Fifteen years of blogging on Martin Luther King Jr. Day has taught me that people still want to hold on to the nice man image
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a fighter and never backoff from calling out systems of power and oppression, specifically what he referred to as the “Evil Triplets” – systemic racism, militarism and materialism/Capitalism.
Dr. King was also an organizer who believed in direct action and disruptive actions, actions that would inspire people and to mobilize people join the movement. However, Dr. King’s actions and that of the Civil Rights Movement also got the attention of systems of power and oppression, which led to an intense FBI surveillance campaign, along with the FBI recruiting infiltrators to disrupt the movement. King’s involvement in the Black Freedom Struggle ultimately got him assassinated, not by a lone racist, but by a system that collaborated to end his life.
Over the past 15 years that I have been blogging here on GRIID, I have consistently written about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., what he did while working within the larger Black Freedom Struggle and how he was part of a resistance struggle against systems of power and oppression.
I am not going to include ever blog post about Dr. King, but I have gone back a selected some of the post that I think are always relevant for the current and ongoing struggles for justice today. The first post from 2010 is entitled, The Dr. King We Rarely Hear About. That post begins with quote from Dr. King, which generally isn’t invoked during MLK celebrations. “I am sorry to have to say that the vast majority of white Americans are racists, either consciously or unconsciously.”
In 2011, I posted a piece entitled. Which Dr. King will you celebrate? I ask the question, since too often at MLK events we talk about the I have a Dream speech or we talk about diversity. What we don’t hear about very often in those public events is people talking about how Dr. King condemned the Vietnam War, US militarism and US Imperialism.
In 2016, I wrote a 3 part piece about Dr. King. Part I centered on his Beyond Vietnam speech that was delivered in 1967, a speech that many in the Civil Rights Movement did not support. In Part II, I focused more on Dr. King’s critique of economic matters, using the title, The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of white society: Seeing the world through the eyes of Dr. King. The third post in that series focused on racism and White Supremacy where I apply Dr. King’s vision on what is happening in Grand Rapids.
In 2018, I wrote two articles around MLK Day, with the first post providing a summary of several excellent books either written by Dr. King or about him and the Black Freedom Struggle. Celebrating the Real Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The second article talked about how business associations and corporations and exploited the legacy of Dr. King, which was entitled, From Organizing a Poor People’s Campaign to hosting a Corporate Breakfast: The Uses and Abuses of Dr. King’s Legacy.
In 2020, I wrote a piece about how Dr. King fought against structural racism and White Supremacy. In that same piece I wrote about what it means to be an anti-racist, with book resources and talking points.
In 2023, my article, was entitled, The uses and abuses of the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Grand Rapids. In that article I talk about how both conservatives and liberals misuse the legacy of Dr. King to justify that actions and inactions.
Finally, in 2024, I wrote an article entitled, Virtually every politician you know will misrepresent and bastardize the legacy of Dr. King today. So many politicians will bastardize the legacy of Dr. King, but in this post it looks specifically at how Senator Gary Peters has used to Dr. King to justify his own public policy choices.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of January 19th
It has been more than 15 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
A DEAL TOO LATE: ISRAEL AGREES TO THE CEASEFIRE IT REJECTED MONTHS AGO, THOUSANDS MORE DIED
“America’s Stamp Is Everywhere” on Bomb Shells in Gaza, Report Finds
Israel Bombs, America Yawns and Gatekeepers Con
Israel Destroyed Gaza ‘for Generations to Come’ and the World Stayed Silent
Palestinian Authority kills its own people, proves loyalty to Israel
How U.S. Media Hide Truths About the Gaza War
The Trump Factor: Gaza Ceasefire Deal Appears Close
Arming Israel Still Has Bipartisan Support in Washington
Israeli Minister Boasts About Blocking Ceasefire Deals as Media Blames Hamas
The Gaza Genocide: The fall of Israel’s Immunity
Analysis & History
Do Boycotts Against Israel Work? Fatima Bhutto & Omar Barghouti | Reframe
Image used in this post is from the https://visualizingpalestine.org/.
Rep. Hillary Scholten lied once again, then she insulted the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On Thursday, January 16th, Rep. Hillary Scholten made a couple of posts on her Facebook page that were both instructive and infuriating, especially if you honestly care about justice and truth.
In one post, which included an article from the New York Times about the tentative ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Scholten wrote:
Since day 1 of this devastating conflict, I’ve called for humanitarianism and encouraged negotiating parties to work toward a cease-fire deal.
I pray that hostages are finally reunited with their loved ones and will continue working to support the innocent people devastated by this war.
These two sentences include a lie and performative non-sense that only acknowledges Israeli hostages, yet never mentions Palestinian deaths, suffering or the thousands of Palestinian prisoners that have also been part of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
GRIID has methodically documented the role that Rep. Scholten has played in Israel’s war crimes and the ongoing genocide, which you can read here. So when Rep. Scholten says that she has, “called for humanitarianism and encouraged negotiating parties to work toward a cease-fire deal,” she is outright lying. Whatever US humanitarian aid that was earmarked for Palestinians, the Israeli military has consistently either prevented or significantly delayed such aid. Numerous independent media sources have documented this dynamic, such as the Electronic Intifada, which nearly a year ago wrote a post entitled, Israel blocking aid, fuel to Gaza hospitals. The Biden Administration has know about this and said and done nothing.
The US has also done a great deal to delay any real ceasefire agreement, as has been documented in an excellent article entitled, A Year of Empty Threats and a “Smokescreen” Policy: How the State Department Let Israel Get Away With Horrors in Gaza. A major point of the article states:
Time and again, Israel crossed the Biden administration’s red lines without changing course in a meaningful way, according to interviews with government officials and outside experts. Each time, the U.S. yielded and continued to send Israel’s military deadly weapons of war, approving more than $17.9 billion in military assistance since late 2023, by some estimates. The State Department recently told Congress about another $8 billion proposed deal to sell Israel munitions and artillery shells.
Another article from the Intercepted also encapsulates the absurdity of the Israeli willingness to negotiate a ceasefire, which is cited in their article, A Deal Too Late: Israel agrees to a ceasefire deal it rejected months ago, thousands more died.
In addition to lying to us about her call for humanitarianism in Israel’s brutal genocidal campaign against the Palestinians, Rep. Scholten then claims to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, writing:
Today we honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was born on this day in 1929. While his life was tragically cut short, his legacy has lived on for generations. It is our duty to continue following in his footsteps in our work toward freedom and justice for all.
Dr. King was fundamentally opposed to militarism and violence. In his famous 1967 speech at Riverside Church, he came out against the US war in Vietnam, stating: “As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems… But they asked, and rightly so, ‘what about Vietnam?’ They asked if our own nation wasn’t using massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government.”
Rep. Scholten has been deeply committed to militarism. Since she was elected to office in 2022, she has voted for every Department of Defense Budget, with the last budget being the largest in US history at $886 Billion. Rep. Scholten has unconditionally supported the US sending billions to Israel during the genocidal campaign, along with supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and the Israeli system of Apartheid. Rep. Hillary Scholten insults the memory of Dr. King and we must call her out on this fact.
Source of the photo above is from CNN.
Grand Rapids news agencies cite far right organization that doesn’t like BIPOC students benefiting from scholarships
Several local news agencies reported that Grand Valley State University (GVSU) is being challenged over who is benefiting from scholarships.
The Equal Protection Project filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Education after it received a tip about the school’s practices. The EPP alleges GVSU is violating Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In both the WOODTV8 and the WZZM 13 stories, it appears that they used part of a Media Release from the group known as The Equal Protection Project. However, in the WOODTV8 story, they provide a fair amount of airtime to the founder of The Equal Protection Project and current President, William A. Jacobson.
There are no other sources cited in either local TV news station, especially no sources from GVSU. Equally important is the fact that the local news stories don’t provide proper context on the group The Equal Protection Project. The Equal Protection Project is part of the effort to undermine and undo years of efforts from the Civil Rights Movement, especially in the area of higher education. This has been a wide-spread practice since the late 1970s, to attack the gains of the Civil Right Movement and turn back whatever gains were made to address racial inequality and racial injustice.
In addition, The Equal Protection Project is only part of the work that William A. Jacobson is behind. Jacobson also created the Critical Race Training in Education, which tracks school that teach Critical Race Theory and provides resources to people who want to attack those education systems.
However, both the Critical Race Training in Education and The Equal Protection Project are offshoots of Legal Insurrection, a group that practices and promotes Far Right politics. Check out their website and their Facebook page and you will see what kind of information, who they feature and what kind of far right ideas they promote. In many ways, it appears that what Legal Insurrection is all about, is providing a platform to promote and amplify the Trump Administration and the ideologues that are in the Trump camp.
This is all just another example of how Grand Rapids-based commercial news agencies don’t question or verify their sources, nor do they provide background information on the sources they cite. Just because an organization calls itself the Equal Protection Project, doesn’t mean they believe in or practice equality.
There are numerous opportunities to resist mass deportations in Grand Rapids, with several events and actions in the next week
The Trump Administration is calling for mass deportations once he occupies the White House again after January 20th. The time is now for all of us who care about solidarity and collective liberation to not sit on the sidelines or think complaining about Trump on social media will do a damn thing.
In Grand Rapids, there are lots of ways to be involved in the resistance to mass deportations and to stand in solidarity with immigrants right now. What follows is a list of upcoming/current actions that people can take, plus the groups that are working diligently to practice immigration justice.
On Wednesday, January 15th, there will be a free screening of the film Citizen: The Jilmar Ramos Gomez Story, which will be screened at the Wealthy Theater at 7pm. This short film not only focuses on the person of Jilmar Ramos Gomez, it shows how people in Grand Rapids resisted anti-Immigration policies by the Trump Administration during his first tenure as President.
On Saturday, January 18th, GR Rapid Response to ICE is hosting a training at Fountain Street Church from noon til 2pm. This is a training being offered through GR Rapid Response to ICE to prepare people to take action in support of immigrants that will be targeted, especially with the threat from the incoming Trump Administration of mass deportation. This training will offer multiple ways for people to support immigrants, along with concretes ways for people to practice solidarity.
On Monday, January 20th, Movimiento Cosecha Michigan is hosting a NO Deportations march. People will gather at Rosa Parks Circle and march in downtown Grand Rapids, which is a great action to counter Trump’s inauguration. Cosecha says, “Immigrants are human beings who want a better world for our children and our community. We deserve to live with dignity, respect, and permanent protection, without the fear of being deported. Come march with us and show your solidarity with immigrants to say NO DEPORTATIONS in our community.”
You can also sign an Action Alert right now, an action alert that is calling on the Grand Rapids Public Schools to adopt a Sanctuary policy for the district.
GR Rapid Response to ICE is doing the defensive work that allies can be part of, which is exactly what Movimiento Cosecha is calling for. GRIID encourages people to follow both groups to practice solidarity and resist anti-immigrant policies, like deportation.
Students and community members challenge the Grand Rapids Public Schools to become a Sanctuary School District ahead of the threats of mass deportation
Last night at the Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education meeting, it was anything but boring.
First, there were 4 new School Board members who were sworn in. Then, in their very first vote, around the issue of new School Board positions, two of the more progressive members – Eleanor Moreno and Amber Kilpatrick, along with returning member Jose Rodriguez, voted no on the proposed board positions. While the other School Board members voted in favor of the new positions, it was refreshing to see that there is a growing group of board members that are not just going to rubber stamp business as usual dynamics in the district.
Secondly, during the public comment portion of the Grand Rapids School Board meeting, the majority of comments centered around a call for the Grand Rapids Public Schools to adopt a Sanctuary policy for the district. This is happening all across the country, as communities are attempting to take action with the incoming Trump Administration and their proposal to engage in mass deportations.
Several GRPS students who identified as being part of SALT (Student Association for Leadership and Transformation), which is a student union. All of the SALT students talked about the importance and the urgency of GRPS needed to adopt a Sanctuary policy, to keep students, staff, parents and community members safe from potential arrests, detention and deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. More than one of the student who spoke up identified as part of the Latino/a community and talked about how their community lives in constant fear of being targeted by ICE and how it impacts all aspects of their lives, including being a GRPS student.
Several community members spoke as well, many of them calling for the GRPS to adopt a Sanctuary policy for the district. One speaker, who spoke through an interpreter, said that the document that the district shared recently regarding GRPS protocol when dealing with ICE (which you can read here) was completely inadequate, since it would allow ICE to enter the building and be on GRPS premises in general.
Grand Rapids Superintendent Dr. Roby, addressed the document that the district had sent out after public comment and pretty much avoided talking about what the students and the community were calling for, which was for the GRPS to adopt a Sanctuary policy. While Dr. Roby was speaking, there were slides being shown on the big screen, with information that is not on the document they sent out. One thing that stood out to me that was on the screen said that the district was, “legally obligated to cooperate with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.” Dr. Roby kept talking about the fact that the GRPS would not share information with ICE, which is a good thing, but failed to address more pressing matters around ICE having access to the schools. A few School Board members pressed on this issue, but Dr. Roby kept saying ICE officials would be asked to leave, unless they could produce government documents, like a warrant. When Dr. Roby made the statement about government officials having documents, I took that as they would be given access to the building, to students and staff, because they had some form of an arrest warrant.
This is exactly why people were calling for the Grand Rapids Public Schools to adopt a Sanctuary policy, which would not only prevent ICE and other law enforcement officials from being allowed on GRPS property, it would keep students, staff, parents and community members safe.
At the same time that students and community members were calling for the GRPS to adopt a Sanctuary policy for the district, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been circulating an online Action Alert calling for the GRPS to adopt a Sanctuary policy, which people can sign here.
The language of the Action Alert is important, which I will include here below, as it provides important narrative about why it is important for the GRPS to adopt a Sanctuary policy. GRIID encourages people to sign the statement, to share it and push the Grand Rapids Public Schools to adopt a Sanctuary policy for the district.
Why:
- Both the past and the incoming administrations have targeted our immigrant neighbors using different strategies and tactics, but immigrant justice workers expect increased levels of ICE violence starting with the new administration.
- Children cannot learn and thrive unless they have a safe and welcoming school environment. If children are afraid that they, their family members, or their classmates will be deported, they will not be able to focus in school, or they will skip school.
- This has a ripple effect. If one child feels unsafe or threatened, others will feel unsafe and threatened too. This is especially true for younger children. Most younger children do not know their immigration status, and if their classmates are scared, they will be scared too. You can’t target one child without targeting all children in the classroom. Thus, you can’t protect one child without committing to protect all children.
- For teachers to fulfill their mission of educating all kids, the classroom must be a nurturing and safe space. Teachers cannot fulfill their mission if their students are afraid or if the environment is hostile. A safe zone resolution helps ensure that teachers can focus on their mission of educating instead of managing fear and its ripple effects among their students.
- We all are connected, and we live and study together in the same communities and classrooms. Anything that harms one person is going to harm all of us — and will interfere with our progress.
- To establish a safe learning environment for all children, the school district must commit the material and psychological support necessary for their well-being. It should act to ensure that children and their families have access to resources that can inform and help protect them. This includes public support for driver’s licenses for immigrants so that parents can transport children to school and extracurricular activities.
- Children are already concerned that immigration authorities may come to get them or their family members. The school district can and should take steps to assure children that their school is a safe place, that their information is confidential, and that the school will support them and their families to the best of their ability.
What Could the Sanctuary District Resolution Look Like?
- First the Grand Rapids Public School board would pass a resolution to be a Sanctuary School District.
- The GRPS board would issue a press release and public statement stating that in order to keep students safe, Grand Rapids Schools will not be cooperating with ICE, and they will work closely with community partners to provide resources, training, and support for any GRPS families who are being targeted by ICE or have been affected by detention or deportation.
- The resolution would include public support to reinstate making Driver’s Licenses available to undocumented folks who meet the requirements, so that parents can safely transport their children to school and to school events.
- Teachers and staff in schools would be trained on various methods to keep ICE out of schools: this may include:
- Training staff on the importance of not putting children or families at risk by unnecessarily asking or sharing their immigration status.
- Posting signs on school doors that state the school is a sanctuary safe space and “ICE is not welcome here.”
- Training staff how to intervene if ICE is present, and to reach out to groups like Rapid Response to ICE to intervene to keep students and families safe, as well as other community partners.
- Hosting information and resource sessions with community partners that center the needs of affected families, educate the community on policies and strategies that keep students safe, and allow input and conversation about the ways that ICE violence affects the entire community.
If you are interested in wanting to understand what the Prison Industrial Complex is and how it functions in Kent County, then this class is for you.
The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term that has been used by prison abolitionists for decades and it refers to the systems of power and oppression that play a role in mass incarceration – policing, the court system, parole, probation, jails, prisons, the businesses that have contracts with jails and prisons, the role the local news media plays in normalizing the PIC, and municipal governments that fund and oversee the PIC.
The group that first coined the phrase, the Prison Industrial Complex, Critical Resistance, defines the PIC as: “The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.”
The Prison Industrial Complex is vast and an 8-week class will not be enough to fully understand all the facets of the PIC. However, the class that GRIID is offering will enhance your understanding, particularly at the local level – Grand Rapids and Kent County.
The goals of this 8 week class on the Prison Industrial Complex in Kent County are:
- Introduce and provide a framework for understanding the Prison Industrial Complex
- Discuss and share our collective lived experiences with the PIC in Kent County.
- Examine how the local news media normalizes policing.
- Radically re-think the function of the local court system.
- Utilize data that researchers have done on the Kent County Jail.
- Map the PIC in Kent County.
- Propose ways that we can collectively confront the PIC in Kent County and concretely reduce the harm caused by this system at the local level.
This class will utilize numerous online resources, resource material that GRIID has been working on for years, data from other researchers and the book Beyond Courts. GRIID will provide a copy of the book and all the necessary links.
This class is free, since GRIID accessed funds provided through the Community Owns Safety Coalition and their Mutual Aid Project.
The class will held held on Monday night from 7 – 9pm, beginning on Monday, February 3rd and will go for 8 weeks. The class will be virtual, except for week 8, where we will discuss in person ideas for how we can collectively confront the PIC locally and reduce the harm that disproportionately impacts BIPOC people in Kent County.
The maximum number of people for this class is 15. If you want to sign up and can commit to the 8 weeks, then send an Email to sjeff987@gmail.com.
We now know who was funding the deceptive mailers used during the Grand Rapids First Ward race in 2024
For several weeks just before the November 2024 elections in Grand Rapids, people in the 1st Ward were receiving deceptive and misleading mailers that were attacking candidate Alicia Marie Belchak.
The mailers were claiming that Alicia Marie Belchak had supporters who favored defunding the police, even though the claim was completely bogus. As I noted in an article from October 30th:
If you look at the Belchak’s campaign website, the candidate survey from MLive, the one done by The Rapidian or the Voter Guide done by the Urban Core Collective, none of those candidate surveys suggest that Belchak wants to Defund the Police. In fact, on her own campaign website, candidate Belchak states: “As a mom, I know that strong, safe, vibrant neighborhoods are essential. That means funding public safety….” This statement is accompanied by a photo of Belchak and a GRPD officer sitting in his cruiser.
The group behind the mailers was the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR. During the last campaign finance reporting deadline in October of 2024, there was no funds going to the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR. I did discover that there were people listed as part of the group, as I noted in my October story.
However, after checking the Michigan Secretary of State’s campaign finance records on Saturday, the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR finally submitted their campaign finance records. The Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR received $200,000 and spent nearly all of it. According to the expenditures portion of the campaign finance requirements, the group had 9 different expenses, with 6 of them contracted with a entity on Salt Lake City, Utah, two expenditures to a firm in Dallas, Texas, and one group – Right Strategies LLC, which has an office in East Grand Rapids on Wealthy St.
Regarding the contributions to the Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR, all $200,000 came from one source, Maintain Our Majority PAC. The Maintain Our Majority PAC only has a page that allows you to make a contribution and has an address a PO Box.
However, on the contributions page from the Michigan Secretary of State’s office, there is an address for the Maintain Our Majority PAC, which is 220 LYONS ST NW SUITE 510, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503. When you look up that address, it is listed as SIBSCO, the real estate firm that was started by the Secchia family, which is now run by Charlie Secchia. Charlie Secchia is following in his father’s footstep, by being part of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. According to campaign finance records from the Kent County Clerk’s office, Charlie Secchia and his mother Joan, each contributed $1,225 to Dean Pacific, the very candidate that was running against Alicia Marie Belchak.
So, we have a member of the Grand Rapids Power Structure, Charlie Secchia, a person who is a Republican precinct delegate in Ada, who comes from a family that has provided millions to the Republican Party, and has his business office listed as the sole source of funds ($200,000) used to smear a candidate for a non-partisan race, claiming that people in the candidate’s camp wanted to defund the police. Here is just another concrete example of how the Grand Rapids Power Structure works, by using their wealth to deceive the public, while hiding behind a name like Fund for Safe Clean and Healthy GR.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of January 12th
It has been 15 months since the Israeli government began their most recent assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated to what the international community has called genocide, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
The Children of Gaza Are Freezing to Death
Letters from Gaza – ‘Alhamdulillah. We Are Not Okay’
Exposing ties between MIT and Israel’s army
“We Have to Act”: Taxpayers Suing Congressmembers for Funding Genocide Speak Out
Biden Greenlights ‘Racist’ and ‘Sociopathic’ $8B Arms Sale to Israel
Doctors Against Genocide Hold Global Sick-Out to Highlight Atrocities in Gaza
Genocidal President, Genocidal Politics
Analysis & History
Will There Be a Gaza Deal Before Trump’s Inauguration?
Lancet Study Finds Official Gaza Death Toll Likely a 41% Undercount
Image used in this post is from the https://visualizingpalestine.org/.
Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin help Republicans to pass anti-immigrant bill
Two days after I reported that Rep. Hillary Scholten voted with the Republicans to pass an anti-immigration bill, both Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin also vote with Republicans on the same trumpian anti-immigration bill.
In the Senate case, there were even more Democrats that voted with Republicans on the Laken Riley Act, with only 9 Senate Democrats voting no, according to CNN. A Politico article came with the headline, Large swath of Senate Dems vote to advance GOP’s immigration bill.
Reuters reported the same thing, but included what appears to suggestion some of the motivation behind the Democrats voting with Republicans, stating:
Many of the Democrats who supported the bill hailed from states that Trump won in the November, including Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia. Peters and Ossoff are among the one-third of the senators up for reelection next year.
I checked the websites and social media of both Senators Peters and Slotkin and neither of them posted anything about their vote. In an Associated Press article, I did find a comment from Senator Slotkin. The AP reporter wrote:
Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a freshman Democrat who was elected in November, posted on X that “Michiganders have spoken loudly and clearly that they want action to secure our southern border. We must get past petty partisanship that continues to dominate the immigration debate.”
The harsh reality is that the Laken Riley Act, if signed into law, will most certainly increase detentions and deportations of immigrants. This is what Michigan Senators Peters and Slotkin voted for, which not only doesn’t demonstrate any real intent to fight against the incoming Trump Administration, more importantly it means they are complicit in the harm that will only increase against the immigrant community.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 