Get angry, grieve, then organize locally: How we can best resist ICE in Grand Rapids
The ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday morning should enrage us all. Good was acting as a legal observer and work with the local Rapid Response group that attempts to intervene when ICE seeks to adduct people and provide Mutual Aid to immigrants families that have already been traumatized by ICE.
There was a vigil last night in Grand Rapids for Renee Nicole Good. For those who attended I hope they were able to grieve in community.
Renee Nicole Good is not the first person killed by ICE, as several others have died attempting to flee ICE, along with the dozens of immigrants that have died in ICE detention centers across the country in 2025.
Right now I am feeling disgusted, but I am also feeling conflicted over the fact that the community outcry over the death of Renee Nicole Good might dissipate in the coming days and weeks. I have seen this pattern over the past 45 years of doing organizing work. And yet, it never has to come to this.
ICE is and has always been a repressive apparatus of the state, ever since it was created in 2003. ICE has always abducted immigrants, caused fear and trauma, has sent millions to detention centers and eventually deportation. The difference right now is that ICE has a vastly larger budget, an administration that doesn’t care about optics and a base of supporters that are overtly xenophobic and simply want blood.
So what are we going to do about ICE? Ultimately, ICE needs to be abolished……period. There is no argument that can be made for a kinder, gentler form of state repression. However, both the Republicans and Democrats will never agree to abolish ICE. So what do we do……we organize and resist ICE.
I urge you to challenge the rage that you have right now over the murder of Renee Nicole Good into the most effective way to resist ICE in Grand Rapids, which is to be part of the work that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE. Both of these groups, which have worked in tandem since 2017, are doing the important work of resisting ICE in this community. Here is how you can be part of that work:
- Attend a GR Rapid Response to ICE training, which are monthly. Just go to their Facebook page to find the next training dates.
- Once you take a training you can directly respond to calls from the immigrant community to directly intervene and stop ICE from apprehending people. The hotline number is 616-238-0081.
- Be part of the daily patrols that GR Rapid Response to ICE does throughout the city.
- You can respond to the requests for accompaniment, where immigrants have appointments to check in with ICE or for immigration court dates.
- Be part of our efforts to monitor and document the activity of ICE in Grand Rapids, with teams that monitor the 517 Ottawa office.
- Join the GR Rapid Response to ICE Mutual Aid teams that offer transportation, material resources and can connect immigrants to legal assistance. Since September the Mutual Aid team has raised roughly $40,000 to support immigrant families who have had a family member taken, are in detention or have already been deported.
- Join the Sanctuary team that is working hard to get various institutions, non-profits, businesses and faith communities to become sanctuary spaces. In addition, we are working to create more safe houses for immigrants who no longer feel safe where they live.
- Be part of the Cosecha efforts to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies that will prevent the city or the country from cooperating and collaborating with ICE to inflict harm on immigrants.
- Join the Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE boycott of Mayor LaGrand’s businesses, since he has been unwilling to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies for Grand Rapids. The Mayor of Minneapolis said on Wednesday that he wants “ICE to get the fuck out of his city.” This is the kind of Mayor we want to see in Grand Rapids.
- GR Rapid Response to ICE members have been working with No Detention Centers in Michigan to assist individuals who are being released from the detention facility in Baldwin, Michigan.
- Get trained in Civil Disobedience so when Cosecha asks allies to use that tactic for escalated actions and risk arrests, they will have an unlimited number of people that will disrupt business as usual and amplify the resistance to ICE in this city.
- Lastly, you can help spread the word by distributing the cards below, in Spanish and English, with tips on what to do if ICE shows up, which also has their hotline number.
Let’s channel the rage and energy we all have because of the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good by joining the work of Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE. That is the most effective way to resist ICE in Grand Rapids and Kent County, and it will be what is needed to get us closer to abolishing ICE once and for all.
Echo chambers for state propaganda: WOODTV8 only talked to Venezuelans that hate Maduro
It is deeply problematic when news agencies only present one side in a story, especially when the one side they present affirms state propaganda. Channel 8 did run a story about the protests, but in that story they did include multiple perspectives and ended the story with Michigan political statements that were anti-Maduro. However, the three politicians cited were Michigan Democratic Senators Peters and Slokin, followed by Rep. Moolenaar, but the story suggested that only Moolenaar was anti-Maduro, when in fact as I reported on Monday, Michigan Democrats are also taking an anti-Maduro position.
On Monday, WOOD TV8 ran a story where the news reader began the story by saying, “A group of Venezuelans in West Michigan has a message for people in the U.S.: Listen to Venezuelans.” However, unlike Saturday’s coverage, channel 8 only provides an anti-Maduro perspective in this most recent story and they posted a link to the letter that was written by a group called Venezuelans of West Michigan.
Channel 8 posted this letter without any verification or differing perspectives, something that never happens when groups that challenge state narratives. However, before I deconstruct the letter I wanted to say something about the two people cited in this channel 8 story.
The first person cited in the story was Belkis Lizarazo, a Venezuelan who runs a food business. Lizarazo has had a Facebook page since 2018, but has never said anything about Venezuelan politics. On her Linkedin page it says she is Community Leader with the Treetops Collective, yet she has never publicly said anything about the immigration status of Venezuelans in the US nor the possibility that the Trump Administration may deport up to 600,000 Venezuelan immigrants currently living in the US.
The other person cited in the channel 8 story was Jose Duran, who is referred to as “president of Movimiento de Ciudad.” Duran is the Executive Director of Movimiento America Latina, but is also Director of City Leaders Collective, which is a partner group of Movimiento America Latina. One of the partner groups of City Leaders Collective is Movement West Michigan. Looking at the websites of each of these groups they come off as charity-based/faith-based that doesn’t questions systems of power, and in the case of Movimiento de Ciudad they are clearly an entrepreneurial organization.
Deconstructing the letter from Venezuelans of West Michigan
The first thing to point out about the letter is that Venezuelans of West Michigan do not provide any support for their claims, meaning no souring.
The letter begins by saying that Venezuelans have endured problems over the past 27 years, specifically since 1999 when Hugo Chavez came to power. Interestingly enough, this was the exact same time that the US became anti-Venezuela, since Chavez identified himself as a Socialist who wanted to further the Bolivarian vision of the great Simon Bolivar. See Geo Maher’s book, We Created Chávez: A People’s History of the Venezuelan Revolution.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the effort to undermine Venezuelan sovereignty began 1999. Beside the US support of the attempted coup in 2002, the US has been supporting pro-US/pro-Capitalist candidates and organizations in Venezuela. The primary mechanism that the US government has used to subvert Venezuelan sovereignty has been the National Endowment for Democracy, also referred to as the NED. The NED has been at the forefront of the US campaign to get a pro-US/pro-Capitalist government in Venezuela over the past 25 years. None of this is mentioned in the letter from Venezuelans of West Michigan.
Like the group did with Chavez, they only demonize Nicolás Maduro, making claims of being a dictator, opposing free speech and saying he is not the elected President of Venezuela. It is instructive that these are the same claims being made by the Trump Administration. Regarding the election in Venezuela in 2024, that election is hotly contested, but the context of that election is much more complex than what the Venezuelans of West Michigan suggest. Here is an excellent article, which provides important context and analysis of the 2024 election.
The Venezuelans of West Michigan also reference economic hardships that those living in Venezuela, but completely ignore the fact that the US has imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela since 2005, with more severe sanctions being added over the past 20 years.
Lastly, the Venezuelans of West Michigan claim that Cuba, Russia and China have worked with the Maduro government, plus that government is also connected to “the ELN, FARC, Hezbollah, and networks linked to Hamas.” These are pretty serious claims, yet this group provides no concrete evidence to substantiate these claims.
In the end, Venezuelans of West Michigan is an entity, which has no online presence and essentially has created a narrative that mimics what the US government has been saying since 1999 about Venezuela, that the country is corrupt and repressive. For ongoing analysis from a grassroots Venezuelan perspective check out https://venezuelanalysis.com/.
Why we used the tactic of civil disobedience: Statements from those arrested for exposing ICE holds in Kent County
In the most recent post I described the action that took place on Monday at the Kent County Sheriff’s office, where five people were arrested for exposing the fact that Kent County has been collaborating with ICE by holding undocumented immigrants at the jail for the federal agency.
Today I was to share testimony from each of the five that were arrested, so the community can hear from them directly on why they chose to use the tactic of civil disobedience in service of immigrant justice.
John – I chose to protest because I believe what’s happening in our community is wrong. ICE is detaining people without real due process, using racial profiling that spreads fear, and placing people in dangerous detention conditions. Our local sheriff is cooperating by holding people for ICE even after bail is paid and without a judge’s warrant, despite being funded by us to serve local needs— not federal immigration enforcement. When the sheriff cooperates like this it makes Kent County complicit in this harm. I’m only able to protest like this because of my privilege and our sheriff should protect our neighbors, not help ICE disappear people into fear, detention and abuse!
Sharon – I am in complete agreement with the statements read by Cosecha and my fellow protestors. Why was someone like me willing to risk arrest? The simple answer is because I can and should! I have been a rule follower my entire life. It is important that more individuals feel compelled to stand up and put their bodies at risk for the many who cannot at this time. I was raised in a household that strongly believed that authority figures and institutions were designed to protect ALL of the people’s rights and liberties.
Unfortunately, I have witnessed events to the contrary. What happened to due process? What happened to Judicial warrants? I can no longer stand on the sidelines and watch the cruel and unjust policies being used by the local police and Sheriff’s office to create fear and destruction of our affected community members. This in turn has created an environment of fear and mistrust. This is not what we want our community to look like!
Be transparent with all of the people that work and live in this community!
What is the Kent County Sheriff’s office policy on holding immigrants for ICE? What are their policies on other issues pertaining to the sharing of information and cooperation with ICE agents? What are they doing with our taxpayer dollars in regards to these questions? Stop hiding behind closed doors and simply answer these questions in the open!
Mel – Standing in the face of a violent and abusive system, shouting into the void that COPS AND ICE GO HAND IN HAND was an honor.
Cindy – The reason I protest at the risk of being arrested is because I am a Christian and this is what the Kingdom of God looks like standing up against oppression, injustice and unfairness. And standing up with and for people who are being bullied and persecuted. They are not immigrants, aliens or bad guys – they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Jeff – I chose to do civil disobedience today for the following reasons:
First, I want to follow the lead of affected communities, those who are undocumented and Movimiento Cosecha. We cannot claim to be in solidarity with the immigrant community if we are not doing what they ask of us.
Second, I risked being arrested today to amplify the fact that the Kent County Sheriff’s Department is collaborating with ICE to separate families and cause lifelong trauma to immigrant families by holding undocumented immigrants at the Kent County Jail. This is exactly why Movimiento Cosecha has been pushing Kent County Commissioners to adopt sanctuary policies for the past 12 months, since ICE cannot engage in the harm they engage in without the collaboration of entities like the Kent County Sheriff’s Department. This means that the Kent County Sheriff’s Department and the Kent County Commissioners are complicit in the brutal violence being directed at undocumented immigrants in this community.
Lastly, I used the tactic of civil disobedience today because as an accomplice in the fight for immigrant justice, I have a great deal of privilege. Therefore, I am using this opportunity to invite other people of good will to be part of Movimento Cosecha’s campaign to get Kent County and the City of Grand Rapids to adopt the 6 sanctuary policies they have been demanding over the past 12 months. I am inviting people to leverage their privilege and use the tactic of civil disobedience to further disrupt the Kent County Sheriff’s Department until they stop collaborating with ICE and to stop inflicting harm on undocumented immigrants and their families. If pervious movements have taught us anything it is that those of us with privilege need to engage in direct action to resist systems of power and privilege if we want things to change!
La Lucha Sigue!!!
Five arrested at the Sheriff’s office because Kent County is conducting ICE holds on immigrants at the jail
Yesterday there were five individuals who were arrested at the Kent County Sheriff’s office to protest the fact that the Kent County Jail is collaborating with ICE by conducting holds on immigrants.
GRIID reported previously that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE held protests at the Kent County Sheriff’s office to confront the Sheriff about why they were holding immigrants for ICE at the jail. The group of five have been involved in the two previous protests and were working with Movimiento Cosecha to do an escalated action of civil disobedience at the Kent County Sheriff’s office.
One of the five protesting the ICE holds at the Kent County Jail read the following statement:
Today, as accomplices in the struggle for immigrant justice in Kent County, we deliberately refused to leave the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, resulting in our arrest.
Over the past months, members of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have repeatedly attempted to engage with the Kent County Sheriff’s Office to demand clear answers about whether Kent County is holding immigrants at the Kent County Jail on behalf of ICE. We are aware of multiple cases in recent months in which immigrants who were detained at the jail, had paid their bond, and were eligible for release were instead kept in custody on civil immigration allegations. As a result, these individuals were later transferred to ICE detention centers, separating them from their families and communities.
Since 2019, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office has publicly stated that it would only hold immigrants for ICE when presented with a judicial warrant for each individual. However, based on what we are witnessing in our community, we do not believe this policy is being followed. This is why we have protested at the Sheriff’s Office over the past months, and why we risked arrest today. When we asked for a direct answer, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office first instructed us to submit a FOIA request. Later, Sheriff LaJoye-Young refused to answer our question directly, despite being present and having the opportunity to clarify the policy. Instead, we were told that we would need to make an appointment.
The lack of transparency from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office is deeply disappointing, but the greater injustice is its continued cooperation with ICE in the persecution, racial profiling, and detention of immigrant workers in our community.
Since January 2025, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE have demanded that the Kent County Commission adopt six concrete sanctuary policies. These policies would build trust with the immigrant community and clearly signal that Kent County will not cooperate with ICE’s rogue and violent detention practices, including detentions carried out without proper judicial civil warrants.
The six sanctuary policies are:
- Policies restricting the ability of state and local police to make arrests for federal immigration violations, or to detain individuals on civil immigration warrants.
- Policies restricting the police or other county workers from asking about immigration status.
- Policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
- Policies that prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention.
- Policies preventing immigration detention centers from being established in Kent County, which would include the use of the Kent County Jail as a detention facility for ICE.
- A policy that will not allow the Kent County Sheriff’s Department to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by county staff with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.
Those of us risking arrest today are using our position of privilege to be in solidarity with undocumented immigrants who are living in constant fear of detention and deportation. We are not subject to being sent to detention or of being deported, so our action today was to amplify the oppressive realities that our immigrant neighbors are facing in Kent County and at the hands of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
After reading the statement those present began chanting, which eventually brought out members of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department who demanded that those protesting needed to leave. Some of the protesters told them they would not leave. The Sheriff’s Department then made those who weren’t risking arrest leave the building. The officers hoped this would end the occupation of the building, but the five that remained still refused to leave.
The Sheriff’s Department officers eventually realized that they would have to arrest the five, but they didn’t want to arrest them in the lobbying, especially since everyone else was still standing just outside of the entryway doors and filming. So the Sheriff’s Department officers took the five down a hallway, cuffed them and got their IDs. After cuffing them the cops took people in a separate room one by one to read them their rights and attempted to squeeze information from all five.
Eventually the cops told the five that they would be processing each of the, giving them a citation, charging them with trespass and a court date to appear before a judge. This all took another 20 minutes, with everyone being released through a side door at the Sheriff’s office. Those who came to support the action had already gone to the jail with the intent of bonding out those who were arrested. The five walked over to the Kent County Jail and surprised everyone, since those doing jail support thought that it would have been hours before they were released.
Movimiento Cosecha videotaped the entire action, at least up until the point where the cops made the 5 that were arrested walk down a hallway that was out of site of those who were recording. You can watch that video here.
Liberal and Democratic Party responses to US Imperialism in Venezuela are instructive
The US has been trying to undermine democracy in Venezuela since Hugo Chavez became president in 1999. Watch the documentary The Revolution will not be televised, which deals with the US-backed attempted coup in 2002.
This means that the Bush, Obama, Trump I and the Biden Administrations have all been viewing Venezuela as a pariah state, but this is an ideological position and is not rooted in what is happening on the ground in Venezuela. The US has militarily intervened in Latin America more than any other region of the world. Check out the list since 1890 and you will see that Latin America has the most.
Venezuela, like Chile, like Cuba, like the Sandinista revolution in 1979 or the Mexican revolution in the early part of the 20th Century, have been of great interest by the US either because of 1) threats to economic interests; 2) countries have adopted a political framework of Socialism; or 3) those countries, like Venezuela, have advocated for a Latin America that was independent of the US.
We have to see that Trump’s kidnapping of Venezuelan Maduro was nothing more than an an act of Imperialism. US foreign policy critics like Noam Chomsky have been saying for years, which is that the US government, regardless of who sits in the White House, will not tolerate any independent government in Latin America, which is why the CIA engaged in a coup in Guatemalan in 1954, in Chile in 1973, funded counterinsurgency terrorism in Central American in the 1980s, supported narco-terrorist countries like Colombia for decades, and has been punishing Cuba since the 1959 revolution.
With Venezuela, as stated earlier, the effort to undermine Venezuelan sovereignty began 1999. Beside the US support of the attempted coup in 2002, the US has been supporting pro-US/pro-Capitalist candidates and organizations in Venezuela. The primary mechanism that the US government has used to subvert Venezuelan sovereignty has been the National Endowment for Democracy, also referred to as the NED. The NED has been at the forefront of the US campaign to get a pro-US/pro-Capitalist government in Venezuela over the past 25 years.
Liberal and Democratic Party responses to the US Imperialism in Venezuela
The response from Democrats and Liberals are not surprising. Look at the statement from Michigan Senator Gary Peters. In standard political speak, Peters makes several points. First, he claims that this is not what the American people want. This sounds lovely, but most of what the US government does is not driven by the public. Second, before Peters attempts to lay the blame on Trump he refers to the Venezuelan President as “a dictator and bad actor in the region.” Peters makes this claim, yet he never substantiates his claim. Third, Peters wants to make sure that US aggression/US Imperialism is done with Congressional approval. This is the so-called legal justification, which attempts to equate legal actions with actions that are just, which has rarely happened with US foreign policy. Just because Congress overwhelmingly supports a policy doesn’t make it just, like the unconditional support for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians. Lastly, Senator Peters and the Democrats want you to think that the US action against Venezuela was purely a Trump thing and not a US imperialism thing. Note that Senator Peters never calls what the Trump Administration just did in Venezuela as US Imperialism. He can’t, because if he did, then he would have to do the same thing when Democratic Administration engage in the sake time of naked aggression.
Rep. Hillary Scholten used similar arguments (on her Facebook page) to what Senator Peters used making her response about getting Congressional approval and never using language like US aggression or US Imperialism. Rep. Scholten referred to Venezuelan President Maduro as “an oppressive and illegitimate leader who has harm the people of Venezuela.” Like Peters, Rep. Scholten doesn’t provide any evidence to support her claims.
Then there is Senator Slotkin, the same person who recently told US military personal to not follow unconstitutional orders. Slotkin has not publicly told US soldiers to not obey orders to arrest foreign presidents or engage in US military aggression abroad. Slotkin also makes it about Congressional approval. Slotkin also states on her Facebook page:
“The President laid out his plan of regime change. He says he now wants to “run” Venezuela and, particularly, Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Maduro is a bad man, and the people of Venezuela deserve better. But we know that regime change isn’t as simple as removing one leader. While there are comparisons to the arrest of Manuel Noriega in Panama in 1989, let’s not forget that the U.S. sent in over 27,000 troops and lost 23 service members in the process.”
Senator Slotkin’s example of the US invasion of Panama in 1989 is instructive. First, Slotkin omits the fact that the US government had been financing Noriega for decades prior to arresting him, since Noriega supported US Imperialism in Central America in the 1980s, along with cooperating with the CIA for allowing drug trafficking (mostly cocaine) through Panama and using Panamanian banks to lauder drug money. Senator Slotkin mentions that 23 US soldiers were killed in the 1989 US invasion of Panama, but ignores the more than 2,000 Panamanian civilians killed, which is well documented in the film The Panama Deception.
One last example of a liberal response to US Imperialism in Venezuela was from the Democratic Party front group Indivisible. The Grand Rapids chapter posted in an Email this morning the following:
“Last night, Trump ordered the U.S. Military to bomb and invade Venezuela and kidnap President Maduro and his wife. Maduro is being brought to New York to face trial. The Vice President of Venezuela is apparently on his way to Russia. Make no mistake about it: Maduro is definitely a bad guy but Trump’s unapproved-by-Congress attack on Venezuela is not primarily motivated by a desire to get rid of the corrupt ruler of another country. Instead, Trump has made his move to align with Putin’s efforts to destroy the Rules of International Order.”
This is an absurd and historically inaccurate assessment, especially the claim that Trump and Putin want to destroy international law. The reality is that the US and the former Soviet Union/now Russia have been violating international law since 1945, both during the Cold War and since the collapse of the Soviet Union. On top of that the GR Indivisible Email cites historian Heather Cox Richardson extensively. This is no surprise, since liberal love Heather Cox Richardson because she hates Trump. Since the rise of Heather Cox Richardson, which began with the first Trump Administration, it is instructive to note that during the Biden Administration she did not make it a point to critique that administration’s foreign policy, whether it was on the massive US military funding annually under Biden, maintaining over 700 US military bases worldwide, efforts to undermine Venezuela or the unconditional support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. I’d suggest reviewing her articles going back to 2023 and taking note of the lack of reference to Biden funding and supporting genocide, as well as his allegiance to a war criminal: Netanyahu.
I would highly encourage people to look to independent media sources on Venezuela, such as https://venezuelanalysis.com/, https://www.democracynow.org/, https://www.counterpunch.org/, https://fpif.org/, https://www.dropsitenews.com/, https://theintercept.com/, and https://znetwork.org/.
I am also encouraging people to sign up for the GRIID Class on the History of US Foreign Policy since WWII, with details in the link.
New Year, same damn lies about the history of Grand Rapids
Last September I wrote about a new group called Believe in Our City, which is combining the 175th anniversary of the founding of Grand Rapids with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.
The steering committee for this groups is made up of people that represents the Grand Rapids Power Structure, which you can see at this link.
The group’s Facebook page is GR A250, and their two most recent posts/lies tells us a great deal about what they want to celebrate and what they want to ignore.
Lie #1
On December 31st, the GR A250 Facebook post read:
The name “Grand Rapids” seems pretty obvious, but have you ever thought about what was here before our beautiful bridges and sleek skyscrapers?
It’s widely known we were called after the Grand River, now popular for fishing and tourism, which was vital for floating logs for the lumber industry in the early 1800’s. The area was dubbed “Grand Rapids” by the settler Louis Campau in 1831 when he purchased the land and the village was officially given it’s title in 1838!
The post included 3 photos – loggers using the Grand River to transport trees, Louis Campau, and a map of the Grand River. It is interesting that this post omitted the fact that Indigenous people lived along the Grand River before settlers like Campau took their land. A more honest reflection of what was here before bridges and sleek skyscrapers would be to acknowledge the history of Settler Colonialism, which is exactly what Grand Rapids was founded on.
As a foundational framework, it is vital that we come to terms with the fact that Grand Rapids, like virtually all US cities were founded on what Native scholar Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz calls Settler Colonialism. Settler Colonialism in West Michigan is the result of a larger White Supremacist strategy that included legal means (treaties), forced relocation, spiritual violence (role of churches) and cultural imperialism, most radically seen with the policy of putting Native children in boarding schools with the goal of, “Killing the Indian, Saving the Man.”
Lie #2
Then on January 1st, 2026, the GR A250 Facebook post read:
Picture this: It’s December 31, 1975. The weather is bitterly cold and snowy and most of the community is celebrating close to home — gathering in living rooms, heading to neighborhood bars or hosting simple dinner parties. Grand Rapids had a big year economically, standing at the heart of America’s office furniture industry. And just down the road from where it all began, Gerald R. Ford was focused on healing a nation after Watergate — steady leadership in uncertain times. Different decade. Same spirit. When times are tough, communities come together and the future is shaped by the resolve of everyday people.
The photo that accompanied this post was of President Ford in Grand Rapids on New Year’s eve 1975.
Probably the biggest reference being made about former President Ford when he died in December of 2006, was that he “healed the nation.” Not surprising, this is the title of his memoirs, but what exactly does that mean when pundits and politicians say he healed the nation? It means that Ford pardoned Nixon, which is to say that he did not seek an indictment of Nixon for illegal activities during what is now known as the Watergate scandal.
The Ford museum literature says that by pardoning Nixon, Ford helped restore confidence in the office of the presidency that was viewed negatively under the Nixon administration. Is this the reality or was it a way to sidestep any serious investigation of the illegal practices of the Nixon administration, which ultimately would lead people to see the very nature of the US Imperial Project? When Nixon’s crimes are mentioned what most people think of was the wiretapping of the Democrats before the election. What is usually omitted from the official record are Nixon’s war crimes in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This is what “official historians” mean when they say Ford healed the nation, that the American public was protected from the ugly realities of US foreign policy. Well, what are we being protected from? Looking at the brief history of the Ford administration might help us to answer that question.
Ford became Nixon’s Vice President in October of 1973 and was sworn in as President in August of 1974. He served as President until Carter took the oval office in January of 1977. Ford supported the repressive government in the Philippines in its counterinsurgency war against rebels. During the coup in Argentina in 1976, Ford supported the generals who took power and slaughtered thousands of dissidents. Under Ford the US provided millions of dollars in military aid to the right-wing movement in Angola known as UNITA. He negotiated military bases in Spain with the fascist dictator Franco. Ford maintained the illegal terror war and embargo against Cuba and was president during the final days of the US occupation of South Vietnam. But probably the foreign policy that best defines Ford was his support of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
Much has been written about what took place in the meeting between Ford, Henry Kissinger, and Indonesian President Suharto on December 5th and 6th in 1975, but it wasn’t until December of 2001 when the National Security Archives finally obtained declassified documentation of what took place. What we now know is that Ford and Kissinger not only knew of the Indonesian plans to invade East Timor, but that they offered diplomatic and military support for the invasion, which became a multi-year and bloody genocidal campaign. In fact, the US role in the murderous campaign by the Indonesia military against the East Timorese people was one of the proportionately worst genocides of the 20th Century.
Photo – Ford and Kissinger meeting with Suharto just prior to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
For additional information on this topic, see the video, The untold history of Gerald Ford
The National Security Archives FOIA documents on Ford & Kissinger’s visit with Indonesian President Suharto, just prior to their invasion of East Timor.
895 Days That Changed the World: The presidency of Gerald R. Ford, by Graeme Mount.
Thoughts on my experiences in Zapatista communities from 1997 – 2001
Editor’s note – What follows in this post are excerpts from journal entries that will be included in my forthcoming book, “Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time.
We have a very important weapon which the government does not have. That weapon is called dignity. With this weapon no one and nothing can defeat us. They can kill us or jail us, but they will never defeat us. EZLN Communique, Sept. 12, 1997 after the murder of 45 campesinos in Acteal, Chiapas
In 1997, nearing the 4th anniversary of the indigenous-led Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, I spent several weeks in the EZLN autonomous community of La Realidad.
December 9, 1997
We finally found the right truck to bring us to La Realidad. We left early so as to avoid la migra. While on the trek, the sun came up creating a panorama that was breathtaking. It warmed up quickly which made the ride more grueling. On the way, we were passed by two different military convoys. After six hours, we finally arrived and were questioned by representatives of the community on our possessions and credentials. After a brief rest and escape from the sun, we were welcomed by the other internationals, most of whom have been here for just a few days.
December 12, 1997
It is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The village is alive with marimba and pots brewing the day’s nourishment. We just got back from counting soldiers as they made their daily trek through the village to do what Lucifer only knows. Packed with shovels, picks, radios, and chickens, they rolled past on a wet morning. The rains came during the night to give us a more interesting mode of maneuvering in the compound.
December 17, 1997
With the clear sky today, the view is amazing. To the north and south of us are mountain ranges. The south being closer and the one that includes the road that the military descends and ascends daily. Apart from the community, there are no openings in the selva – nothing but thick green foliage of trees and other plant life that creates a lush canopy in the horizon. With no industrial pollution, the sky is incredibly clean and blue. At night, the stars burn so bright that it makes for a constellation seekers paradise.
December 31, Oventic, Chiapas
This morning was one of the more moving experiences of my life. At about 5:30 am, several thousand people gathered on the road in front of Oventic. Their mission was to walk to the nearest army base and tell them to leave … now! Many from DF and international observers were invited to participate.
After the first mile or so, we were greeted by another group marching from the south. We then took a side road that wove through the mountains to the army base. People carried signs that read, “Military Leave!,” “Fulfill the Accords of San Andres!,” “Release Political Prisoners!,” “Leave Already!,” and “Demilitarize Chiapas!”
The morning was cloud covered, but you could tell when the sun was rising as it gradually became light. One thing that was impressive was the level of order and discipline that the participants showed. After about an hour’s walk, we finally arrived at the military base. The crowd immediately began chanting at the gate. A few soldiers walked down carrying their rifles and the few in the guard post held their position. Then the group decided to move past the first set of barbed wire, by crawling under it. While some entered, others threw paper airplanes at the soldiers who stood their ground. Again, the “Zapatista Air Force” was called in!
People were now pressed up against the last gate, while others had panned out on both sides of the entrance, pressing up against the guard post structure. The chanting continued with statements such as, “Chiapas is not a barracks!” Then, catching the military and many of us off guard, the people forced their way onto the base.
Trudging through the mud, the hundreds of supporters had backed the soldiers up against the barracks, now chanting, “ ¡Hoy, Hoy, Hoy!” and “ ¡Zapata Vive!” The look on many of the young soldiers’ faces was one of disbelief as villagers began telling them the pain that their presence has caused their families.
After thirty minutes had passed, some of what appeared to be military officers came out to speak to the crowd. People kept demanding their immediate departure, and I overheard one of the officers tell a pleading man that they indeed were leaving today. The exchange between some of the villagers and the officer went on for some time, when all of a sudden, one of the communication antennas began to fall. I was able to turn quickly enough to capture it on film. The crowd cheered wildly as it hit the muddy terrain below. Later we found out that someone had cut the lines to prevent the soldiers from communicating for outside assistance.
At one point, one of the villagers got the crowd to quiet down as a declaration was read out loud expressing their demands. When the reading was finished, as if on cue, the people began to sing the Zapatista anthem. By this time, more than two hours had passed and people eventually began filing out of the base and back to Oventic.
The video below provides a visual representation of the December 31st, 2000 journal entry.
GRIID end of the year in review: Part IV – Documenting the radical history of Grand Rapids
In Part I of the GRIID end of the year review I looked at my efforts to monitor the local news in 2025, particularly around critical issues like immigration, policing and the Schurr trial. In Part II I wrote about the work of monitoring the Grand Rapids Power Structure. In Part III I looked at the social movement work of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE. Today I want to share a summary of all the stories I posted about the radical history of Grand Rapids.
I posted 20 separate stories regarding the rich history of radical action in service of social justice in Grand Rapids. Eight of those posts were specific to a collaborative efforts I started earlier in the year with Fountain Street Church, specifically to highlight some of the Great Lecture Series speakers they have hosted over the past century. I have posted talks by Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael, James Meredith, Dick Gregory, Amy Goodman, bell hooks, Jane Fonda, Jonathan Kozol and Norman Thomas, all of whom spoke at Fountain Street Church.
There were several radical GR history posts that centered on immigration justice and sanctuary work, including the following:
19th anniversary for the largest immigrant justice march in Grand Rapids
I also did two posts that focused on the contributions to radical change in Grand Rapids by two women, Voltairine De Cleyre and Viva Flaherty.
Then there were two posts that talked about white supremacists and imperialists coming to Grand Rapids. One post was about the 1925 KKK march that took place in Grand Rapids and was given a police escort on the 4th of July. The second example was a recounting of the numerous visits that Dick Cheney had made to Grand Rapids while he was Vice President in the George W. Bush cabinet. This post centered on how there was organized resistance every time Cheney came to town.
I also posted two stories about the Community Historians Workshops that began in September. These workshops are a project led by GVSU professor Leanne Kang who has been doing interviews with people who attended the Grand Rapids Public Schools since the 1960s. The second post was done after the workshop in November.
I also did a stand alone post on the City of Grand Rapids celebrating the 175th anniversary of its founding. In that post I wrote:
As a foundational framework, it is vital that we come to terms with the fact that Grand Rapids, like virtually all US cities were founded on what Native scholar Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz calls Settler Colonialism. Settler Colonialism in West Michigan is the result of a larger White Supremacist strategy that included legal means (treaties), forced relocation, spiritual violence (role of churches) and cultural imperialism, most radically seen with the policy of putting Native children in boarding schools with the goal of, “Killing the Indian, Saving the Man.”
I end that article by saying:
Grand Rapids is nothing more than a playground for the rich and powerful, which get whatever they want. Grand Rapids is a deeply racist city, which practices gentrification, housing injustice, and gives the GRPD carte blanc to suppress and repress any effort to demand justice. Grand Rapids is more committed to expanding capitalism and maintaining business as usual, than it is to centering the most marginalized and practicing justice. This is the legacy of not coming to terms with Settler Colonialism.
I believe it is vitally important that we all learn from the insurgent radical history of Grand Rapids, a history which is rarely taught and too often marginalized by the history of great white businessmen. For a deeper look at radical Grand Rapids history, go to my Grand Rapids People’s History Project site and read my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids.
GRIID end of the year in review: Part III – Documenting the work of Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE
In Part I of the GRIID end of the year review I looked at my efforts to monitor the local news in 2025, particularly around critical issues like immigration, policing and the Schurr trial. In Part II I wrote about the work of monitoring the Grand Rapids Power Structure. Today I want to look at the organized social movements in Grand Rapids in 2025.
There was no shortage of protests in 2025. In fact, every week there has been something happening in Grand Rapids during the past year, protests that have centered on opposing the Trump Administration. There are too many protests and actions to name, so I will limit this post to just talking about what I believe has been the most impactful social movement that currently exists in Grand Rapids, the immigrant justice movement led by Movimiento Cosecha, with support from GR Rapid Response to ICE.
Even before the end of 2024, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE working organizing trainings and assemblies to mobilize people to take action to resist ICE. The first big action of 2025 was on January 20th, but despite cold and snowy weather over one hundred people showed up to the Cosecha action on the same day as the Trump Inauguration.
Behind the scenes, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE had campaigns to pressure the GRPS, the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt sanctuary policies that would make it more difficult for ICE to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants.
I also was writing posts entitled, Lessons on the history of US Immigration Policy, which began on January 29th. I decided to write this series because too many people are unfamiliar with this history and often think that the repressive US government anti-immigration actions began with Trump. Here is a link to a slide presentation I do to illuminate this history.
Because the Cosecha/GR Rapid Response to ICE campaigns with the City and the County included an online action alert, I had been tracking them, especially after a City Commissioner made a comment about hearing from those who did not support the sanctuary policy demands in an article headlined, 3204 people are already on record demanding that the City of Grand Rapids become a Sanctuary City compared to 16 people who oppose standing up for immigrants.
At the same time that all of this was happening, Movimiento Cosecha was doing their own Know Your Rights trainings with immigrant communities, trainings that provided concrete tactics to be better prepared to avoid ICE as well as developing plans for what to do if ICE did apprehend a family member. GR Rapid Response to ICE was also continuing to do trainings in Grand Rapids, but was also getting requests to do them in places like Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Newaygo, Muskegon, Grand Haven, Lansing and Saugatuck, since there were no other existing Rapid Response to ICE groups established.
In March, Cosecha/GR Rapid Response to ICE went to another City Commission meeting to pressure city officials on the sanctuary demands, this time with a disruptive action. Cosecha then began planning for the upcoming May Day actions, which saw the GRPD threaten to arrest people before the march even began. On day two of the May Day actions Cosecha hosted a cultural event at SECOM, where SECOM publicly announced they would be a sanctuary space for undocumented immigrants. This was just days after LincUp made the same commitment. Then on day three of the May Day actions, Cosecha engaged in a disruptive action at Walmart, what they referred to as a Salsa Shutdown.
On May 15th Cosecha hosted a people’s assembly, which laid out plans for movement work throughout the rest of the summer. Two weeks later ICE did a raid at the local ISAP office which saw Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE mobilize people to prevent further ICE arrests.
The two groups also made it known that for future appointments they would be offering accompaniment to any who had to go to the ISAP or ICE offices. For the rest of the year GR Rapid Response to ICE accompanied dozens of immigrants during their appointments, where no one was arrested or detained.
In late June Cosecha and GR Rapid Response held an ICE out of Grand Rapids rally, which the local news reported on, but in limited fasion. In July Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE held a protest in front of the home of Mayor LaGrand, since he has consistently dismissed the sanctuary policy demands from these two groups.
Later that month, people attended at Kent County Commission meeting to also pressure the commissioners to adopt the same sanctuary policies. Then on July 30th, for two hours people demanded that the City of Grand Rapids adopt the 6 sanctuary policies, which also included some street theater that disrupted the meeting, leading to threats of arrest by the GRPD.
In August, Cosecha held another assembly with more plans to finished out the year of resisting ICE and demanding immigrant justice. GR Rapid Response to ICE also began doing daily patrols in several different neighborhoods, since immigrants were telling them that ICE was most active in the mornings in those neighborhoods. The patrols have been done with small teams driving around looking for ICE activity. In September, Mayor LaGrand said some awful stuff about Cosecha and the sanctuary policy demands, which was followed up by a forum hosted by Cosecha where all City and Kent County Commissioners were invited to hear directly from immigrants affected by ICE violence.
Because the low commissioner turnout, Cosecha then began a campaign to boycott the businesses owned by Mayor LaGrand beginning in October. This action was followed up by a second action that was at another Long Road Distillers location in November.
In early October, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE also received word that there might be possible raids at GRPS schools, with ICE looking for immigrant minors. Then in late October, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE did a tour of shame, which involved showing up at the homes of state representatives that have co-sponsored legislation that would criminalize anyone showing compassion to undocumented immigrants.
In November, No Detention Centers Michigan, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE held a Day of the Dead vigil to commemorate immigrants that have died in ICE detention centers all around the US.
There were also two actions at the Kent County Sheriff’s office after Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE learned that the Kent County Jail was putting holds on immigrants for ICE. The first action was on November 2nd with the second action taking place on November 20th.
In December, Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE attended an event hosted by Mayor LaGrand, which resulted in him giving a verbal commitment to talking with city commissioners about adopting sanctuary policies.
I have also posted several narratives from GR Rapid Response to ICE volunteers sharing stories about working directly with people affected by ICE violence. In October one volunteer talked about collaborative work with No Detention Centers in Michigan. A second personal narrative centered around how ICE has terrorized a Guatemalan family. A third example was from an accompaniment with an immigrant to court, with one final example from December with an accompaniment at the ISAP office.
GR Rapid Response to ICE also responds to requests from community groups to do crowd safety for people who are afraid of ICE coming to community events for immigrant communities. Lastly, when ICE separates families, GR Rapid Response to ICE provides Mutual Aid for families, such as transportation, material support, legal counsel and raising money for families who have little or no income coming in. Since September GR Rapid Response to ICE has been able to raise just over $36,000 with every cent going directly to immigrant families.
There is a whole lot more that can be said about the work of Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE, but these groups have been doing amazing work over the past year with lots of volunteers stepping up to raise money, accompany immigrants, engage in patrols, monitoring ICE activity, showing up when ICE alert calls come in, participating in protests and other direct actions, working with community groups to provide sanctuary spaces and educating countless people about US immigration policy and how we can all resist ICE terrorism. Thanks to everyone who has engaged in this work!
Rep. Hillary Scholten is out of touch with the realities of what working class families face every single day
In her weekly Monday Minute email for December 22nd, Rep. Hillary Scholten wrote:
Michigan’s minimum wage will rise to $13.73 an hour on January 1, giving workers across the state a pay increase and helping families better keep up with rising costs.
Now, some people might be cheering that the minimum wage will go up to $13.73 on January 1st and I understand why some people might cheer. However, people cannot live off of $13.73 an hour.
If you make $13.73 an hour and work 40 hours a week, that translates into $28,558.00 gross pay a year. After local, state and federal taxes are taken out you are now under $25,000 a year left to pay your bills. If you are a single person and live in an apartment that costs $1500 a month, that means you will be paying $18,000 a year in rent. Add to that utilities – electric, gas, trash, and phone and possibly internet and you are looking at another $500 a month (this is a very low estimate) that will add another $6,000 a year.
Between rent and utilities you are now up to $24,000 a year and that doesn’t leave you money for transportation, groceries, health care costs and leisure activities. In other words, making $13.73 an hour will NOT help families keep up with rising costs. This is why Rep. Scholten and most politicians are completely clueless and out of touch with what working class individuals and families are facing on a daily basis just to survive.
Stop insulting working class people Rep. Scholten. Scholten just voted for the $900.6 Billion US military budget, as I noted two weeks ago. The FY2026 US Military budget that Scholten voted for will translate to $2.01 billion leaving the 3rd Congressional district, her district, in tax dollars just to pay for US militarism and imperialism. Imagine of that $2.01 billion stayed in the 3rd Congressional district. It could pay for 248,043 Public Housing Units for 1 Year, according to the National Priorities Project or lots of other really beneficial items that working class families would benefit from.
Again, stop insulting your constituents Rep. Scholten, especially since the majority of your constituents are working class individuals and families.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 