Despite GRPS claims that they are not partnering with Homeland Security, Immigrant Justice groups question the real purpose of the proposed academy
Yesterday, MLive posted a story about immigrant justice groups challenging the Grand Rapids Public Schools about a new proposed school career program.
This action was organized by members of Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE, because of information from a January 5th MLive article which stated that GRPS would be offering new education/career programs and one of them would be called the Academy of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity.
Yesterday, the immigrant justice groups held a press conference outside of City High School on Plainfield, since there was an event planned for that location by GRPS, which was then cancelled due to weather. However, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE still help a press conference. The groups had intended to hand out information to parents, some of which the January 15 MLive article included. However, it is important to include the full statement, which says:
To the GRPS School Board, Superintendent, and Administration:
In MLive articles dated on August 22, 2018 and January 5, 2019, it was revealed that GRPS is planning an Academy of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity among six employment-based academies at Ottawa Hills High School. Many are hearing about this for the first time.
We in the immigrant community who have trusted GRPS daily with our children are shocked and devastated that the school district is planning this academy. In working with Movimiento Cosecha GR and the immigrant community at large, you’ve made it appear that you are on our side. In fact, on September 5, 2017, the GRPS Board of Education introduced a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to immediately act to restore the DACA program. Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal was quoted on WZZM 13 saying, “It isn’t just about removing one person, you will affect an entire community when that happens….These are our neighbors. These are people in our community. And we can’t say that this is okay — we cannot believe this is okay.”
Yet with this action of creating an academy to funnel neighborhood children into jobs that are designed to terrorize, kidnap, and harm our family members, you are showing that you are clearly not on our side and you are not on our children’s side.
Local law enforcement is also complicit with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, as evidenced by the Kent County Sheriff’s contract with ICE.
We stand with all communities of color who have been harmed by over-policing of our communities and police violence against children like the Michigan 5 and Honestie Hodges.
As the parents and students of your school district:
- We want you to immediately dismantle all plans to open this Academy of Public Safety, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity.
- We also demand that the GRPS Board of Education make a public statement calling for the End of the Contract between Kent County and ICE.
We need to see action on both these demands by the February 4 board meeting.
We would remind you that we expect better from the school system that we support with our taxes and our engagement. We expect a true community-based education where our children can explore ways to learn and live together that are truly just: ways that are cooperative and that focus on restorative justice. Our children could learn how to organize for movements like our own. What we cannot have is our tax dollars going to support an institution that is complicit with ICE, an agency that terrorizes and separates our families. We will not stand for it and neither will our children.
In response, the Grand Rapids Public Schools Communication Director, John Helmholt stated in the MLive article, the academy has ‘’absolutely nothing to do with ICE nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The district has not, does not, and is not planning to have a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.’’
This statement from Helmholt was gleamed from a larger statement that he sent to parents, a statement worth reading here:
The letter from GRPS states, “The district has not, does not, and is not planning to have partnership with the US Department of Homeland Security.” If this is true, then this should be clarified further by talking with the community about what exactly this Academy of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity will actually offer students.
Also, the statement says that the purpose of this academy was to “develop a diverse talent pipeline for the Grand Rapids Fire Department and the Grand Rapids Police Department. The homeland security portion of the proposed academy is focused on JROTC and cyber-security.
Since when do public schools create programs especially designed to encourage students to become police officers? Being a law enforcement officer in this community also means that they cooperate and therefore are complicity with ICE arresting and detaining immigrants. This means that encouraging students to be cops is like saying that you can have a job that would likely result in you being part of arresting and detaining members of your own immigrant community.
It should also be stated that JROTC is proven to be a program that primarily targets black and latinx students from urban areas, in what the counter-recruitment community identifies as an economic draft. The military representatives that run JROTC make all kinds of promises to participants about economic incentives, but rarely talk about how they might be involved in oppressing communities of color around the world, often in countries where their parents originally came from.
Therefore, even if the Department of Homeland Security will not be involved in the new academy (which is still in question), it appears that the academy will be directing students to career opportunities that will likely result in their participation in the repression of their own communities.
Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE has invited the community, particularly the affected community, to come to an information session to be held at the Hispanic Center, on Wednesday, January 23rd, beginning at 6pm.
The racial segregation of housing in Grand Rapids: Past and Present
In honor of Richard Rothstein’s visit to Grand Rapids today, I though it might be important to take his analysis from the book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America.
In addition, while Rothstein’s book focuses on the government’s role in housing segregation, it is important to think about how the private and non-profit sector’s have contributed to housing segregation in recent decades.
Grand Rapids is pretty typical in many ways, but before looking at GR’s housing segregation, I think it is important to acknowledge that Grand Rapids is founded on land that belonged to the Anishinaabe people. Settler Colonialism is the foundation of Grand Rapids and you can’t have homes without first having land. White Settlers used a variety of tactics, legal, religious coercion and the threat of violence to remove the indigenous population along the Grand River to make way for the creation of Grand Rapids.
It is also important to acknowledge that there was a great deal of class-based housing segregation in Grand Rapids, with the early Robber Barons living in luxury and work class people living in substandard housing.
When the African American population grew in Grand Rapids in the early part of the 20th century, this is when we see more over forms of housing segregation. One early example is cited in the book, African Americans in the Furniture City, where white residents objected to blacks moving in to the 1100 block of Thomas St. SE. The white residents went to the City Commission meeting to voice their opposition.
Todd Robinson, in his important book, A City Within a City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan, documents the practice of red lining that primarily impacted the Black community beginning in the 1920s.
Pictured here is a map from the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) from 1937, that demonstrates where red lining was taking place in Grand Rapids. To understand the color coding, go to this link http://www.historygrandrapids.org/tilemap/2596/the-holc-map.
The practice of Red Lining became the norm. The following information is based on a 1940 Urban League report:
Another report for the Grand Rapids Urban League in 1947, demonstrates that after WWII, the same kind of housing segregation took place. Look at the data from the report, by going to this link, but here is a brief overview of the housing conditions for African Americans.
Another important point that Rothstein makes in his book is how the late 50s highway construction project across the country, which was initiated by the federal government, also contributed to racial segregation. The same also took place in Grand Rapids, with the construction of US 131 cutting through the north to south and 196 cutting through the city east to west.
I interviewed Fr. Dennis Morrow years ago about the freeway construction in Grand Rapids, since he has done the most extensive research on that topic locally. He said there were roughly 1,000 homes destroyed and 4,000 families displaced. In addition, the highways did contribute to both a form of racial and class segregation, which continues to this day.
Rothstein also makes it clear that white flight contributed to housing segregation. In Grand Rapids, the white flight began in the 50s, with white people moving to places like Rockford, places that Todd Robison refers to as bedroom communities. However, the white flight increased after the 1967 uprising in Grand Rapids. White fear is what motivated the flight, but the other consequence to white flight was that white people also took money out of the city, particularly in areas with the largest concentration of black people.
This disinvestment of the southeast part of Grand Rapids had a long lasting impact on the black community. However, there were still plenty of white landlords who were profiting off of the black community, landlords who often did not maintain those rental properties. The economic decline of the southeast side of the city is well documented, but that changed at the beginning of the 21st Century, when white people decided to move back to the city and buy up property in areas like the Wealthy Street corridor.
This new re-investment by white people is known all too well by black people in this community……it’s called gentrification. Rothstein also identifies this dynamic, stating:
Gentrification of private housing in urban areas, redevelopment projects, and highway routing have forced low-income and minority families to search for new accommodations in a few inner-ring suburbs that are in transition from white to majority minority.
In addition to the gentrification along the Wealthy Street corridor, there has been major gentrification happening in the Bridge St. area, in the Belknap neighborhood and concerns that the Boston Square neighborhood will be next because of the DeVos/Rockford Construction land grab in that area.
The government still plays a role in the new gentrification, through the form of subsidies for new development projects or state funding for housing projects that are often run by non-profits. The private housing and development sector and the non-profit sector get these subsidies with virtually no public input and get to redesign the city how they see fit. Now, some may argue that the non-profit housing sector is doing a good thing by building affordable housing, but this can also be misleading. First, the public is not really part of the process, even though public tax dollars pay for these projects. Second, many of the affordable housing projects have been for individuals, so there is still inadequate housing options available for families experiencing poverty. Lastly, the use of non-profit housing projects is somewhat of a false solution, since it doesn’t really address the main problem we see in cities like Grand Rapids, which is the wealth gap.
In 2016, Grand Rapids had the largest wealth gap in the state, according to a report done by the Economic Policy Institute. This trend have having a large wealth gap between the rich and the working poor doesn’t seem to be changing. What we need to do is to come up with new ideas and ways of thinking about addressing the segregated housing reality in Grand Rapids. We need to think about structural oppression and systems of power in order to address the problem of racial segregation in housing. We also need to make sure that those who are the most affected in this community by housing segregation, specifically the black and brown communities need to be the one to lead the effort to dismantle housing segregation in this city.
Longtime DeVos operative and former Michigan Representative, now works for Betsy DeVos in the Department of Education
Last Tuesday, the US Department of Education announced that Daniela Garcia will be the Director of Outreach in the Office of Communications and Outreach.
Garcia was first elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2014 and served for four years in the 90th District, which includes Holland, Hudsonville and Zeeland. Last year, Garcia campaigned for the 30th District Senate seat in Michigan, but lost to fellow Republican Roger Victory.
Daniela Garcia during her years in the State House was financially backed by the DeVos family, receiving thousands of dollars to represent part of West Michigan. DeVos money was contributed from several members of the family to Garcia, plus Garcia received money through the Great Lakes Education Project, founded by Betsy DeVos.
Garcia was a member of the Education Reform, Health Policy, and Elections and Ethics committees. It was her role on the Education Reform Committee where she pushed for policy that was crafted by the DeVos Family, the Great Lakes Education Project and the West Michigan Policy Forum.
Garcia had received the endorsement of the Great Lakes Education Project in 2014, 2016 and 2018 to represent West Michigan. As a member of the Education Reform Committee she was instrumental in the push to remake the Detroit Public Schools along lines pleasing to the charter school industry and she the primary sponsor of two bills in the Michigan House package in 2016, which postponed the Detroit Public School’s return to local governance and all but obliterated the collective-bargaining rights of Detroit teachers.
Garcia was a huge proponent of Charter Schools in Michigan, voted for an end to pensions for teachers in the public school system (pushed heavily by the West Michigan Policy Forum) and she also voted for the A to F Grades, Rankings, and Designations for Public School bill, which was pass last month during the Lame Duck session.
The fact that Betsy DeVos chose Daniela Garcia to come work at the Department of Education, makes complete sense. Garcia has not only demonstrated a loyalty to the DeVos family, she has demonstrated a loyalty to one of the DeVos family’s main policy objectives, Education Reform.
Like some demonic, destructive suction tube: Martin Luther King Jr and US militarism Part II
In Part I, we looked at Dr. King’s Beyond Vietnam speech, to demonstrate that the civil rights leaders was deeply critical of US militarism. We also look at the ways in which US militarism was impacting the world from the time of his speech in 1967, to the present, looking at what each administration was doing in terms of militarism.
In Part II, we want to look at the organized US resistance movements against US militarism, since Dr. King’s 1967 Beyond Vietnam speech. In particular, we want to look at how that organized resistance to US militarism looked like in Grand Rapids and when it took place, which should illuminate the contradictions of when anti-militarism organizing occurred.
Vietnam Resistance
The anti-Vietnam war movement in Grand Rapids was not as militant as in cities like Chicago, New York or Washington, but there were a significant number of people opposing the war in a variety of ways.
Numerous churches took a stand against the US firebombing of villages in South Vietnam, with Fountain Street Church and Park Congregational leading the way, by bringing in national speakers who were against the war.
There were people were involved in the anti-draft movement in Grand Rapids as well, along with trainings on draft resistance and how to be a conscientious objector.
Many people from the Grand Rapids area also traveled to Washington, DC for the massive anti-war rallies. Many of those who went and organized buses were from colleges and high schools in the area, with Calvin College and Grand Valley State College being the most active.
Grand Valley had a lively student anti-war contingent, holding Teach-Ins, rallies and anti-draft actions. Calvin students organizing against the war were involved in organizing Teach-Ins, rallies and informational resources for students on the draft, as is seen in the picture. In addition, students at Calvin participated in the national Moratorium Campaign against the Vietnam War, with rallies on campus and organizing buses to DC.
For more on the Anti-Vietnam War Movement, go to this link.
Anti-Nuclear Freeze Movement
A movement to challenge the proliferation of nuclear weapons was born and involved not only seasoned activists, but included physicians, social workers, scientists and teachers. Groups like Physicians for Social Responsibility help push an anti-nuclear agenda that focused on getting the US to sign on to an arms reduction treaty as the beginning stages of a total nuclear disarmament campaign.
In Grand Rapids, a local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Institute for Global Education (IGE) and various faith-based groups formed a coalition to educate the community and organize for nuclear disarmament.
In addition, there was a nuclear freeze campaign that sought to get local and state governments to declare themselves nuclear free zones.
However, there was also lots of direct action efforts as well. In August of 1982, several people were arrested at the K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, which was a Strategic Air Command base in the UP. Beginning in 1983, there was a campaign that became to shut down a nuclear weapons factory, Williams International, in Walled Lake, Michigan. Several people from Grand Rapids also were part of that resistance.
Lastly, people from Grand Rapids were involved in direct action efforts at Wurthsmith Air Force Base, in Oscoda, Michigan in the late 1980s through 1991. This ongoing resistance, with hundreds being arrested, resulted in the base being shut down just a few years later.
For more information on the Anti-Nuclear Movement, go to this link.
Anti-Apartheid in South Africa Movement
The international anti-apartheid movement had begun in the early 1960s, but people in Grand Rapids began organizing to end apartheid in South Africa in the late 1970s.
However, the movement really took off in the early 80s when organizers got the City of Grand Rapids to divest, the Grand Rapids Public Schools to pass a resolution against South African Apartheid and Calvin College students and faculty got that school to divest as well.
There were also several local people who traveled to be part of larger actions in New York and Washington, DC, with protests and mass civil disobedience.
For more details on the Anti-Apartheid Movement, go to this link.
Central American Solidarity Movement
When the Reagan administration made Central America his obsession, the Central American Solidarity Movement began. In Grand Rapids this movement included several churches, the Institute for Global Education and groups like Stop the Invasion Campaign.
People were organized around US funding of the war in El Salvador and Guatemala, along with US funding of the Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. There were teach-ins, rally, tons of educational work and lots of direct action. Congressman Paul Henry was a supporter of the contra war, so there were numerous actions in his office located in the federal building.
In addition, there were several protests after US trained soldiers had killed 6 Catholic priests, their cook and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989 and the US invasion of Panama.
For more information on the Central American Solidarity Movement, go to this link.
Anti-Gulf War Movement 1991
When the US military buildup began in 1990, we knew it was only a matter of time before the US invaded Iraq. In Grand Rapids, a weekly demonstration in front of the Federal Building began in the fall of 1990.
However, once the war began in January, actions increased. Marches were organized against the war, a public fast and a Teach-in was organized. However, since the war only last a little over a month, this movement quickly died, even though there were ongoing consequences, which people tried to draw attention to in the summer of 1991, when President George H. W. Bush came to town. https://grpeopleshistory.org/2018/08/29/1991-resistance-to-the-gulf-war-in-grand-rapids-part-ii/
Anti-War in Afghanistan Organizing
After September 11, 2001, the US quickly moved to take action to blame someone for the terrorist attack. In October of 2001, the US began bombing Afghanistan, even though Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11.
Most people were unwilling to speak out against the US invasion of Afghanistan, especially with all the fear-mongering after 9/11. However, there was a small effort against the US invasion of Afghanistan, which included demonstrations at government facilities, a news outlets, education materials and a Teach-In were created, along with fundraising for civil society groups in Afghanistan who opposed the US invasion.
Anti-Iraq War Movement
Organizing against the Iraq war began even before the war started. People in Grand Rapids organized its first mass protest against the war in October of 2002. The next major action was in February of 2003, when President Bush came to Grand Rapids, right after he delivered his State of the Union address. Bush was greeted by an estimated 2,000 people.
Once the war began, there were actions against Congressman Vern Ehlers, at his office, when he spoke publicly and even at his house. There were also Teach-Ins, lots of education materials, counter-recruitment organizing and efforts to organize a long-tem resistance movement.
For more information on the Anti-Iraq War Movement, go to this link.
Failure to Embrace Dr. King’s vision against US Militarism
While there has been a fair amount of anti-war organizing in Grand Rapids, since Dr. King gave his 1967 Beyond Vietnam speech, most of that organizing has been against specific wars and not against US militarism in general.
One thing that should be painfully clear is that in Grand Rapids (like the rest of the country), most of the anti-war organizing took place during Republican Administrations. However, as we documented in Part I, US militarism and US Imperialism is an ongoing, Bi-partisan reality.
What is instructive about this point is that, while there were numerous people who were against US wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, most of those who were publicly opposed to those wars failed to do the following:
- Most people who were against certain wars were unwilling to take any substantial risk in their opposition to US militarism.
- Those tended to vote with the Democratic Party ended any opposition to wars, when Democrats occupied the White House or regained control of Congress.
- There was insufficient intersectional organizing against US militarism, which is exactly what Dr. King was attempting to do in his Beyond Vietnam speech. Dr. King wasn’t just against the war in Vietnam, he was also against how resources for the war took from programs of social uplift.
These three points are important. First, we have to come to terms with the uncomfortable fact that US militarism in Bi-Partisan. Second, we have to acknowledge that most people in the US are unwilling to take the necessary risks to resist US militarism. Lastly, when there are anti-war movements, they often fail to connect their resistance to the anti-racist, anti-capitalist or anti-environmental efforts that are happening at the same time.
In Part III, we will make a proposal about how we can all better work towards Dr. King’s vision of resisting US militarism, especially with an intersectional approach to organizing and resistance.
Company proposing a new immigrant detention facility in Ionia, presented their case before the Ionia City Council earlier this week
In October, it was first reported that a proposed immigration detention center might be coming to Ionia. We wrote about this on the same day, in an article entitled, Proposal for new immigration detention facility in Ionia indicates an increase in ICE activity in Michigan.
The proposal comes from the Immigration Centers of America (ICA), which was founded in 2008 and provides detention and transportation services for the US Department of Homeland Security. Their Farmville Detention Facility in Virginia, is often cited as a shinning example of the kind of services they offer to Homeland Security.
On Wednesday, WOOD TV8 ran a follow up story about the proposed immigration detention center in Ionia, after a lawyer representing the company that plans to build the facility, had presented their case before the Ionia City Council on Tuesday.
The channel 8 story is worth examining. First, there are three different perspectives provided; the lawyer representing ICA, the Mayor of Ionia and the executive director of Migrant Legal Aid, which opposes the need for a new detention facility.
We checked the City of Ionia Commission meeting agenda for January 8, but there is no mention of the detention center proposal on the agenda and the minutes from that meeting have not as of yet been posted.
In the WOOD TV 8 story, it states, “ICE made a presentation to the Ionia City Council Tuesday evening. No residents made statements.” We assume that the presentation was given by the lawyer representing ICA, but we won’t know for sure until the minutes from that meeting are posted.
In that same channel 8 story, Dennis Muchmore, the lawyer representing ICA, was quoted as saying, “No one wants to be detained, but these people are not criminals. They are just in the country illegally.” This is an interesting admission and it contradicts how the Department of Homeland Security frames why immigrants are being detained and deported.
At the very end if the story, Muchmore states, “Will a detention center be built? The answer is yes. Will it be built in Ionia? No one knows whether it will be built in Ionia or some other community.” This statement seems to reflect that the proposed detention facility in Ionia is not a done deal and that ICA might have proposals for a detention facility in other states.
Once the Ionia City Council minutes for the January 8th meeting are posted, we will provide an update on this story. In addition, there will be a statewide gathering soon of people who plan to organize and prevent this proposed immigration detention facility from happening.
Agri-Business, Corporate Welfare and the US Farm Bill: How MiBiz reported on the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill
As we reported in December, the 2018 Farm Bill passing received a great deal of praise from the agri-business sector, when Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow announced the bill’s passage.
One of the main points we made in our December article was that virtually everyone that Senator Stabenow included in her Press Release announcing the passage of the Farm Bill, were those who were large farmers or those representing various agri-business associations, like the Michigan Farm Bureau.
Now, the local business press is providing an opportunity for the agri-business sector to sing the praises of the 2018 Farm Bill. MiBiz posted posted a story recently, entitled, ‘HUGE WIN’: What the 2018 Farm Bill means for Michigan’s ag industry.
The MIBiz article only relies on three sources in their article. The first perspective we see is that of Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association. Apart from being an agri-business association, this group does a great deal of lobbying on behalf of their members to make sure that they benefit from the corporate welfare of the Farm Bill.
A second major voice in the article was John Kran, the national legislative counsel for the Michigan Farm Bureau. Kran spends his time in Washington as a lobbyist for the agri-business sector in Michigan, so it’s no surprise that he praises the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. According to OpenSecrets.org, the Michigan Farm Bureau has contributed several million dollars to legislators (especially Senator Stabenow) to make sure that the Farm Bill would benefit those they represent in the agri-business sector.
The only other voice represented in the MiBiz article was that of Case Visser of Zeeland-based Visser Farms LLC. 
Visser is the only grower sourced in the story, but they are also a member of the agri-business sector and in no way represents small farmers and growers. In fact, Visser Farms LLC is a recipient of corporate welfare from the Farm Bill, so naturally they would praise the Farm Bill’s passage.
Lastly, there was a section in the MiBiz article that provided some history on the US Farm Bill, although the history was skewed in favor of the agri-business model. For those who really want to understand the history of the Farm Bill and how it has changed since its inception, please read Wenonah Hauter’s book, Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America.
If anyone is familiar with this blog, then they know that there has been dozens of posts in the past two years dedicated to investigating the presence of the Department of Homeland Security in Grand Rapids, specifically ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
We have investigated where ICE has offices in Kent County and which companies have contracts with them. We have also written a great deal about the Kent County Sheriff Department’s contract with ICE, a contract which could expire at the end of September 2019.
Now, because of the work of local activists with GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosecha GR, there is new information about the partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the Grand Rapids Public Schools.
In an article posted on January 5th from MLive, we learn about all these new ways that the Grand Rapids Public Schools are diversifying to create career opportunities for students. In the section headlined Academy of Hospitality & Tourism it states:
Grand Rapids schools is partnering with hospitality and tourism industry leaders on a new Academy of Hospitality & Tourism launching the 2019-20 school year.
The college-prep academy will be among six planned at Ottawa Hills High School, 2055 Rosewood& Ave. SE. A culinary program will be added eventually to the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism after some building renovations.
The other academies planned are:
- Academy of Advance Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management
- Academy of Public Safety, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity
- Academy Physical Therapy and Sports Management
- Academy of Media Production
- Academy of Cosmetology
When activists asked the GRPS about this fact, they replied:
There is a huge talent need in the City of Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids Police Department and Grand Rapids Fire Department. Also, Grand Rapids is a designated cyber security hub with well paying jobs.
Activists were pointing out how the GRPS having this kind of a relationship with the Department of Homeland Security is highly problematic, since there are literally thousands of students in the GRPS system who have parents who are part of the undocumented and under-documented community.
In checking the Department of Homeland Security site with relationships they have with High Schools, this is what I was able to find under the heading ICE Pathways Programs
On Dec. 27, 2010, President Obama issued Executive Order 13562 – Recruiting and Hiring Students and Recent Graduates. This Executive Order established the Internship Program and Recent Graduates Program, which, along with the Presidential Management Fellows Program, are collectively known as the Pathways Programs.
ICE also has a Student Volunteer Program. This program is not part of the Pathways Program, but provides volunteer opportunities for students. Learn more about our Student Volunteer Program.
Now, some of these programs are geared toward college students, but there are opportunities for high school students. One opportunity is what is called the Internship Program. The description here makes it clear that high school students are welcomed to participate, where it could lead to career opportunities.
The Internship Program replaces the Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) and Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP). This Program is designed to provide students enrolled in a wide variety of educational institutions, from high school to graduate level, with opportunities to work in agencies and explore Federal careers while still in school and while getting paid for the work performed. Students who successfully complete the program may be eligible for conversion to a permanent job in the civil service.
This is all very disturbing news, but it is consistent with the GRPS, which has been increasing their partnership with the Grand Rapids Police Department to increase provide students with increased opportunities to be directed into a career as a cop.
We hope that this new information about how the Department of Homeland Security and ICE is weaving itself into our public institutions, will not only create greater awareness, but will mobilize students, parents, teachers and community members to challenge this unjust and dangerous partnership.
Because of the new relationship between the Department of Homeland Security/ICE and the Grand Rapids Public Schools, we felt it was time for us to update our Matrix of ICE in Kent County graphic.
By Local Food System, they mean a food system which benefits those with racial and class privilege in West Michigan
Last Friday, MLive posted an article headlined, West Michigan’s regional food system the focus of new Culinary Conversations.
The article focuses on the new “community conversations” that the Downtown Market will offer beginning this month. Mimi Fritz, the president and CEO of the Downtown Market is quoted as saying:
Feeding and nourishing our community is the core function of our food system and connecting food innovators with experts will help us build a healthy ecosystem. A healthy local food system is an excellent economic indicator — and West Michigan is on the right track to becoming self-sufficient to feed everyone who makes this place their home.
First of all, it should be noted that the Downtown Market is part of a food system that is unjust, unsustainable and caters to the desires of primarily white, upper class people. Therefore, if people from the Downtown Market are talking about a local food system, then it is important to point out that what they mean is a food system based on making a profit, a food system that ignores how workers are exploited in the process and a food system that necessitates that food charity be the solution for those living in poverty.
Second, these community conversations that the Downtown Market will host are designed to bring people together who share their vision of local food, not so much to assess and improve a local food system.
Third, the Downtown Market CEO doesn’t seem to understand that what it means to be self-sufficient in terms of a food system. The head of the Downtown Market fails to acknowledge that the current food system for West Michigan heavily relies on massive farm subsidies (as does the rest of the country) through the Farm Bill. In addition, the current food system is not self-sufficient, since they are a great many food items consumed in this market that come from outside of the state and outside the country. A food system is never self-sufficient if it relies on food that has to travel more than a thousands miles before it is consumed.
Lastly, the very fact that these local food conversations are co-sponsored by Start Garden, just underscores the point that the focus will be on food as commodities for profit and niche markets that benefit those with privilege.
In contrast to what the Downtown Market will be hosting, I suggest that people read The Grand Rapids Local Food Discussion through a Food Justice Lens, which was written after an urban grower critiqued the Downtown Market, plus a post we wrote a few years ago entitled, Community organizing as points of intervention in the Food System: A Grand Rapids perspective.
Like some demonic, destructive suction tube: Martin Luther King Jr and US militarism Part I
This is the first of a three part series, leading up to the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. Using one of the major themes from Dr. King’s historic Beyond Vietnam speech, we want to explore three aspects of US militarism since he have this speech in April of 1967.
Early on in the speech, Dr. King stated:
Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything on a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Dr. King could not separate the relationship to US militarism/imperialism and how we treat those experiencing poverty, what he calls the poor. Later in this same speech, Dr. King then says:
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
The civil rights leader could not reconcile the massive amounts of money the US spent on militarism, while at the same time not making sure that the people living in the US had access to basic rights like housing, education, health care, etc.
Unfortunately, this intersectional analysis of US militarism is rarely applied today, even though many people get the idea that spending money on militarism and security detracts from spending money on basic human needs. The most recent example is the money the Trump administration wants to spend on the so-called wall on the US?Mexican border. There are many who have been saying that the money that Trump is demanding to build the wall could be better spent on things like health care. And while I agree with that sentiment, it doesn’t usually translate into people taking action that would confront US military spending or as Dr. King said this demonic, destructive suction tube.
Over the next few weeks, we want to explore three aspects of Dr. King’s analysis on US militarism. In Part, I we will explore how every US administration since 1967 has ignored Dr. King’s plea to reduce military spending and focus on programs of social uplift. In Part II, I will look at US anti-war/anti-militarism organizing since 1967, with a focus on Grand Rapids. And lastly, in Part III, I will look at how we need to see US militarism as a war on the poor, with a proposal on how anti-militarism should be part of every social justice movement.
US Militarism and Imperialism: A Bi-partisan affair
When Dr. King gave his Beyond Vietnam speech in 1967, Lyndon Johnson was president. Johnson escalated the US war in Vietnam during his administration until he left office at the end of 1968.
When Richard Nixon took office at the beginning of 1969, Nixon continued the war in Vietnam, but expanded the war to other countries, involving Laos and Cambodia, which is why there are many historians that refer to this war as the US war in Southeast Asia.
In addition to Nixon’s war in Southeast Asia, his administration was supporting US militarism in other parts of the world like Indonesia, Ethiopia and Chile. However, it is important to think about King’s notion of US militarism as more than right out war. His analysis and ours should see US militarism as US military bases abroad, covert and CIA operations, US military training of other armies, weapons sales and sanctions against other nations. If we expand our understanding of US militarism to include these aspects, then the Nixon administration was also involved with NATO, the ongoing operations to undermine Cuba, Nixon’s support of Israel and Iran. The Nixon administration was also supporting dictatorships in Haiti, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Panama.
The Ford administration continued with Nixon’s war in Vietnam until 1975, but was also involved in Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor, maintaining the embargo against Cube, supporting the brutal regime in Iran, funding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and expanding the US/CIA role in Angola and South Africa. Of course, all US presidents since Johnson were deeply involved in NATO, maintained over 100 US military bases abroad and were engaged in weapons sales, military aid and training to numerous countries as well.
The Carter administration was busy with US militarism in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Haiti, Iran, Angola and had begun providing lots of money and training to Afghanis who were fighting the Soviet occupation. The Carter administration also continued the US embargo against Cuba and massive amounts of military aid to Israel and Egypt.
The Reagan administration was deeply involved in funding the Afghanis fighting the Soviet occupation, providing weapons to both countries in the Iran-Iraq war, invaded Grenada, funded and trained the Contra war in Nicaragua and the counterinsurgency wars in El Salvador and Guatemala. The Reagan administration continued to support South African Apartheid, funding Israeli, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, along with dictatorships in Haiti and Panama.
The George H.W. Bush administration continued most of the same forms of US militarism abroad that previous administration had engaged in, plus there was the US invasion of Panama, the Gulf War and the escalation of US military aid and military bases in Colombia to fight the so-called War on Drugs.
The Clinton administration continued the same forms of US militarism since King’s 1967 speech – NATO, US military bases in over 100 countries, US weapons sales, US military training and the US embargo of Cuba. In addition, the Clinton administration engaged in warfare in Somalia, bombed Sudan, the war in Kosovo, supported a military coup in Haiti, supported $1 million a day for the war in El Salvador until the cease fire in 1994, expanded the drug war in Colombia and bombed Iraq regularly for 8 years, along with the harshest economic sanctions that were ever imposed on a country – Iraq, which led to the deaths of 500,000 children. Clinton’s Sec. of State, Madeleine Albright, when asked if the 500,000 Iraqi child deaths were worth it replied, “yes, we think it was worth it.”
The George W. Bush administration continued most of the same forms of US militarism, but began a US occupation of Afghanistan in 2001 (which continues to the present), went to war with Iraq over falsified intelligence, began US subversion of Venezuela, supported another coup against Haiti, continued the economic embargo against Cuba, began to further militarize violence in Mexico with Plan Merida and maintained massive US military aid to Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The Obama administration continued most of the same forms of US militarism abroad, escalated the US occupation of Afghanistan, supported to brutal Israeli assaults on Gaza (2008-2009 and 2014), supported the military coup in Honduras, provided military support for the war in Libya, expanded drone wars in Yemen, Pakistan and Syria, continued the drug war policies in Colombia and maintained the US subversion of Venezuela.
The Trump administration has also maintained most of the same forms of US militarism, including Afghanistan and Syria, harassment of Iran, continued the US military presence in Africa known as AFRICOM (started under Obama), massive weapons sales to Israel and Saudi Arabia, continuing to support the dictatorships in Honduras, military aid to Mexico, NATO expansion and nearly 1,000 US military bases abroad.
It is quite evident that US militarism and US imperialism has been consistent since Dr. King gave his Beyond Vietnam speech in 1967. In addition, the US Congress (regardless of who controls the House of the Senate) has voted for an increase in US military spending every years since 1967, with the current US Defense Budget at $716 billion. In other words, US militarism is a bi-partisan affair.
To further investigate the US military budget I highly recommend the resources at the War Resister League annual pie chart of how much of US tax dollars go to militarism and the solid work that the National Priorities Project does to look at US military spending since 9/11, along with how US military spending could be used, to use King’s words, for programs of social uplift.
In Part II, I will look at the history of resistance to US militarism since 1967, specifically in Grand Rapids and what we can learn from those anti-militarism movements.
Members of GR Rapid Response to ICE and Movimiento Cosehca GR attended the Kent County Commission meeting today to continue to call for an end to the contract that the Sheriff’s Department has with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
One of the themes that came up during the public comment was the fact that as of today, there were 271 days remaining on the current Kent County contract with ICE. The contract with ICE had been renewed in 2017 and the document from that renewal clearly states that the contract will expire in September 30th, 2019.
All four of those who spoke during public comment, however, made it clear that the contract needed to be ended now, since there is tremendous harm being inflicted every day on the immigrant community. One member of the affected community switched from English to Spanish during their comments, partly to make a point about how people who do not speak English are left out of the commission meetings, which are conducted entirely in English. Another public comment read testimony from a woman who had her husband picked up by ICE last year.
One additional public comment stayed with a numbers theme and we thought it was powerful enough to reprint in its entirely:
My name is JR martin. i live on Anishinaabe land, sometimes referred to as Kent County.
I’m here again to join my friends and neighbors in demanding an end to the contract between Kent County and ICE. so i want to repeat the number that people have given you: there are 271 days until the contract officially expires. you can end it before then. i also thought we might benefit contextually from some counting in the other direction.
It’s been 9 days since christmas day, when christians celebrate the birth of a refugee child who was later killed by the state, and when, this past year, 8-year-old Felipe Alonzo Gomez died in border patrol custody.
It’s been 26 days since 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin died in border patrol custody.
It’s been 225 days since 20-year-old Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez was shot in the head and killed by a border patrol agent in Texas.
And it’s been 223 days since may 25, 2018, when Roxsana Hernandez, a 33-year-old HIV-positive transgender woman, fleeing violence in Honduras and seeking a better life, died in ICE custody.
each of these deaths was a murder, whether the weapon was a gun or the denial of care and medical services. it’s always been clear that they were murders. but you may have heard, also, about the findings from an independent autopsy conducted in November, which showed that Roxsana Hernandez had been beaten while in ICE custody before her death.
the border is a death-haunted and death-dealing structure. ICE is a death and trauma machine. as of right now, at the start of a new year, that machine is rolling right along, and Kent County is effectively rolling with it.
It’s been 353 days since the journalist Ayesha Siddiqi wrote on twitter in January 2018: “ICE *is* the fascist roundup people imagine as something to anticipate in a worse future. ICE is it. don’t cooperate! don’t let them in if they knock, don’t speak to them if they ask. you decide what you let happen in your neighborhoods. protect your neighbors.”
and that’s all there is. you can end the contract. you decide what happens in your neighborhood. protect your neighbors.
New Commission, Same indifference to the harm being done to the Immigrant community
Most of energy today was directed around the swearing in of two new commissioners and one who retired. There were lots of photo opportunities and a lot of talk about public service. Yet, when it came to the issue of the Kent County contract with ICE, little was said at the end during the miscellaneous portion of the commission meeting.
There was a great deal of talk about diversity, equity and making Kent County a Welcoming community, but these were mere empty platitudes that had no credibility, especially since the affected community and their allies has been calling for an end to the ICE contract since June of last year.
Several commissioners did mention the newly established Immigration Focus Group. The new Kent County Commission Chair said that they hoped to get the focus group off the ground soon. However, this raises numerous questions, like:
- Who will be on the immigration focus group?
- Will there be immigrants on the focus group?
- Will the focus group lead to an end to the ICE contract?
Those with Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE did not call for this focus group, rather a call to End the Contract with ICE. ICE continues to do real harm, to traumatize members of the immigrant community and separate families. Thus, end the contract would be a positive step for the county to take in order to build any kind of trust with the immigrant community.
La Lucha Sigue!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 