just health benefits, a just pension and allows people to have lots of vacation time?
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When it comes to the free-market and a healthy environment, no one in their right mind would say that this has been true. The free-market system is dependent upon fossil fuels, which has caused and is continuing to cause massive levels of environmental destruction, from the extraction of fossil fuels, the transportation of fossil fuels and the burning of fossil fuels.
The Purpose of a Corporation statement then identifies 5 “stakeholders” that they are committed to, listed here below. We provide a brief response to each of these points, which are in bold.
- Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations. It’s all about consumers, not human beings. Capitalism needs consumers. Capitalism does not want people to critical think human or believe they have agency. Capitalism convinces the public that they need most of the environmentally destructive, toxic and unhealthy products that are produced by corporations. Food Justice advocates have been saying for years that most of the food that is sold in grocery stores is more like food stuff, highly processed and unhealthy for humans to consume.
- Investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits. It also includes supporting them through training and education that help develop new skills for a rapidly changing world. We foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect. What exactly does fairly compensate even mean? The Business Roundtable, like the Chamber of Commerce, has fought paying people a livable wage and providing them with just and full benefits. Using the language of “compensating them fairly” is nothing more than rhetorical, since most corporations have demonstrated over the past century that workers only get treated well when they fight for economic justice and workplace democracy.
- Dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers. We are dedicated to serving as good partners to the other companies, large and small, that help us meet our missions. Again, very vague language here. Ask yourselves, are farmers treated with respect and dignity in economic terms, by how they are compensated from food brokers, food processing corporations or grocery stores? Most small farmers work long hours and rarely are they fairly compensated for their work in growing food. Large farmers are more likely to survive, since they are compensated by the US Farm Bill, which is a form of government subsidies and has nothing to do with the free-market” system.
- Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses. There are examples in every community that corporations operate where public health and a sustainable environment are disregarded. The list is long, but some examples are: what the coal industry has done to communities and the environment across the county; the pollution generated by corporations like Dow Chemical & Dupont; the deforestation caused by the paper industry or the beef industry; groundwater contamination from CAFOs that exist all over the country; look at what uranium and other mining corporation have done to local communities; and what about Wolverine Worldwide as a recent example of complete disregard for environmental and public health.
- Generating long-term value for shareholders, who provide the capital that allows companies to invest, grow and innovate. We are committed to transparency and effective engagement with shareholders. Corporations and their commitment to shareholders is actually a true statement, since they need people to buy into the shareholder model, allowing corporations to use people’s money to do whatever they want. On the matter of transparency, corporations do practice this to a degree with shareholders, but NOT with the public. In fact, corporations are fundamentally totalitarian entities which are not accountable to the public. You can not walk into a corporation and demand access to documentation or to observe their manufacturing processes. Well, you can demand these things, but most corporations will remove you, forcibly if necessary, from their property and not allow you to come back.
This newly revised Purpose of a Corporation statement is nothing more than rhetorical window dressing and means little considering how many people in the US are living in poverty, how many people cannot afford housing & health care, and how corporations are one of the largest contributors to the Climate Crisis we are all facing.
A brief overview of the US Labor Movement: Part II – Grand Rapids
In Part I, we discussed the history of the labor movement throughout the US, how it went from a more radical movement that primarily relied on direct action then shifted to backing the Democratic Party as a means of achieving their goals. Today, we want to provide an overview of the labor movement in the greater Grand Rapids area.
Despite the overly religious aspects of Grand Rapids history and the politically conservative stereotype, there has always been a dissident and insurgent element in Grand Rapids.
An effort to organize for an 8 hour work day in Grand Rapids was actually adopted for city workers in 1867, but it was repealed the very next year. (The Story of Grand Rapids: A Narrative of Grand Rapids, Michigan, by Z.Z. Lydens)
Labor organizers were fighting to win a shortened work day as early as 1881. One can barely make out this clip from the Grand Rapids Daily Eagle, which shows that workers were attempting to fight for a 10 hour work day.
These efforts were eventually fought in a highly organized manner from the capitalist class, with the creation of the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association, the first of its kind, in 1881. This battle continued for decades and its resistance was most visible in the 1911 furniture workers strike, which, amongst other demands, was fighting for an 8 hour work day.
However, even prior to the famous 1911 Furniture Workers Strike, there were other strikes in Grand Rapids. There was the threat of a strike in 1886, the same year that Grand Rapids had an 8 hour work day/May Day parade in the downtown area. There was also a major strike in 1891, involving both cable and horse car workers.
The 1911 Furniture Workers Strike
We have been researching this historic event over the years and want to offer the following information for those who want to familiarize themselves with this history, learn from it and think about the significance of working class tactics for todays organizing efforts.
First we highly recommend Jeffrey Kleiman’s book, Strike: How the Furniture Workers Strike of 1911 Changed Grand Rapids.
In addition, on the Grand Rapids People’s History site, we have written or republished numerous articles based on our own research over the years as it relates to the 1911 Grand Rapids Furniture workers strike.
First is a two-part article written by Michael Johnston, who is know by many as the unofficial labor historian of Grand Rapids. In Part I of his two-part series, Johnston provides important historical context, a context that led to the massive worker walkout on April 19 of 1911.
In Part II, Johnston writes about the role that the IWW (industrial Workers of the World) played in the 1911 strike and how the local power structure and even many of the other unions saw them as a threat.
We also include in this primer on the 1911 furniture workers strike, some articles about other factors that played into the outcome of the strike. First, we look at the role of religion and how Christian Reformed Church members were told not to participate in the strike, while the Catholic Bishop at the time was in full support of the striking workers.
Then there are those who documented the strike at the time. We wrote a piece that contrasted the observations of Viva Flaherty, a socialist, who provides a great reflection on what happened during the 1911 strike, and how one of the Furniture barons (R. W. Irwin) documented what took place.
In another article we have written, we note that there were 10,000 workers marching in the Labor Day parade in 1911. Not only was this an impressive number of workers, but it was essentially about 10% of the entire population of Grand Rapids in 1911. Imagine if 10% of working class people took part in a contemporary Labor Day parade or action.
Lastly, we include an article about the backlash from the 1911 furniture workers strike. The capitalist class was not happy about the 1911 strike, even though they ended up winning. However, those in power are never content with just winning certain battles, they want to prevent future attempts to challenge their power. What the Robber Baron class did was to change the City Charter, which resulted in decreasing the number of city wards to just 3 and eliminating a strong mayor position. The result of this charter change would make it harder for working class people to have real representation on the city commission and to make the mayor a glorified commissioner.
More often than not, Grand Rapids labor history ends with the 1911 Furniture Workers Strike. Fortunately, a great deal of organizing took place over the past century. For example, in 1936-37, there was the wildcat strikes in Flint, Michigan, organized by auto workers who wanted to unionize. The radical direct action efforts of the workers in Flint scared the business community enough to be willing to negotiate with angry workers in Grand Rapids, for fear that a wildcat strike might break out here. When people engage in radical direct action it pushes everything to shift. Workers in Grand Rapids were able to seize the moment created by the wildcat strike in Flint and mobilize workers here to push for greater demands and to unionize several thousand workers over the next several decades.
Each of these examples of labor organizing in Grand Rapids continued to build upon the growing push for workers to join unions. After the UAW and the CIO began organizing in Grand Rapids, union membership grew significantly. However, union leadership at the national level cut a deal with business leaders and the Roosevelt administration and agreed to not strike while the US was involved in World War II.
Despite the no-strike pledge, union membership in the US grew from 7.2 million in 1940 to 14.5 million at the end of WWII. However, the strikes began almost the moment that the bombs stopped dropping on Japan. In September 1945, 43,000 petroleum workers and 200,000 coal workers struck. In October 44,000 lumber workers, 70,000 teamsters, and 40,000 machinists joined them.
Then in November 1945, the UAW called its first major strike against GM since the company was unionized in 1937. Nearly a quarter of a million men walked out. In Grand Rapids, this same dynamic began where workers who had years of frustrations during the no-strike pledge of WWII began to challenge the capitalist class by engaging in walk outs and strikes.
In 1946, workers at the UAW Local 730 at the GM plant in Wyoming, Michigan were part of the national UAW strike that lasted for 113 days. (see photos above and below, sourced from The Story of the UAW Region 1-D) The UAW striking workers were fighting for better wages, pensions and improved working conditions, all of which were denied them during the no-strike pledge during WWII.
As we mentioned in yesterday’s article, there was a purge of communists in the US labor movement at the beginning of the Cold War and McCarthyism. This was also the case in Grand Rapids, which you can read about at this link.
We are still unclear if there was any serious attempt to organize migrant workers in West Michigan, like what the United Farm Workers were able to achieve in the 1960s and 70s, but there was a Migrant Worker Solidarity groups in the area at least since the late 1970s.
There is no better a symbol of anti-unionism in West Michigan, than the ultra conservative company founded by Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel, known as Amway. However, there was a serious effort to organize Amway workers in 1980, which almost succeeded, according to a series of articles written by Michael Johnston, which you can read about here.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, there were also efforts to organize against sweatshops, which was part of the larger anti-globalization movement.
The anti-globalization movement really took off after the 1999 WTO Protest in Seattle and there was even substantial organizing taking place in Grand Rapids. This type of anti-globalization organizing continued with resistance to NAFTA and CAFTA in Grand Rapids in 2004.
In the last decade, there have also been more radical labor organizing that has taken place in Grand Rapids, with the IWW being revived and gaining national recognition for their actions against Starbucks or the anti-austerity actions that have been organized to confront the policies of Gov. Snyder in 2011 and beyond.
Like the mainstream labor unions we mentioned in yesterday’s article, have continued to avoid direct action and place their hopes in the Democratic Party, there are examples of groups that are fighting for economic justice and using time honored labor tactics, like boycotts and strikes, such as the group Movimiento Cosecha GR.
Like at the national level, these new movements, often led by communities of color, are reviving labor struggles, even if their main focus is on issues like racial or immigrant justice. It is in these new movements that workers can regain their sense of power and give hope to a new generation.
A brief overview of the US Labor Movement: Part I
Today is Labor Day. Most people will enjoy the day off, relaxing with family and likely throwing something on the grill. It’s funny, that there is only one day of the year that is dedicated to celebrating working people. The reality is that working people are the very people who generate most of the wealth in the US, but they do not get to keep it.
The history of working class people and organized labor is something that we do not learn in the K – 12 education system and often not even at the university level. Business classes are the norm, even business majors, but working class history and how to organize unions are phrases that are rarely uttered in college classrooms.
The history of working class people organizing themselves has been part of the US from the very beginning, This history is complex and unions have not always made working class people the focus of their existence, especially people of color.
In the 19th century, labor unions in the US provided people with an opportunity to fight against the tyranny of capital. However, labor unions did not agree on the best way to achieve justice. One of the oldest union, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), particularly under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, believed that the system of capitalism was a fair system, but it needed organized labor for checks and balances. The AFL was essentially a business union and took the approach that workers should negotiate with businesses, rather than be antagonistic to the capitalist class.
On the other end of the spectrum there were radical unions such as the Knights of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which believed that capitalism was the enemy and that workers did not need bosses and should cooperatively manage economics that would benefit all working class people.
Unions like the IWW believed in using direct action tactics, such as strike, wildcat strikes, work slow-downs and work stoppages. The more radical unions also believed that anyone could join their union, as long as you were not a boss.
There were periods of massive labor unrest, where hundreds of thousands of workers were organized in such a way that challenged the power of the capitalist class. These periods included the 1880s – the end of the 19th century, the early part of the 20th century and the period just after the Great Depression. The power that organized labor demonstrated during the late 19th Century and up to the 1930s is well documented in books like, Prisoners of the American Dream: 
Politics and Economy in the History of the US Working Class, by Mike Davis; Strike, by Jeremy Brecher; and, The Fall of the House of Labor, by David Montgomery. For example, in the early 1930s, there were several thousand separate labor strikes, with more than a million workers participating in those strikes. One result of all the direct action of organized labor, was the policies adopted by the Roosevelt administration, also known as the New Deal. None of these policies would have been adopted without the direct action of organized labor.
However, when the US government formally made labor unions legal, with the passage of the Wagner Act in 1934, it began to shift the fight from the factory floor to the courts. This shift is well documented in David Montgomery’s book The Fall of the House of Labor, as well as by radical historian Howard Zinn who said:
Unions were not wanted by employers, but they were more controllable – more stabilizing for the system than wildcat strikes, the factory occupations of the rank and file.”
In fact, by 1946, the main demand in contract talks from the UAW at companies like General Motors, was “union responsibility for uninterrupted production.”
The Cold War and McCarthyism also saw most of the mainstream unions siding with the US government, where Communists were purged from union ranks and labor leadership cooperated with the McCarthy Hearings. This is also the period when the Taft-Hartley Act was adopted (1947). Taft-Hartley was essentially an anti-labor strike law that took away any real tactical power that unions had.
The post WWII period also saw another major shift with organized labor, which decided to back the Democratic Party. President Harry Truman got labor backing when he agreed to veto the Taft-Hartley Act, if the unions would get behind his re-election. Congress, with the support of many Democrats were able to override Truman’s veto, but Truman said that he would repeal it in his second term. Truman never even attempted to repeal Taft-Hartley and this began a process where the main unions abandoned any serious challenge to the capitalist class and started pumping millions of dollars into the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party has never really made working class concerns the center of their platform, but were able to keep organized labor loyal to their party (spending millions endorsing candidates) by arguing that the Republicans were worse when it came to economic matters. For more details on this history see The Democrats: A Critical History, by Lance Selfa.
There have been attempts to revise organized labor since the 1960s, with the farm workers movement, embodied by the UFW and FLOC, along with black-led labor insurgency in industrial sectors such as the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) in Detroit that began in 1968.
Other radical labor efforts have happened in the past few decades, with a revitalization of the IWW, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC), the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and Nurses Union and recent shifts amongst teacher unions across the country. However, union membership has continued to decline and working class movements are often marginalized.
If you go to the Labor Day Celebration in Grand Rapids today, you will see lots of tables for Democratic candidates. In addition, there will be numerous Democratic candidates speaking to the crowd about the importance of backing the Democratic Party. What you will not hear are working class people talking about strikes or other forms of direct action being used against companies that want to suppress worker rights.
While this does not paint a terribly positive picture about the power of working class people, there are efforts outside of mainstream unions that are demonstrating the power of organized labor. We mentioned the teacher unions that have won major victories in the last few years in several states across the country. There is also a growing immigrant justice movement that is seeking to use the power of boycotts and strikes to win the demands of immigrants.
Organized labor can be a threat to the interests of the capitalist class, but only if it organizes itself with goals that are inherently anti-capitalist. Organized labor can be a threat to the capitalist class if it uses Direct Action tactics and if it see itself as part of larger social movements like the immigrant justice movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Queer & trans liberation movements or the Climate Justice movement. Labor Unions which are not part of these lager liberation movements will signal the death of organized labor.
In Part II, we will discuss the history of the labor movement in the Grand Rapids area.
Foundation Watch: Cheri DeVos and the CDV5 Foundation
The Cheri DeVos Foundation, also known as the CVD5 Foundation, is probably the least known of the DeVos family foundations. This is not surprising, as Cheri DeVos is not in the news like her other siblings, Dick, Doug and Dan. However, the lack of media attention, doesn’t mean that Cheri DeVos doesn’t have the same ideological commitments as the rest of the family.
Besides being born into the DeVos family wealth, Cheri DeVos owns numerous brands throughout the area. She owns CDV5 Property Management, that new restaurant on the corner of Wealthy & Fuller – Hancock, MSA Fieldhouse, MSA Sport Spot, MSA Woodland, Ottawa Beach General Store and Ada Village General Store. For more details on the various brands owned by Cheri DeVos, click here.
On the CDV5 Foundation website, it says, “We partner with select causes and organizations that are closely aligned with our passions.” So lets see what the foundation’s passions are that they contribute large sums of money to and what that means.
We looked at the three most recent years (2015 – 2017) of 990 documents for the CDV Foundation, as provided by the site Guidestar. According to Guidestar, this foundation has $61.5 million in assets. Some of the larger contributions from the CDV5 Foundation went to similar areas or entities as the other DeVos foundation supported.
(Public Education)
- Wake Forest $7,000,000
- Michigan State University $1,550,000
- Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation $770,000
(Private Education)
- Hope College $4,650,000
- Grand Rapids Christian School Association $2,875,000
- Ada Christian School Society $1,260,000
- Rehoboth Christian School Association $650,000
- Potters House $650,000
- ICCF $1,515,000 (all in 2017)
- Grand Rapids Whitewater Inc. $1,275,000
- Kids Food Basket $1,150,000
- Bethany Christian Services $685,000
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy $300,000
- AmplifyGR $160,417
Most of these contributions from the CDV5 Foundation are consistent with contributions from the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation, the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation and the Dan & Pamela DeVos Foundation.
Like the other DeVos foundations, the CDV5 Foundation made significant contributions to private Christian schools, which certainly fits within the family’s ideological framework. What may not seem so predictable is the funding that the CDV5 Foundation has provides in recent years to the Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation ($770,000), which is a funding arm of the Grand Rapids Public Schools.
Providing funding to the Grand Rapids Public Schools may seem to fall outside of the ideological commitments of the DeVos family, but that is because much of the public has been unaware of the DeVos families efforts to transform the GRPS. As we noted in our recent post on the Doug & Maria DeVos Foundation, that foundation contributed $1,122,800 to the Grand Rapids Student Advancement Foundation, along with the fact that Maria DeVos sits on the board of that foundation.
Another significant common recipient of DeVos foundation money has been the Inner City Christian Federation (ICCF). Above we noted that the CDV5 Foundation contributed $1,515,000 to ICCF in 2017, which is the same year that other DeVos foundations contributed over $1 million each, along with other families in the Grand Rapids Power Structure. These contributions to ICCF coincided with the their announced partnership with AmplifyGR.
Other notable contributions from the CDV5 Foundation, as listed above, shows that Cheri DeVos also has support right wing think tanks like the Mackinac Center and has contributed to charity groups like Kids Food Basket, which do not have a commitment to ending the causes of hunger or poverty. Like the other DeVos family foundations, the CDV5 Foundation contributes to numerous charity-based entities because it is great PR for the family and because they know that these charity-based groups will not challenge or question the role that the DeVos families plays in creating poverty and increasing the wealth gap in Michigan.
It has been two days since it was announced that Captain Kurt VanderKooi, the GRPD officer who called Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, was formally suspended for two hours for his biased and racist actions.
Most of the daily news sources have reported on the matter, including MLive, WOOD TV 8, WZZM 13 and WXMI 17.
All four of these news outlets provided the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association with an opportunity to respond to the revelation that VanderKooi was suspended for two days, but only channel’s 8 and 17 reprinted the entire statement from the police union.
“The Grand Rapids Police Command Officer’s Association is shocked and dismayed at how the rights of Captain Curt VanderKooi, who has served the City of Grand Rapids for nearly 40 years with honor and integrity, could have his rights so blatantly violated in an effort to discipline him for the first time in his career. His due process rights, the GRPCOA collective bargaining agreement, along with state law were trampled on throughout the Citizen’s Appeal Board process and now by the final disposition issued by the City Manager. He, and many others in City Hall, were put on notice and advised of these violations in the form of our grievance which was originally filed May 23, 2019. We were forced to file this grievance after he was cleared of the most serious accusations following an unprecedented three iterations of the same investigation.
Captain VanderKooi was given a two day suspension, which has recently been served. The City Manager advised the GRPCOA that he was willing to uphold the original exoneration in exchange for his agreement to retire. This discipline was unwarranted and is clearly an attempt to appease a vocal group of activists who made him a scape goat for their own political gain. We will be amending the grievance to appeal this most recent decision by the City Manager. We are also awaiting a very copious FOIA request involving all the communication reference this investigation and those involved in it. Captain VanderKooi is pleased to announce he has decided to postpone his original retirement date in 2020 and looks forward to serving the citizens and crime victims in the City of Grand Rapids as Commander of the Investigations Unit for an additional year.”
It is instructive to note that the only part of the police union statement that was contested in the news coverage, had to do with the conversation between the police union and City Manager Mark Washington. The point in question was specifically about whether or not the City Manager offered to exonerate VanderKooi if he was willing to take an early retirement.
However, this shouldn’t be the central issue surrounding VanderKooi’s two-day suspension. There are more important issues that should have taken front and center in the local news stories.
First, there is no formal response from Jilmar Ramos’Gomez’s family or his lawyer, there is no response included from the ACLU or the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, there was no response included by the Grand Rapids Civilian Appeals Board, and there was no response included by GR Rapid Response to ICE or Movimiento Cosecha GR, all of which took public positions on this matter and the later two entities even called for VanderKooi to be fired for the harm he caused Ramos-Gomez.
Second, there was no inquiry made by the local news agencies, asking for a response to the claims made by the police union in reference to the 2-day suspension:
“This discipline was unwarranted and is clearly an attempt to appease a vocal group of activists who made him a scape goat for their own political gain.”
This claim by the Grand Rapids Police Officer’s Association is not only baseless, but it is a deflection from the actual harm done by VanderKooi’s decision to contact ICE on Jilmar Ramos-Gomez. More importantly, reprinting parts or all of the police union’s response to the 2-day suspension and NOT examining such a statement, is an indication that the local news media does not and will not hold the GRPD accountable for the harm they are doing in this community.
Third, there is plenty of attention in the local news coverage surrounding VanderKooi’s two-day suspension, that he must attend some additional training sessions and that VanderKooi has decided to delay his retirement. Again, there is little attention to the fact that Jilmar Ramos-Gomez actually spent 3 days in ICE detention because of VanderKooi. There seems to be little concern of how the detention impacted Ramos-Gomez and there is little or no concern over how this issue impacted the larger immigrant community.
None of the news agencies seem concerned with how Jilmar Ramos-Gomez was victimized in this situation and how he must of felt when being put into the custody of ICE because of Captain VanderKooi. In addition, there seems to be no concern as to how the rest of the immigrant community feels about VanderKooi only having to serve a 2-day suspension. The immigrant community, in light of the minor consequences to VanderKooi, has to feel like racial profiling against their community is not taken very seriously by the City of Grand Rapids or the GRPD, considering VanderKooi only received a two-day suspension and the police union is challenging even that.
The news coverage of the 2-day suspension of Vanderkooi is symptomatic of larger issues, such as police accountability, how the GRPD contributes to the harm being done to the immigrant community and the larger mobilization of immigrants and allies fighting for immigrant justice. In every area listed above, the local news media has fallen short of providing the kind of reporting that asks hard questions and engages in critical analysis.
Kent County I-Bond Fund goes public with their efforts to raised bond money for immigrants who are being detained by ICE
Yesterday there was a kickoff event for the Kent County I-Bond Fund, a community bond fund that provides financial support to immigrants who are being detained by ICE.
The event was held at Tacqueria El Rincon Mexicano in Grand Rapids. Geoff Gillis and Richard Kessler facilitated the event, as well as introducing the history and purpose of the Kent County I-Bond Fund.
In addition to those directly involved with the creation of the I-Bond Fund, there were other people who spoke, those involved in doing immigrant justice work in West Michigan and members of the immigrant community who have already benefited from the fundraising efforts of the Kent County I-Bond Fund.
Both of the immigrants spoke about the importance of having a bond fund for those detained by ICE, shared their personal stories about enduring the trauma of being arrested and then being detained without knowing how long they would be in detention. In fact, they both said that had there not been efforts to raise funds for them, they both could very well still be in detention or even possibly deported. Both of these courageous women implored those in attendance to support the Kent County I-Bond Fund and how this is a concrete way for people in West Michigan to support immigrants who have been the targets of state violence.
In addition to members of the immigrant community who shared their stories, Gema Lowe, with Movimiento Cosecha GR, talked about the importance of the bond fund. Lowe named the ICE targeting members of the immigrant community as a form of kidnapping. She then said that the bond amount that the judge would set for people who were eligible for being bonded out, this bond money was in actuality a ransom that these families would have to pay in order to see the loved ones in detention. Gema also referred to the bond fund as, “community helping community.”
Sr. Mary Brigid Klingman also spoke briefly, by providing a religious and theological basis for people in the community to come to the aid of those who are being held in detention. Sr. Mary Brigid is a member of the Grand Rapids Dominicans.
One additional speaker was Amy Carpenter, who is a volunteer organizer with GR Rapid Response to ICE. Carpenter talked about how, as a person who carries a great deal of privilege, that they needed “to weaponize” their privilege. They also stated that it was really an honor to be involved in this work and that they have been fortunate to have learned to do this type of solidarity work from those in the immigrant community.
For those who want to keep up to date with the Kent County I-Bond Fund, you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Kent-County-IBOND-Fund-374417653364919/.
To donate to the Kent County I-Bond Fund, there are two options. You can go to a GoFundMe page and make a contribution online at https://www.gofundme.com/f/kent-county-ibond-fund or mail checks to Joy Like a River and send them to this address Kent County I-Bond Fund PO Box 150350, Grand Rapids, MI 49515.
The Grand Rapids Police Department has a fairly new program, where they are asking businesses and residents to register their security cameras, so the GRPD can expand their reach.
The new program, called citywatch gr, was recently being promoted on the Facebook page of the John Ball Area Neighbors. Someone from the neighborhood association must have received something in the mail, since they took pictures of the material and posted it on the Facebook page.
WXMI 17 also ran a story about the program earlier this summer. In their story they interviewed the owner of Mayan Buzz Cafe, who now has cameras registered with the GRPD, allowing the police department the opportunity to utilize footage from the various cameras located inside the cafe.
Here is a link to how you can register your security camera with the GRPD. The language used in this program is rather disturbing and is essentially a forum of state monitoring and surveillance that is increasing all across the country.
So what is the big deal? Why should we be concerned with the public sharing footage with the GRPD?
The editors of the book, Life During Wartime: Resisting Counterinsurgency, would argue the following:
“A shift in police philosophy, beginning in the 1970s, places domestic policing into a frame of counterinsurgency. Rather than seeking out the perpetrators when crimes have been committed, counterinsurgency emphasizes widespread surveillance and infiltration to identify and neutralize threats before they materialize. Based as it is on a war paradigm, counterinsurgency justifies police action on the basis of intent, suspicion, and association rather then the higher standards of evidence associated with a crime-fighting model. Within the logic of COIN (short for counterinsurgency), civil society is a breeding ground for subversion, crime and terror and must be closely monitored to guard against outbreaks.”
The authors of the book go on to say that, “Counterinsurgency policing exactly complements this conservative agenda by disrupting opponents of corporate power and suppressing the responses of the hardest hit communities.”
The GRPD would argue it wants access to your security camera footage, not just because they might want to find people who are responsible for crimes, but the real reason is so that the cops can potentially undermine the efforts of dissidents, radical groups or groups that they consider to be a threat to the local power structure. Just consider how many examples we have seen recently, where someone from the public caught on camera officers with the GRPD using violence against black and brown people. One could argue that this new program by the GRPD, to get people to register their security cameras, is a direct response to all the footage that people have taken of the GRPD, footage that demonstrates that the cops are a threat to public safety.
Also, as the private security sector expands, they will stop at nothing to make money by partnering with law enforcement, in what could be considered the surveillance industry complex. A recent example of this is where Amazon is providing free use of their security company Ring, if local police departments will advertise the company’s services.
To counteract this effort by the GRPD to recruit the public to help them monitor our communities, we encourage people to be involved in a CopWatch program, where the public monitors the activities and behavior of the GRPD.
A Momentary Celebration: ICE contracts, the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and how systems of oppression make tactical adjustments
As we reported on Saturday, there was another direct action done at the Kent County Jail, calling for an end to the contract with ICE.
Since the action on Saturday, the Kent County Sheriff’s office has released a statement that was reported on WOOD TV 8, which said:
“The current contract with ICE will expire on September 30, 2019 as ICE is not seeking to renew the agreement,” Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young said in a statement Sunday. “In January of this year, we adjusted our protocols within the correctional facility to manage the way we handled ICE requests for detainees. We have thoroughly evaluated this policy and determined it to be effective in protecting the community and in the safe and fair handling of persons of interest to ICE. Therefore, we intend to keep it as part of our standard operating procedure. As a result of the addition of our January protocol, ICE informed my office they would not be seeking a renewal of the contract. The Kent County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work collaboratively with ICE, as we do with all law enforcement agencies, to ensure public safety, due process, and the rule of law for all people in Kent County.”
There are several important responses to this statement.
The Power of Social Movements
First, GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR, the groups that have been fighting to end the contract between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, are both acknowledging that since ICE does not want to renew their contract with the county, that this is a victory for the immigrant justice movement in West Michigan. Furthermore, it must be said that everything that has happened around the ICE contract in the past 14 months has been due to the important work that GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR has done.
When the Kent County Sheriff said that ICE needed to obtain a judicial warrant in order to put holds on immigrants at the jail, this was due to the pressure of this movement. The fact that ICE has decided to not renew their contract with the county, this is also due directly to the work done over the past 14 months. And it should be stated that this work has included disrupting County Commission meetings, speaking at County Commission meetings, doing incredible education work in the community, holding rallies at the Kent County Jail, pressuring the Kent County Sheriff’s Department, circulating petitions, organizing marches and generating a great deal of news coverage, both local and national.
When Systems of Oppression Push Back
Second, it is also important to note that ICE is the one that has made the decision to not renew the contract with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. Back in March, both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security both condemned the county for their decision to require judicial warrants. ICE referred to Kent County’s decision to require judicial warrants as a “Sanctuary Policy.”
It is extremely important that we understand that the decision by ICE to not renew its contract with the Kent County Sheriff’s Department is a tactical shift on the part of ICE. Whenever movements for social justice make gains, systems of power and oppression will push back and make adjustments to further their power. For example, when chattel slavery was abolished in the US, white supremacist institutions adjusted by passing Jim Crow laws as a way of punishing and criminalizing the black community. Another example would be how corporations who have been under attack for their awful environmental practices have decided to practice green capitalism, which attempts to present companies as environmentally friendly, when in fact their very existence does harm to the environment.
And this is exactly what ICE is doing in Kent County. Yes, it is a victory for the immigrant justice movement that ICE does not want to renew their contract with the Sheriff’s Department. However, as we also pointed out in the article about the rally at the jail on Saturday, ICE has shifted their tactic to coming into the jail and apprehending undocumented immigrants who were in the process of getting out of the Kent County Jail, thus circumventing the need for a contract. The decision by ICE to come into the jail and then apprehend undocumented immigrants who were there for some minor offense, like an expired drivers license, makes complete sense. ICE is hoping that those who have been resisting the harm they have been doing in Kent County will feel like without a formal contract those resisting will just give up.
This brings us to the third point we want to make, a point which is reflected at the end of the statement made by the Kent County Sheriff’s office, when they stated:
“The Kent County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work collaboratively with ICE, as we do with all law enforcement agencies, to ensure public safety, due process, and the rule of law for all people in Kent County.”
Such a statement demonstrates how morally bankrupt the Kent County Sheriff’s Department really is. In other words, the Kent County Sheriff’s Department will do nothing to prevent ICE from apprehending undocumented immigrants who are in the process of getting out of the jail, AND in fact, they will cooperate fully with ICE to make sure that undocumented immigrants will be treated as criminals. Of course, the complicity that the Kent County Sheriff’s Department is guilty of with Immigration and Customs Enforcement has nothing to do with “public safety” or the “rule of law,” as suggested in the Sheriff’s statement.
Therefore, it is important that we understand that the Kent County Sheriff’s Department is enabling ICE to continue to terrorize the immigrant community in West Michigan. And once we understand this, we must continue to fight against ICE violence, we must continue to expose the complicity of the Kent County Sheriff’s office and we must continue to engage in organized resistance against this matrix of violence by adopting the only rational approach, which is to ABOLISH ICE.
If you are not already involved in the work of GR Rapid Response to ICE or Movimiento Cosecha GR, then by all means, join this movement for immigrant justice. If you are already involved in the work, then we thank you for the victory of ending the contract between ICE and Kent County, but we implore you to continue in the work to resist and Abolish ICE in this community.
Immigrant Justice groups rally at the Kent County Jail and Demand an end to the ICE Contract
Earlier today, about 50 people marched to the Kent County Jail to demand that the Kent County Sheriff’s Department end their contract with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Kent County Sheriff’s Department has had a contract with ICE since 2012.
The rally was organized by members of GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR, both of which have been working to end the contract since June of 2018.
Those who participated in the march were encouraged to go inside the jail. The crowd did come into the jail and began to chant for an End to the ICE Contract, fully expecting that the Sheriff’s Department or the GRPD would ask them to leave. Neither law enforcement agency showed up, so the organizers decided to hold their brief program in the lobby of the jail. This writer asked someone how it felt to be in that space, which is usually space that is frequented by families 
coming to see those who are being held in the jail or for those who are attempting to bond people out. “It felt liberating to be in here, making noise and disrupting the jail staff,” said one person who had never done anything like this before. It is important for social movements to take over or reclaim spaces that are the sites of oppression. Being in spaces like the jail can signal to people that they do have power, that they don’t need to sheepishly obey the dictates of those in authority and that these kinds of actions can help foster the kind of radical imagination we need to overthrown systems of oppression.
The program that took place inside the jail consisted of three different speakers. The first person to speak was Rosa, who shared her story about how her mom had been in the Kent County Jail because her license was expired. When Rosa’s mom was being processed out, ICE had already come into the jail and essentially took her into custody and then transported her to the 
Battle Creek detention facility. Ever since the Kent County Sheriff announced that they would be requiring a judicial warrant for ICE to put holds on people, ICE has shifted their tactics.
The next speaker, Nerida, was speaking on behalf of Movimiento Cosecha GR. Nerida also talked about how the ICE contract was impacting members of the immigrant community and why it needed to end. She spoke about the constant fear that her community experiences because of ICE. Nerida told those who had gathered for the rally to join the immigrant community in ending the ICE contract.
The last speaker was Karen, with GR Rapid Response to ICE. Karen read the following statement, which was an excerpt from a letter written by the legal counsel that represents the Sheriff’s Department:
Despite the declaration in January that the Sheriff’s Department would no longer hold immigrants in the Kent County Jail without a judicial warrant, the jail continues to cooperate with ICE. Here is an excerpt from a statement made by lawyers who represent Kent County. The statement was written in February, and regards a person who was seized by ICE on her release from the Kent County Jail.
The name of the person who was taken by ICE has been redacted to protect her identity.
“Since the Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young instituted a policy that she will not detain anyone for ICE without a judicial warrant, ICE has opted to be present and take physical custody instead of seeking a judicial warrant . . . In the situation of Ms. X, she was being processed out of the KCCF [Kent County Correctional Facility] custody in the normal course following the resolution through bond of the local charges. Since there was an I-247-detainer request, it is part of the normal process that ICE is made aware an individual is being processed for release . . . Prior to the completion of the normal processing-out procedure, an ICE officer appeared at the KCCF and took Ms. X into ICE custody and transported her to Calhoun County. Had the ICE officer not appeared prior to the completion of the release processing procedure, Ms. X would have left the KCCF without any restraint by the Kent County Sheriff Office. The Kent County Sheriff Office completed its processing out of Ms. X after she was taken into ICE custody.”
No matter what Kent County says about not holding immigrants without a judicial warrant, the fact is they continue to cooperate with ICE’s violent kidnapping of our immigrant neighbors and the separation of them from their community and families. The jail tells ICE when they are holding an undocumented immigrant. They alert ICE when that immigrant is being released from the jail. And they allow ICE inside the jail to seize that person–even before they have been processed out from the jail.
But this doesn’t have to be the case. Kalamazoo, after a week or so of protests, signed a resolution to defund all collaboration with ICE. The Dearborn City Council just four days ago decided not to renew its prisoner housing contract with Calhoun County after anti-ICE activists protested and showed up to the city council meeting.
It is time for Kent County to do the same, and show the immigrant community that it is welcome and safe here by not renewing this harmful and destructive contract.
After the brief program in the jail, the rally then marched to the administrative offices of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. Upon arriving at the administrative building, someone read a statement written by GR Rapid Response to ICE. The statement was pointing out the reasons why having a contract with ICE was unjust, plus it demanded that the Kent County Sheriff end the contract with ICE, a contract that is scheduled to expire on September 30 of 2019. People then attached the document to the front door of the administrative office, as well as placing yard signs in the lawn in front of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department administrative building.
Before end the rally, organizers made some announcements of other upcoming actions, which included a phone zap starting on Monday, where people were encouraged to call the Sheriff’s office and demand an end to the contract with ICE. People then marched back to where the action had started, just a few blocks from the Kent County Jail.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 
