My response to the claim that “it was not the time or place” for Movimiento Cosecha to protest at the debate in Detroit
Yesterday, we reported on the various actions taken by Movimiento Cosecha Michigan, in Detroit during the Democratic Presidential candidate debates.
There has been tremendous support for the actions that Movimiento Cosecha has taken in recent weeks, especially those actions that have confronted Joe Biden for his role in the deportation of 3 million immigrants, while acting as the VP in the Obama administration.
However, some people liberals and Democrats have not been supportive of the actions taken by Movimiento Cosecha. One commenter that was critical of the protests that disrupted the debates on Wednesday night, said:
Not the time or place. The behavior at tonight’s debate was disgraceful and unprecedented.
This statement is instructive on many levels, so lets spend some time unpacking it.
First, the action during the debate was NOT unprecedented. Dissidents have been interrupting political candidates for decades, which makes this observation false.
Second, why is what was done disgraceful? The two women who took action to disrupt Joe Biden were both immigrants who were speaking for the immigrant community. There is nothing disgraceful about speaking for your own community, even if it means disrupting a candidate debate. Movimiento Cosecha Michigan released a statement about why they disrupted the debate on Wednesday night. Here is part of what that statement said:
“Nearly every candidate has spoken out against the abuses immigrants are facing under the Trump Administration, but simply undoing the policies enacted by Trump is not enough. For decades, many in the Democratic Party have been complicit in attacks on the immigrant community. While Republicans fanned the flames of white supremacy with their anti-immigrant rhetoric, President Barack Obama campaigned on the promise of immigration reform but ended up deporting almost 3 million people — a record in our country’s history,” said Brenda Valladares, a spokesperson for the Cosecha Movement.
Such a statement is important, because we can’t simply blame the Trump administration for the immigration crisis. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have supported policies for decades that has led to where the US is now in regards to its immigration policy.
It is also important to acknowledge that the militarization of the US/Mexican border and the further criminalization of immigrants gained a tremendous amount of traction during the Clinton administration.
Here is an excerpt from President Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union speech:
“All Americans, not only in the States most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country. The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants. The public service they use impose burdens on our taxpayers. That’s why our administration has moved aggressively to secure our borders more by hiring a record number of new border guards, by deporting twice as many criminal aliens as ever before, by cracking down on illegal hiring, by barring welfare benefits to illegal aliens. In the budget I will present to you, we will try to do more to speed the deportation of illegal aliens who are arrested for crimes, to better identify illegal aliens in the workplace as recommended by the commission headed by former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. We are a nation of immigrants. But we are also a nation of laws. It is wrong and ultimately self-defeating for a nation of immigrants to permit the kind of abuse of our immigration laws we have seen in recent years, and we must do more to stop it.”
The same anti-immigrant rhetoric being used by the Trump administration has its roots in the Clinton administration. More importantly, in 1996, the Clinton administration passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. This law placed restrictions of up to ten years if undocumented immigrants were caught in the country without documents. This meant that if an undocumented immigrant was deported, they could not apply for any legal means to enter the country for at least ten years. In many ways, this immigration policy passed under the Clinton administration, fundamentally laid the groundwork for what the Trump administration is now doing.
This is not the time or place
Third, it is instructive that a member of the Democratic Party would make the statement, “this is not the time or place,” when referring to the Cosecha organized protest during the debate on Wednesday in Detroit. It is instructive for several reasons. The person making the statement has citizenship status and is not at risk of deportation, thus revealing their own privilege.
Another reason why it is an instructive statement is because it reflects the idea that people shouldn’t protest candidates, because it is through voting that we make progress in this country. I would imagine, however, that if people were interrupting President Trump while he was talking about immigration policy or any other Republican for that matter, the person who said “this is not the time or place” would probably not object to the interruption. Therefore, we can amend the previous statement to say that voting for Democrats is how we make progress in this country. This is essentially what it comes down to, in terms of the objection to Cosecha disrupting Joe Biden. What “this is not the time or place” really means is that protesting Democrats only benefits the Republicans and the chance that Trump will get re-elected. Such sentiment is not only false it is deeply displaced.
The appropriate question should be, why aren’t you as equally pissed off about candidates who do not hold their own party accountable for anti-immigration policies? Members of Movimiento Cosecha Michigan and immigrants in general are asking people who are not at risk of deportation, What are you doing to make sure that we don’t get arrested, detained and deported because of the unjust immigration policies in this country?
If you were upset or felt it was inappropriate for people to disrupt the Democratic Presidential candidate debate, I ask you – what have you done to fight, resist and organize to oppose the decades-long oppressive immigration policies of this country? When are you going to take direct action to expose, stop or prevent the arrest, detention and deportation of more immigrants? What are you willing to risk to be in solidarity with the 11 million undocumented immigrants who leave in constant fear of cops and ICE agents?
The action taken by members of Movimiento Cosecha to disrupt the debate on Wednesday was the perfect time and place to expose the complicity of the Democrats and to draw attention to the demands of the undocumented immigrant community, which is fighting for their very lives.
Cosecha Michigan Shut Down the US/Canada Tunnel, disrupted the debates and elevated the voices of immigrants in Detroit today!
(Editor’s note: I participated in the Cosecha Michigan actions today, in the capacity of doing crowd safety.)
With the national news media present for the 2nd night of debates between Democratic Presidential hopefuls, Movimiento Cosecha Michigan made their voices heard and put immigrant justice at the center of attention.
Several hundred people gathered at Hart Plaza around 4pm in downtown Detroit to make it known that despite the so-called debates taking place, the immigrant community had their own vision and their own demands that were not up for debate. The demands that Movimiento Cosecha has put forward for all presidential candidates are as follows:
- An End to All Detention & Deportations on Day 1.
- Immediate Legalization for all Undocumented Immigrants.
- Family Reunification For All – Dignity Not Deportation.
About 4:30pm, organizers with Movimiento Cosecha Michigan invited members of the Anishinaabe community to welcome people to the land that they were standing on, land that is still indigenous and land, land that does not recognize the manufactured border between the US and Canada. This acknowledgement helped to frame the theme and the actions of the day, actions that centered the lives and lived experiences of the immigrant community.
Several Cosecha organizers then spoke to the crowd that had gathered, both in English and in Spanish. Nelly Fuentes-Donnachello, a Cosecha organizer from Kalamazoo, then helped to reframe the message about immigrants and the Presidential debates. Nelly said that the candidates would be debating immigration policy and immigrant rights, but amongst the immigrant community there is no debate about their worth, about their opposition to detention & deportation, and their is no debate about their dignity as human beings. She also said that the candidates can debate these issues, but they do not speak for her, nor the 11 million undocumented immigrants current in the US.
Around 5pm, the crowd was invited to march down to the entrance to the tunnel that connects the US and Canada, where people would be doing civil disobedience in order to dramatize the harm that immigrant families experience on a daily basis.
Twenty one allies sat in the road, thus blocking traffic to the tunnel, traffic that was going to Canada and traffic that was coming into the US.
Members of the Detroit Police Department descended on the protestors quickly, although arrests were not made immediately. Eventually, the US Customs and Border Patrol also arrived on the scene to assist with the protest that also stopped traffic on Jefferson Avenue. You can see in the pictures below how many law enforcement officers were on the scene.
Eventually, those sitting in the road were arrested. During the arrests, there was celebratory applause from the crowd for each person who had been arrested. It was important for allies to be arrested, since it not only sends a strong message to the immigrant community about solidarity, but also because allies will not face the same treatment as immigrants who are picked up by ICE.
One ally who was arrested, Kaitlin Popielarz, wrote a brief statement about why she took action, saying:
“Along with 20 other allies/advocates/co-conspirators, I was arrested today while blocking a port of entry at the Detroit-Windsor tunnel. I put my body on the line in the struggle for immigration justice. Education justice is immigration justice. My civil disobedience today was because of my students, colleagues, comrades, and friends who have taught and shown me what it means to be in the movement for more Beloved shared futures.”
After the arrests, the crowd marched back to Hart Plaza, to prepare for the second part of the action, which was to march to where the debates were taking place. Over 100 people marched down Woodward Avenue, chanting and drawing a great deal attention from people who were sitting outside at various restaurants or just out enjoying the weather. The march had great energy and ended up close to where the debate between Democratic Presidential hopefuls was taking place.
However, there were two members of Movimiento Cosecha who were able to get inside the theater, where the debates were taking place. When Joe Biden was speaking, they both stood up and interrupted Biden, calling attention to the 3 million undocumented immigrants that were deported during the Obama/Biden administration. Immigrants understand this legacy and that the government criminalization of immigrants did not just begin with the Trump administration.
Several Michigan news agencies reported on the interruption by Cosecha members during the debate, but the action was also reported by national news outlets, like CNN.
At the end of the day, Movimiento Cosecha was able to organize a march, block the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, interrupt the Presidential debates and get their message out to millions of people across the country. Aqui Estamos y no, nos Vamos!
Yesterday, we sat down to interview two local education activists, Melissa Courtade and Jack Prince. The interview is just under 20 minutes and came about because of the difficult time both of these education activists had with attempting to access documents that were public.
As they discuss in the interview, it took nearly two months to get documents they had requested from the Grand Rapids Public Schools. They both followed the Freedom of Information Act requirements, but were given the run around for nearly two months.
As you will hear in the interview, the community members came back to the GRPS Administration building and demanded to talk with someone. After they told GRPS staff members that they had spoken with a lawyer about what was happening, the GRPS lawyer gave them over 200 pages of documents within a few hours.
The information these two education activists were requesting was basic information that should be readily available to anyone, especially to those who live in the district.
Racial & Class disparities in local public education: Another look at the recent GRPS school improvement article from MLive
(This article was written and submitted by former GRPS teacher, Jack Prince)
The M.Live article posted July 22 titled: See 55M in Grand Rapids Schools summer construction/improvement projects raises some real questions. Could not the bond passed five years ago been implemented sooner for the benefit of the students at GRPS?
The article maintains that due to the climate in Michigan many schools don’t have air conditioning. The City Middle/High School has had air conditioning for two years, yet sat without it for decades until it became a magnate school drawing choice affluent students from all over Grand Rapids. By having air conditioning installed at City Middle/High School prior to Union or Ottawa High schools while bond money was on hand says something about the priority system within GRPS. The excuse that because of Michigan’s climate there are scant buildings in the district that have air conditioning is laughable. However, if the district maintains that North American weather determines basic school heating/cooling policy, why hasn’t Union High School had adequate heat for the last 3 years? It has gotten cold in Michigan at least for the last few centuries.
The article is correct in one aspect, as it indicates work has begun in some buildings. Interesting at the worksite of Union High School on Tremont Street, a warning sign is taped to the front door stating in clear bold letters: Danger Asbestos. (it is hard to see the sign in this picture, but the photo on the right here is a warning sign about asbestos at Union High School. Picture was taken by Jack Prince.) I personally taught in the building along with other teachers that would have loved to know of its presence during the last 30 years!
Is this not more of the same sentiment expressed in the M.Live headline dated Feb. 16 2019, where John Helmoldt apologized announcing : Mistakes made along the way by school leaders on school asbestos issue at another school. Data that was submitted to the district was somehow negligently not addressed prior to construction, thus exposing students. It would be interesting data to see how many of the favored business partnership schools contain asbestos compared to the traditional neighborhood schools where a majority of minority students attend. How much asbestos is present in the new Museum school where Steven Jobs’ wife gave a $10 million gift to house cherry picked students from around Grand Rapids, not necessarily from within the GRPS district.
The recent M.Live article also mentions declining enrollment at Ottawa Hills where renovation is now supposedly occurring. Is that not closing the door after the horse has escaped by now utilizing bond money for renovation that was available 5 years ago?
There seems to be a clear parallel to the condition of GRPS buildings and the timeliness of their renovations with the socio economic status and racial breakdown of the assigned students. The disparity found with physical buildings based on student dynamics also pertains to the educational opportunities found in differing buildings and programs. A brief sample is indicative:
- Ottawa Hills H.S. – 76% Black 12% Hispanic has a 5% college readiness at Graduation.
- Central H.S.- 85% white affluent students with 70% college readiness at Graduation.
The academic disparity within the Grand Rapids Public Schools is obvious and is tied to funding priorities based on business partnership schools vs. the traditional neighborhood schools.
It has been more than 2 months since the Civilian Appeals Board voted to overturn the GRPD’s decision on Captain VanderKooi
It has been 10 weeks since the Civilian Appeals Board voted to overturn the GRPD’s Internal Affairs investigation of Captain VanderKooi.
The Grand Rapids Civilian Appeals Board (CAB) voted 6 – 2, to overturn the decision by the GRPD to return VanderKooi to active duty. On May 15, when the CAB was making there decision to overturn the GRPD’s decision about VanderKooi, there were two overriding themes. First, that the GRPD conducted a weak investigation, which was evident since when questioned by the CAB members, the two cops involved in the investigation either couldn’t answer the questions or had vague responses. Secondly, to many people in the room, even without seeing all the documentation that the Civilian Appeals Board had, it was clear that Captain VanderKooi demonstrated significant bias during the Jilmar Ramos-Gomez case, which is exactly the conclusion that the Civilian Appeals Board landed on.
Towards the end of that meeting on May 15, the City Attorney for the City of Grand Rapids stated that the City Manager will now have the power to determine what to do about Captain VanderKooi.
There have been efforts by volunteer organizers with GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR to pressure the Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington, but they have not heard anything from the City Manager’s office since May 15.
Since then, it has been known that the City of Grand Rapids was in the process of hiring a new Chief of Police. The City decided to hire Eric Payne, who has been with the GRPD for more than three decades. However, these matters should not have precluded City Manager Mark Washington from making a decision about Captain VanderKooi since the Civilian Appeals Board decision in mid-May.
This failure to act, while ICE not only continues to operate in Grand Rapids, even escalating their terrorism against the immigrant, is completely unacceptable. Captain VanderKooi engaged in racial profiling and racially motivated slander of former US Marine and US citizen Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, when VanderKooi called ICE late last year.
The immigrant community hasn’t forgotten what VanderKooi did and wants to know when justice will be served. The Civilian Appeals Board overwhelmingly voted to not allow VanderKooi a free pass on his unethical and racist behavior. The community demands justice. The community deserves justice.
We encourage people to contact CIty Manager Mark Washington and demand that he fire Captain VanderKooi immediately: 616-456-3166 or manager@grcity.us.
Vigil to Abolish ICE in Kent County
Last night, roughly 80 people came out to participate in a vigil to abolish ICE in Kent County. The action was organized by GR Rapid Response to ICE and was meant to do several things.
First, we wanted to show people one of the locations where ICE operates out of. We chose this location because it is their operational facility, where agents are deployed from to go into our community and rip people from their families.
Second, we wanted to share information about some of the families that ICE has directly impacted through fear and violence, by reading examples and then placing flowers by the ICE building for each person affected.
From our narrative:
We are here at 517 Ottawa Ave NW, one of three ICE offices in Grand Rapids. When our immigrant neighbors are taken by ICE–from their homes, from their cars, on their way to work or to drop their children off at school–this is the office they are taken to. They are taken here before they are sent to detention and deported, just as the Gestapo took Jews from their homes and sent them to concentration camps in Nazi Germany. ICE does their best to terrorize and disappear our neighbors, but we refuse to let this happen again.
Frederick M Steiner is the registered agent of the company that owns the building here, under the corporate name FMS Property Management. Frederick Steiner is complicit with ICE!
We are here to say Basta Ya! Enough Already! to ICE violence at the border and here in Kent County.
This where ICE agents take our neighbors and friends that they have ripped from the community. This is a stop on the way to being detained and deported for reasons as minor as not having documentation, or driving without a license. ICE–like the Gestapo–attempts to do this without being seen, without interference from the community. But we’re here to say: we see what you are doing. We are witnesses! And we will not let you take our neighbors quietly and without resistance.
We started at the front of the ICE building and then moved to the back, where there are garage entrances that ICE agents use to bring people they have taken from their families.
Again, from our narrative:
We light candles and lay flowers, including Black Eyed Susans, which symbolize Justice, to represent the people whose lives and families have been violently disrupted and torn apart by ICE violence. We will now read aloud the names of these people and say “Presente!” to show that although they are no longer here with their families and friends and in this community, we remember them, and we continue the struggle in their names.
A Guatemalan man, who is the father of four children, was deported earlier this year, leaving the mother to take care of the four children by herself. For him we say……
Two weeks ago, ICE visited the home of a Guatemalan woman, who is the mother of two children. Fortunately she wasn’t home, but no longer feels safe to stay where she was living and left to go stay with friends. For her we say…….
A Salvadoran woman named Juliana called us to tell us her husband was arrested by ICE and is now in detention, leaving her alone to take care of their 3 children. For her husband we say….
In March, a Mexican mother called to tell us that her son was picked up by ICE while he was at work and is now in detention in Battle Creek, not eligible for bond. For him we say……
Last December, Maribel called us to say that ICE had taken her husband. For Maribel and her husband, we say…..
Last year, ICE agents kicked in the door of a home and took Francisco, who is now being held in detention. His wife contacted us about legal assistance. For him we say…..
Last November, we received a call from Lucia, who told us that her husband was picked up by ICE. ICE had been waiting for him to leave the home and then stopped him while driving. He is now in detention. For Lucia and her husband we say……
Last May, we received a call from Juana who told us that her husband had been taken by ICE and put into detention. Juana and her husband have four children, who don’t know when they will see their father again. For Juana and her family we say……
Last April, a mother of two children, who was pregnant at the time of the call, told us that her husband was taken by ICE while on his way to work. For the Diaz family we say…….
Earlier this year, Brandon Reyes, a Dream Student, was deported back to Mexico, even though he had lived most of his life in the US. For Brandon we say……..
These are only 10 examples of at least 80 cases that GR Rapid Response to ICE has been involved with in the past two years. We know that ICE has taken, detained and deported many more from our community. We are here today to say Never Again!!!!
After reading the names of people affected directly by ICE violence, Pastor Rachel, from Plymouth UCC share their thoughts about ICE. Their words were moving and they did not hesitate to call out the Church and Christian for their complicity in what was happening all over the country.
We then let people know about upcoming events and ways that people could get involved. Those in attendance were invited to help to directly intervene when ICE is attempting to take people from our community, to help raise money for families affected by ICE, to offer transportation, to do court solidarity and to help find more places of sanctuary for those who no longer feel safe from ICE in this community.
Once more from our narrative:
We also need more people to be involved in our Abolish ICE efforts. With enough people, we believe that we can rid Kent County of any ICE presence, to say to ICE and the Department of Homeland Security…..you are not welcome here. Nunca Mas! Never Again!
We also want to lift up the work of Movimiento Cosecha GR. Many if not most of the people who are processed here were caught by the system because the State of Michigan will no longer issue a driver’s license to under-documented folks. When stopped for a routine traffic stop, such as a faulty tail light, people are initially detained for driving without a license, but then their information is shared with ICE – often ICE catches up with them later and they are processed here. Cosecha Michigan is fighting for Driver’s Licenses for All, and you can follow their FB page to learn more.
Those who are pushing for legislation that will further erode reproductive rights are gearing up for a big petition drive.
The Catholic Church in Michigan will be providing opportunities for parishioners to sign petitions in support of what they refer to as “partial-birth abortion and dismemberment abortion ban act.” This legislation is HB 4320, which you can read at this link.
The Michigan Catholic Church will provide their members with an opportunity to sign the petition this coming weekend, July 27 – 28, and again on August 10 – 11. Here is a letter sent by the Catholic Bishop from the Diocese of Grand Rapids, a letter that appeared in church bulletins recently, throughout the diocese.
In addition to the letter from the Bishop, there was information about the petition and what the Michigan Catholic Conference’s (MCC) position is on this issue – shown here below.
This type of actively engagement is instructive, since it should makes us question the notion of the separation between Church & State. In addition, if religious groups are going to be influencing public policy, then maybe it is time they paid taxes and stopped hiding behind their non-profit status.
More importantly, this campaign to restrict women’s reproductive rights in Michigan demonstrates just how reactionary the Catholic Church really is.
On Thursday, July 18, MLive ran an article about the death of John Tanton. The MLive article acknowledges that Tanton was the founder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and was referred to in the article as an anti-immigration activist.
The article also mentions that Tanton, “also held leadership positions as president of Zero Population Growth, chairman of the Sierra Club’s National Population Committee, founder of Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood Association and has been active in Negative Population Growth, Inc.”
However, the short article focuses on Tanton’s views about immigration and even provides a link to an essay he wrote in 1975. The article cites the current president of FAIR and an immigration lawyer, to fulfill the “balanced coverage” aspect of the article. However, the MLive story barely scratches the surface in terms of where Tanton stood on immigration policy nor the deeply white supremacist views he held, which influenced his decision to start more than a dozen far right groups during his lifetime.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform is not just an organization that opposes the increase of immigrants coming into the US, they are opposed to people who are coming from countries that are part of the global south. The Southern Poverty Law Center refers to FAIR as a hate group and has long been linked to racist ideas — “fretting about the ‘educability’ of Latinos, warning of whites being out-bred by others, and publishing a number of white nationalist authors” — and is also closely affiliated with a number of white supremacist organizations such as the Pioneer Fund.
The Pioneer Fund help to pass the racist Prop 187 in California in 1994. FAIR had received a total about $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, which primarily funds race and IQ studies intended to reveal the inferiority of minorities and to this day describes its grant recipients, generally, as “race realists.” However, this kind of research is nothing more than eugenics, which white supremacists have used for more than a century in an attempt to prove the intellectual superiority of white people.
After creating FAIR, Tanton went on the help found numerous other organizations that would embrace a white supremacist ideology summed up by Tanton himself, who said:
“I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”
Some of the groups that Tanton was involved with are NumbersUSA, ProEnglish, Social Contract Press, American Alliance for Rights and Responsibility, Center for Immigration Studies and US English.
Last year in Michigan, groups like US English help to push English as an official language, when several GOP State Representatives proposed legislation to make English the official language in Michigan. US English has been attempting to do the same in states across the country and it used to be a recipient of funding from the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation. In fact, Helen DeVos used to be on the advisory board of US English.
It is unfortunate that the MLive story on the passing of John Tanton did not provide a more accurate and more in depth look at a man who was not just anti-immigrant, but someone who embraced deeply white supremacist values that spawned a multitude of groups in the US. Tanton was said in a 1986 article, “To govern is to populate. Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that simply more fertile? As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
US Congressional candidate, Lynn Afendoulis, who is running for the 3rd Congressional District, just came back from touring some of the US detention facilities in Texas, near the US/Mexican Border.
Afendoulis, who is currently serving as a State Representative in Michigan, had several posts on her Lynn Afendoulis for Congress Facebook page. One post has her in a picture in front of one of the detention facilities with two unidentified men. Here is what Afendoulis wrote, with the accompanying photo:
I’m touring intake and detention facilities in El Paso, Texas today. No one drinks from toilets. That’s not even close to the truth and is a cruel representation of the work being done here by good, hardworking people. Shame on politicians who use these circumstances for their own political gain.
These comments are meant to contradict the well documented horrid conditions at border detention facilities and to criticize politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who had a very different experience of the detention facilities recently. In addition, Afendoulis offers no concrete evidence that conditions in the detention facilities are are acceptable, which of course flies in the face of well documented reports, like the ACLU report, Code Red: The Fatal Consequences of Dangerously Substandard Medical Care in Immigration Detention
The 3rd Congressional candidate also posted a short video from the airport about her experiences at the border. Afendoulis acknowledges that there are “problems at the border,” but she spent most of the time in the video praising law enforcement officials. Afendoulis refers to these law enforcement officials as patriots who find the criticism and attacks against the treatment of immigrants as “hurtful to them.”
WXMI 17 also did a story with Afendoulis, after her visit to several detention facilities near the US/Mexican border. Again, Afendoulis praises law enforcement and border officials, saying:
“I’m telling you, some of the hardest working, most dedicated law enforcement agents I just ever met in my life. These people are really dedicated to what they do to securing the border to treating the people that come over the border with dignity and respect and concern.”
Afendoulis also told the Fox 17 reporter that Rep. Amash and members of Congress haven’t done enough to support ICE agents. Such a claim was not challenged by the Fox 17 reporter, although they do ask Afendoulis to respond to reports of abuse and inhumane conditions in the detention facilities. Afendoulis said:
“When you see parents taking the kinds of risks that they take with their children, you know they’re not doing it for frivolous reasons. I have a heart for people who are suffering persecution and need to get to a better place but I also have a heart for this country and doing things, I mean we’re a country of laws as well.”
This statement doesn’t acknowledge that parents who bring their children are coming to the US for legitimate reasons, but Afendoulis ultimately takes the position that the US is a country of laws and that people need to come through legal channels.
Such a statement is not only naive, it completely dismisses the reasons why so many people from Mexico and Central America risks their lives to come to the US – fleeing political violence, poverty, torture, government corruption and the consequences of climate change.
State Representative Afendoulis said she plans to hold a town hall meeting to discuss what she learned at the border, but did not provide specifics on when and where this would happen.
Last week, we posted an article about a proposal from the West Michigan Policy Forum to borrow money from the Michigan Teachers Pension Fund and use it to pay for the roads throughout the state.
We stated the following:
First, in 2016, the West Michigan Policy Forum was backing legislation that would remove the decades-long contractual agreement between the State of Michigan and the teacher union to remove the state as the primary source to pay teacher pensions and transfer that responsibility to the market. That legislation was adopted, which means the traditional pensions have been eliminated in terms of how they get paid and are replaced with 401k-type plans leaving the teacher pensions in the hands of the speculative capital market. At the time, the Michigan Education Association stated that, “This is a nation-wide attack, led by Enron billionaire Tom Arnold, whose Arnold Foundation is flooding right wing think tanks across the nation with funding to do this work. The Enron meltdown cost public pension funds $1.5 billion in losses.”
Second, the West Michigan Policy Forum has not been shy about their efforts to undermine unions, such as the 2016 legislation to attack the teacher unions and more recently, their push to undermine public sector unions, by calling health care benefits and pensions of government employees “unfunded mandates” as well.
Therefore, what Chase Bolger and the West Michigan Policy Forum is now proposing, is to take money from the Teacher Pension Fund (money that was previously guaranteed by the State and now is placed in the speculative capital market) and place that in the speculative capital market in order to make money to pay for the roads. Not only does the West Michigan Policy Forum see the speculative capital markets as the financial savior of us all, they are ultimately interested in pushing Neo-Liberal economic austerity measures in order to weaken the public sector.
Now, the West Michigan Policy Forum is pushing the same idea, which their friend and fellow DeVos-operative Greg McNeilly proposed in an opinion piece in the Detroit News.
McNeilly was the campaign manager for the failed gubernatorial campaign of Dick DeVos in 2006. He is also a board member of Great Lakes Education Project (created by Betsy DeVos) and is the Chief Operating Officer of the DeVos run Windquest Group.
McNeilly, who once said that the wealthy people who contribute large amounts to elections should be applauded for their efforts. McNeilly also called rich people funding candidates, “the most protected form of speech.”
In his opinion piece, McNeilly also referred to teacher pensions as an “unfunded liability,” which is essentially code for, “we don’t like unions,” even though teacher pensions have been honored for decades by states across the country.
In addition, McNeilly also states:
One important detail that’s important to remember, using pension obligation bonds represents a pension- and classroom-funding plan more than a road-funding plan. The $980 million in additional cash flow per year would be in the state’s school aid fund, offsetting the $540 million that could be moved from the current sales tax on gasoline into roads, and providing another $440 million on top of that each year that could be spent to either further pay down teacher pension debt or poured directly into Michigan classrooms.
McNeilly is not only endorsing the idea that the West Michigan Policy Forum has put forth, he is willing to use money from the Teacher Pension Fund to invest in the market in order to pay for the roads. In other words, the DeVos political operative is willing to gamble with teacher pension funds to pay for the roads, while at the same time continuing to promote neoliberal economic policies in the state, which has eliminated a business tax and gives greater control to the 1 percent, like McNeilly’s boss, the DeVos Family. Sounds like a solid plan, doesn’t it?
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 