What are the Sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding from Grand Rapids and Kent County: Part III
This is the third in a series that will further examine the various sanctuary policies that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding that the City of Grand Rapids and the Kent County Commission adopt. In Part I, I looked at the policy that allows officers to provide assistance to federal immigration authorities when there is an emergency that poses an immediate danger to public safety or federal agents.
In Part II, I looked at policies that would prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention. Kent County used to have a contract with ICE that began in 2012, a contract you can read here.
Today I want to look at policies that could prevent immigration detention centers from being established in Grand Rapids or Kent County. Today’s post is related to Part II, since we are talking about the issue of immigration detention.
There are two aspects of the Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE demand that Grand Rapids and Kent County adopt policies that could prevent immigration detention centers from being established in the city or the county. The first aspect of this demand is to get Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt a policy that would not allow for any new ICE detention facilities to be constructed in the city or the county.
Now that there is the GEO Group ICE Detention facility in Baldwin, MI, it seems unlikely that another one would be built in Kent County. However, having a policy in place to prevent that from even being proposed is what Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding. These groups do not want to wait for the Baldwin facility to be filled, only to find out that another ICE detention center would be built. ICE is arresting, and detaining immigrants at record numbers right now, so it is impossible to rule out the administration’s push for more privately run and constructed ICE detention centers. We already know that undocumented immigrants who are put into detention aren’t always sent to the detention center that is closest to where they live.
The second argument has to do with opposing detention centers that would be using spaces that already exist. For instance, the Kent County Jail could do what the Calhoun County Jail has done for a long time, which is to use the jail as an ICE detention facility. Kent County had previously entered into a contract with ICE to provide ICE holds on immigrants at the Kent County Jail in 2012. The Kent County Commission and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department could agree to enter into a new contract with ICE that would allow ICE to utilize the Kent County Jail to be a short-term or long-term ICE detention space. Kent County was motivated by financial incentives in the 2012 contract and there is plenty of evidence that the Kent County Sheriff’s office is already holding immigrants for ICE, so entering into a new contract to detain immigrants for ICE at the Kent County Jail is very possible.
This is why Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE have included in the demands that Grand Rapids and Kent County adopt policies that could prevent immigration detention centers from being established in the city or the county. There is nothing bizarre or silly about this, especially since Grand Rapids and Kent County continue to demonstrate their willingness to cooperate with ICE to terrorize immigrants and and separate families in this community.
This demand also aligns with what No Detention Centers in Michigan has been pushing for since they were founded in 2018. No Detention Centers in Michigan also works directly with the national group Detention Watch Network.
On Monday, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reported that there are pans for a new private business club in downtown Grand Rapids, with the focus centering around business leaders and community leaders to connect and conspire to shape Grand Rapids in such a way that benefits their interests.
One could easily argue that this already happens, at least the part where business leaders and community leaders figure out ways to get the public to pay for projects that the private sector comes up with. This is certainly what Grand Action 2.0 has been doing in recent years with the outdoor amphitheater project and the soccer stadium, which I have written about extensively.
What is different about what this business club, according to Jeff Lambert, the Executive Chairman of Lambert LLYC, is that Grand Rapids business leaders will now have a place designed specifically for ways for people to connect and conspire with likeminded people to expand their wealth. https://lambert.com/team/jeff-lambert/
Lambert was quoted in the article as saying:
“We have grown into this opportunity to launch a private club. Ten years ago, it wouldn’t have worked because we weren’t far enough along in our evolution of the city. We think the time is perfect, and there’s also a broader trend nationally of mid-sized cities opening up clubs for that same reason.”
The Commerce Club that Lambert envisions will be at the five-story building at 61 Commerce Ave. SW in downtown Grand Rapids. The club will feature a cafe, restaurant, an event venue, concierge services for members, offices, conference and coworking space, an executive gym and wellness center, a speakeasy and cigar lounge, and 18 fourth- and fifth-floor suites that members can lease or buy for overnight stays. As of right now, the annual cost of membership will be $5,000, plus a minimum spending amount. Membership, according to the Crain’s article, will also be limited to 250 people, at least at the beginning.
Ok, so while nearly half of the population in Grand Rapids is living paycheck to paycheck and while local politicians keep providing millions in public funds for private projects, members of the Capitalist Class in Grand Rapids will be able to join the Commerce Club for the stated purpose of connecting with other members of the Capitalist Class and so-called community leaders to come up with new ways to grow their already excessive wealth. These business leaders will be able to conjure new ways to use public funds for projects to increase their wealth at the Commerce Club in either the wellness center or speakeasy and cigar lounge, then take credit for making Grand Rapids a destination city for tourists.
Lastly, it is important to note that, according to the Crain’s article, the founding partners of the Commerce Club include LLYC, Rockford Construction, Progressive Companies, design firm Gensler-Chicago, Acrisure LLC, and law firm Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey PLC. These founding partners are also connected to local groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum, the Right Place Inc. Grand Action 2.0 and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, thus representing once more the incestuous and interlocking systems of power in this city.
Since November 2nd I have been doing sessions at Fountain Street Church on the History of US Immigration Policy on Sundays for members of the church and anyone else who wants to attend.
In the first week I provided a broad overview of this history, using a series of slides that I have developed over the years, since most people don’t have a firm grasp of the history of US immigration policy. The slide presentation begins with a few slides that are designed to deconstruct certain aspects of this history that perpetuate misinformation about immigrants and immigration policy.
However, most of the presentation looked at actual US immigration policies from the founding of the US, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, which not only demonized Chinese people, but limited how many Chinese people could be in the United States.
Another major theme of this first session was to ask the question about why so many immigrants were coming, especially those who were risking their lives to enter the US/Mexican border at unsanctioned border points. We then talked about the reasons for people taking such risks when crossing the US/Mexican border, along with trying to understand the root causes of why people were leaving their countries and coming to the US. I identified three main reasons, three root causes for why so many people from Mexico and central American were coming to the US especially from the 1970s through to the present.
In the second session on November 9, we did a deeper dive into the root causes on immigration, particularly with those who were undocumented immigrants. I shared two reading assignments that provided greater context of the current immigration realities.
The first reading assignment was from the book, No One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US/Mexican border, specifically chapters that provided historical context around US military and economic policy that were two of the major contributing factors for why so many people from Mexico were being displaced and entering the US without documentation.
The second reading I provided people was from the book, American Intolerance: Our Dark History of Demonizing Immigrants. I asked people to read the chapter entitled, No Dogs, No Negroes, No Mexicans, which investigated to deep hatred that white people and white institutions displayed towards Mexicans and Mexican Americans, all throughout the US, but particularly in the southwest part of the country.
In addition, I presented a brief historical overview of US military and economic policies towards Central America from the mid-19th century til today. I talked about how the US sent the Marines to invade those countries, plus the history of US funded and military training for the counterinsurgency wars in the 1970s and 80s, followed by the Central American Free Trade Agreement, also known as CAFTA.
Here’s an idea, let’s propose legislation that will not stop ICE from terrorizing immigrants
Last week MLive ran an article with the headline, Michigan considers banning ICE agents from churches, schools.
The MLive article was referring to Senate Bills 508, 509, and 510, even though the reporter failed to name the bills or provide links so that people could actually read the proposed legislation.
Senate Bill 508 claims to want to limit where ICE agents can go to apprehend immigrants, such as schools, places of worship, hospitals, libraries, etc. However, Senate Bill 508 also includes language that says:
A law enforcement officer may conduct an immigration enforcement action in a sensitive location if a court order directs the law enforcement officer conducting the immigration enforcement action to enter the sensitive location. A law enforcement officer may conduct an immigration enforcement action in a sensitive location if the immigration enforcement action is necessary to address a threat that poses imminent danger to public safety.
Senate Bill 509 would bar state and local police from providing identifying information to ICE of people they have detained or arrested, unless obligated by a warrant issued by a federal court or a court of this state.
Senate Bill 510 has language that want to make sure ICE agents are not covering their faces. Well, that is the intent, but there are 3 exceptions provided in the language of the bill. If an ICE agent covers their face for reasons other than the three exceptions they could be guilty of a misdemeanor.
It seems to me that the headline in the MLive article is misleading. The headline should have stated that Michigan considers banning ICE from some places, unless they have a judicial warrant or something like, we propose legislation that will not stop ICE from terrorizing immigrants.
What Michigan Senate Democrats are proposing in these three bills are ultimately meaningless since they will do nothing to concretely limit the terrorism being inflicted by ICE against undocumented immigrants. In each of these three pieces of legislation there are exceptions, meaning that if ICE agents have judicial warrants then they can arrests and detain whoever they want and where ever they want, whether they are masked or not.
Do people not see the ridiculousness of these bills? ICE is terrorizing undocumented immigrants, separating families, causing tremendous trauma, economic hardship and putting more money into the hands of private companies that are profiting off of the terrorism and kidnapping by ICE, like the GEO Group, which now runs the largest ICE Detention facility in the Midwest at the North Lake facility in Baldwin, MI.
You can’t claim to want to lessen the harm being inflicted by ICE, when in all three of these bills you provide ICE with exceptions, with language that allows them to still do whatever they want.
Do people not see that at this moment in Michigan and around the country that the only meaningful legislation that politicians could put forth and should put forth would be to Abolish ICE, to dismantle ICE, to Defund ICE.
Now, there are no politicians, local, state or federal, who are proposing that ICE be abolished. This means that politicians believe that ICE is a legitimate entity that has had a legitimate purpose since they were founded in 2003. But let’s be clear, since 2003, Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been designed to terrorize undocumented immigrants, to kidnap them, to detain them and to deport them. ICE has not and does not promote public safety.
We have to see these kinds of proposed bills as ineffectual justifications for state carceral violence and not spend one once of energy trying to convince ourselves that Michigan Senate Bills 508, 509 and 510 will be better for undocumented immigrants. Abolishing ICE is the only meaningful thing to do, if you genuinely want to be in solidarity with immigrants.
Abolishing ICE is what Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are calling for, so instead of supporting bullshit legislation just get involved with the work they are doing.
Boycott targeting businesses owned by Mayor LaGrand shifts to the other side of Grand Rapids in front of the Less Traveled Bar
Roughly 20 people gathered in front of the LaGrand-owned bar known as the Less Traveled, to continue the boycott campaign that began last month in front of Long Road Distillers on the westside of town.
The boycott campaign, which is organized jointly by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE is attempting to impact the ability of Mayor LaGrand to make profits while he refuses to adopt sanctuary policies that both groups have been demanding since January of this year.
The City of Grand Rapids has chosen to ignore these demands, despite the fact that there have been dozens of immigrant families impacted by ICE violence. Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand has repeatedly said that he doesn’t want to give immigrants a false sense of hope, plus the Mayor has even referred to the sanctuary policy demands as “silly” and “bizarre.”
Referring to these demands as silly and bizarre reflects a clear insensitivity to the harsh realities that undocumented immigrants are facing in the greater Grand Rapids area, especially since the demands would clearly reduce the ability of ICE to target, arrest and detain more immigrants. Here are those sanctuary policies that the affected community has been demanding:
- 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 city 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 Grand Rapids.
- A policy that will not allow the GRPD to share Flock camera images or any other information gathered by the city of Grand Rapids with ICE or any other law enforcement agency seeking to arrest, detain and deport immigrants.
The boycott on Saturday targeted the Less Traveled bar, which is part of Long Road Distillers, but branded differently in a different part of the city. People who showed up for the boycott campaign on Saturday handed out flyers to people walking along Cherry Street and those that were coming out of or going into one of Mayor LaGrand’s bars. Other people held signs and most people participated in the chants that were led by members of Movimiento Cosecha.
Several people took flyers and a few people stopped by to inquire about the boycott, with several of them unaware that Mayor LaGrand was a partial owner of these bars. Additionally, someone who works at Books and Mortar, which is just across the street from the Less Traveled bar offered to take extra flyers to have in their bookstore to let customers know about the boycott. Another reason to love independent book stores.
Some of the boycott participants also wrote messages on the sidewalk in chalk, in order to generate more attention to the campaign. People spent about 1 hour in front of the bar, but there will be lots more opportunities for people to get involved with or support the boycott as it moves forward.
Anyone wanting to get involved can contact Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE on their Facebook pages.
Epilogue for my forthcoming book, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time
What follows is the text of my epilogue for my third book, Reversing the Missionary Position: Learning Solidarity on Mayan Time. The book will be available after the New Year.
In recent months the level of repression by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increased exponentially throughout Kent County. GR Rapid Response to ICE has been receiving calls on a regular basis, with those from the affected community sharing stories of ICE terrorism, often resulting in requests for Mutual Aid for the now deeply traumatized immigrant families.
GR Rapid Response to ICE has continued to expand the scope of their work, especially since June of 2025, when ICE agents arrested and detained at least 8 immigrants at the ISAP office on Michigan Street in Grand Rapids. ISAP stands for Intensive Supervision Appearance Program, which is a program operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that provides an alternative to detention for individuals in immigration proceedings. However, this so-called alternative forces members of the undocumented immigrant community to not only check in at the ISAP on a regular basis, it forces them to either wear an ankle bracelet, a wrist bracelet or download the SmartLINK app, which allows “for real-time communication between officers and clients,” according to the BI Incorporated. BI Incorporated is a subsidiary of the GEO Group, which operates ICE detention facilities all across the county, with the most recent being the North Lake facility in Baldwin, MI.
After the ICE raid at the ISAP office, Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE has been inviting members of the undocumented immigrant community to call their hotline if they would like someone to accompany them to their appointments at the ISAP office or the ICE office at 517 Ottawa NW in downtown Grand Rapids.
Additionally, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been conducting patrols in 6 neighborhoods throughout the area, neighborhoods where ICE has frequently been seen by members of the affected community.
Lastly, GR Rapid Response to ICE has been working with Movimiento Cosecha to further their efforts to get the Grand Rapids City Commission and the Kent County Commission to adopt 6 concrete sanctuary policies that would not allow cops who work for both governing bodies to cooperate or collaborate with ICE, to not have relationships with companies that have contracts with ICE or are profiting off of ICE violence, to not allow detention centers to be built or existing spaces to be used as ICE detention centers, and to not share information on undocumented immigrants with ICE, including the data collected by the Flock cameras that are located throughout the greater Grand Rapids Area.
I have been involved in GR Rapid Response to ICE since 2017 and that group has also had a close relationship with Movimiento Cosecha, since those of us who are allies/accomplices always follow what Cosecha wants us to do. This is what solidarity looks like, when those of us who carry more privilege, can leverage that privilege to the benefit of those being targeted by ICE.
Accompaniment from Guatemala to Grand Rapids
This book is really about my own journey, from being bitten by the Central America bug to practicing solidarity, by doing sanctuary work in Grand Rapids in the 1980s to doing solidarity work in Guatemala, El Salvador and in Chiapas, Mexico between 1988 and 2006, to joining the immigrant-led work in Grand Rapids from 2017 to the present.
I would never have guessed that this is what I would be doing with my life, but I have nothing but deep gratitude for making these choices to be part of this work over the past 40 years, of practicing solidarity, and by learning from all of them amazing people that I have had the pleasure of accompanying.
For me accompaniment is not only being physically present with people who are being targeted by state violence, it is being present with them intellectually and emotionally. The people I have done accompaniment with over the past four decades, whether they are being targeted by death squads, military battalions in Guatemala, El Salvador and Chiapas, or those being terrorized by ICE in West Michigan, have taught me an important lesson I learned from the Zapatistas – We lead by following.
To lead by following means that I don’t have the answers and I follow what those who are being targeted by state violence want me to do. It is never on my terms, but on the terms of the person who has invited me to accompany them. If they want me to stay in their homes as a deterrent to state violence, ride in their car or stand next to them during a demonstration, then this is what is means to lead by following.
Accompaniment is a relational form of organizing, where we agree to do things that will contribute to the safety of those from the affected community and ultimately the liberation of all of us. Like the old Civil Rights saying that my liberation is directly connected to the liberation of those fighting for their freedom. We do this work together. We practice what the Zapatistas taught me, We build the road by walking it together.
The other important message I have tried to communicate in this book is what a Guatemalan organizer taught me back in 1988, while we shared a meal in her home. Maria worked with CONAVIGUA, an organization comprised of widows, since all of them had husbands who were murdered by the Guatemalan military.
Maria told me that quiet night in Quiche that she was grateful for our efforts to accompany them in their struggle. However, she then told me that when I got back to my country that I needed to work on changing the policies that the US government has towards Guatemala, since that would be another way that I could accompany them in their struggle for freedom. US military intervention, military funding, training Guatemalan soldiers in counterinsurgency and US trade policies is what Maria and CONAVIGUA was fighting against.
This call to action that has haunted me since 1988 is still being reflected not only in the US military Aid to Guatemala, the rest of Central America and Mexico, but the policies of NAFTA and CAFTA that primarily benefit US corporations and the wealthiest people in those countries, but promote economic violence against the majority of people in those countries. Ironically, US military and economic policies have displaced millions of people in those countries, many of whom have come to the US as undocumented immigrants.
In fact, many of the people that I and other volunteers with GR Rapid Response to ICE offer accompaniment and sanctuary to are the same people who have been forced to leave their own countries because of US policy and are now being targeted by ICE right here in West Michigan. Thus people fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico where I did accompaniment work over a span of two decades are likely relatives, friends and neighbors of the very people seeking accompaniment and sanctuary in West Michigan right now.
I don’t know how else to see it. My country was a major cause of their displacement and now my country wants to arrest, detain and deport them back to the very countries the US has been waging economic and military war against for decades. Accompaniment work is personal, but it is also structural, just as the fighting for liberation is personal and collective. I am forever grateful for all of the courages people I have met in my journey, since they have played a huge part in making me who I am today. My liberation is truly connected to theirs. La Lucha Sigue! The Struggle Continues!
MLive and WZZM 13 were at the Cosecha/GR Rapid Response to ICE action at the Sheriff’s office on Monday, but didn’t report anything
On Monday, I reported about the action that Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response engaged in at the Kent County Sheriff’s office, where a statement was read followed by pressuring the Sheriff’s office on whether or not they are holding people in the jail for ICE. The demands we presented in the statement and what was asked of one of the Sheriff Department’s staff were:
- Are undocumented immigrants being held for ICE in violation of the Sheriff’s own stated policy?
- Why are community members still being funneled from local custody into federal immigration detention?
These demands were asked because the Kent County Sheriff’s Office changed the policy in 2019, which stated that they would require a judicial warrant in order to hold someone at the Kent County Jail for ICE.
A reporter from MLive and WZZM 13 were present to record the statement made outside and to documented the interaction that GR Rapid Response to ICE members had with a Captain from the Kent County Sheriff’s office, which you can watch here.
Therefore, these two news outlets had both the statement and heard how the Kent County Sheriff’s office would not provide the information and clarification on ICE holds at the Kent County Jail.
Despite having all of that information, both MLive and WZZM 13 did not do a story on what happened on Monday. Why not, you might ask? When the group left the building of the Kent County Sheriff’s Department the two reporters wanted to know what the Guatemalan man (who was taken by ICE because of the hold the Kent County Jail had) was charged with by the GRPD. One of the GR Rapid Response to ICE members replied that it was not relevant, since the issue for the action hd to do with immigration status and the collaboration between ICE and the Kent County Sheriff’s office.
What MLive and WZZM 13 were both attempting to do was use the claim that the Trump Administration uses that undocumented immigrants are being rounded up because they are criminals. This issue was highlighted in 2024, after an undocumented immigrant killed his girlfriend and left her body on US 131. I wrote at the time that while domestic violence is never acceptable, it had nothing to do with the man’s immigration status.
Unfortunately, many Democrats, like Rep. Hillary Scholten are using the same narrative as the Trump Administration and voting to criminalize undocumented immigrants despite the data that shows that compared to US citizens, undocumented immigrants commit significantly less crime.
MLive and WZZM 13 chose not to report on the central issue, which is wether or not the Kent County Sheriff’s office is still requiring a judicial warrant in order to hold people at the jail for ICE. MLive and WZZM 13 failed the public by not reporting on this issue and showing the public how the Kent County Sheriff’s office would not answer any questions on Monday, but suggested that people submit a FOIA request on information that should be public.
Now, I am not surprised that MLive and WZZM 13 decided not to report on a critical ICE related matter in Kent County. These news agencies often normalize systems of power and oppression, like ICE and local cops, as is reflected in my 12 month study of local news from 2024. The public cannot rely on commercial news agencies when it comes critical matters like ICE and local cops, which is why we need movement-based media and Indy Media sources of information.
What a strange performative response from faith leaders and the Mayor of Grand Rapids: What solidarity really looks like
On Monday, several dozen “faith leaders” gathered at Calder Plaza to announce that they would begin a fast until SNAP benefits are restored to people around the country and the 70,000 residents in Kent County that rely on them.
An MLive article provided more details and quoted a few of the people who participated in the event at Calder Plaza, including Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand who was quoted as saying, “We cannot allow our neighbors to go hungry because of political gridlock.”
As a former Catholic I understand the role that fasting can play in building empathy and discipline for whatever issue or personal commitments you are seeking to strengthen. During the height of the Central American Solidarity Movement I went without food for 30 days to oppose US Military Aid to the Contras. The organized effort I was a part of in the 1980s engaged in regular actions against Congressman Paul Henry who consistently voted for US Military Aid to the Contras. However, my fast was only one tactic I used, but it did provide me focus to do the other work of direct action.
So, I don’t really think that faith leaders fasting until SNAP benefits are restored is a bad thing, but it is arguably the easiest thing to do and it is the least effective if your goal is to make sure that people who are food insecure don’t go hungry. What follows is a list of things that the faith leaders and Mayor LaGrand could engage in that is less performative and would go a lot further to reframe the issue and to provide Mutual Aid to those who are not receiving SNAP benefits in Kent County.
For faith leaders they should be using their position and their platform every Sunday to encourage people to not only donate food, but offer to transport food for people/families that rely on SNAP benefits.
Faith leaders could also turn the kitchens that more congregations have into a place where food in prepared and offered to people who are food insecure. Community Kitchen is something that congregations should be doing anyway, since it helps build community and connection with people who are being battered by Capitalism.
Faith leaders could also work with local food justice groups to turn much of the green space at GR places of worship that is primarily grass and use it for community gardens that would produce thousands of pounds of food. These same places of worship could offer their kitchen space for how to preserve items grown in these gardens, thus providing people with more skills that would be useful in working towards food justice and food sovereignty in Kent County.
Faith Leaders and Mayor LaGrand could be engaging in popular education and point out some crucial realities about what the government prioritizes over the well being of people who live in Kent County. First, they could put out a challenge to the two wealthiest families in Kent County, the Meijer Family (worth $16.5 billion) and the DeVos Family (worth $5.4 billion, according to Americans for Tax Fairness) and demand that each of these families give up $1 billion to fund not only robust food security programs, but assistance for skyrocketing rent and healthcare costs. This would leave both of these families with $15.5 and $4.4 billion left, which I assume they con continue to live off of.
Second, Mayor LaGrand and the faith leaders who stood on Calder Plaza on Monday could draw a direct link to how the federal government (and not just the Trump Administration) has always prioritized US military spending over the well being of those who live in this county. The US military budget is larger than the next 9 largest country military budgets combined. Having a vastly smaller US military budget would guarantee that there would be funds to make sure the millions of food insecure people living in the US would have enough food, health care, etc. From the 3rd Congressional District alone, taxpayers are paying $1.82 billion to the US military budget on an annual basis, according to the National Priorities Project. Imagine what kind of community care work could be done for people on an annual basis with $1.82 billion?
Third, faith leaders could pressure Grand Rapids City officials and Kent County officials around not providing massive tax breaks or subsidies to local developers for projects like the Amphitheater, the Soccer Stadium or the Three Towers Project (owned by DeVos and Van Andel) and prioritize public funds going to support families who are food insecure and housing insecure. The total amount of public funding that has been redirected by the Grand Rapids City Commission, the Kent County Commission and the State of Michigan is around $1 billion for the following projects: Amphitheater, Soccer Stadium, Three Towers Project and the Lyon Street upgrade project. Again, there it is not a question of funds being available for essential needs like food for families that rely on SNAP Benefits, rather it is a matter of priorities.
Fourth, local faith leaders could work on campaigns to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt Living Wage ordinances, which in this market would likely be about $40 an hour and allow individuals and families to have more economic independence and autonomy.
These are just a few ideas for how we can address short term and long term food insecurity issues, which are ultimately an economic issue where there is such a gap between the haves and have nots in this city and county.
The War Criminal Dick Cheney is dead and people gave him hell when he visited Grand Rapids while he was Vice President
Former US Vice President Dick Cheney is now dead, but as journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote, “He should have died in The Hague.”
There are already some good indy media posts about the legacy of Dick Cheney, such as this post from Democracy Now earlier today.
Dick Cheney, the former vice president and one of the key architects of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, died Monday at age 84. Cheney served six terms in Congress as Wyoming’s lone representative before serving as defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, when he oversaw the first Gulf War and the bloody U.S. invasion of Panama that deposed former U.S. ally Manuel Noriega. From 1995 to 2000, Cheney served as chair and CEO of the oil services company Halliburton, before George W. Bush tapped him as his running mate. As vice president, Cheney was a leading proponent of invading and occupying Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of people and destabilized the entire region. Dick Cheney also steadfastly defended warantless mass surveillance programs and the use of torture against detainees of the so-called war on terror.
For the rest of this post I want to focus on how people organized against Cheney while he was Vice President and one of the main architects of the US invasion/occupation of Iraq beginning in 2003 every time he came to Grand Rapids.
In May of 2003, the group the People’s Alliance for Justice and Change, which did the bulk of the early opposition to the US invasion/occupation of Iraq, organized a protest at a fundraiser in downtown Grand Rapids, where Dick Cheney spoke. The protest was organized under the banner of Occupation is Not Liberation.
In September of 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney again came to West Michigan, this time attending a GOP fundraiser at the home of Peter Secchia in East Grand Rapids. The group ACTIVATE organized an action near Secchia’s home, but were confronted by police and told that they could not protest since the City of East Grand Rapids had a “no picketing ordinance,” which was later contested by the ACLU and the ordinance was done away with.
In September of 2007, around 75 protestors gathered outside the Gerald R. Ford Museum to tell Vice President Dick Cheney that they support an immediate end to the United States’ occupation of Iraq, as was reported by the Indy Media site Media Mouse.
This protest, organized by the Grand Rapids antiwar group ACTIVATE/SDS, began at Rosa Parks Circle. Shortly after 10:00am, the group–led by a banner reading “US Out of Iraq”–marched to the Gerald R. Ford Museum to attempt to let Cheney know that they support an immediate end to the war. The group was able to get surprisingly close to site of Cheney’s speech–being stopped by police only fifteen feet from the Museum’s front door. Throughout the protest the protestors chanted “Cheney Out of Grand Rapids, US Out of Iraq,” “No Justice, No Peace, US Out of the Middle East,” and “War and Occupation does not bring Liberation.” The protestors made use of whistles and noisemakers to accompany their chanting in an effort to make themselves heard. After being moved from the Museum’s property (essentially twenty-five feet), the protestors continued to chant and wave signs before half of the crowd marched to the intersection of Michigan and Monroe where they waited until Cheney’s motorcade passed them on its way out of town.
For an overview of anti-Iraq occupation organizing that targeted the Bush Administration see part seven in the ten part series on organized opposition of that war/occupation by the Grand Rapids People’s History Project.
Kent County Sheriff refuses to provide information or practice transparency over ICE holds at the County Jail
Just before noon on Monday, several members of GR Rapid Response to ICE gathered in front of the Kent County Sheriff’s office at 701 Ball NE in Grand Rapids. The group was there to do two things, read a statement and to demand answers from Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young.
The statement that was delivered was jointly crafted by Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapids Response to ICE, which stated:
“GR Rapid Response to ICE got a call on Sunday afternoon about a Guatemalan man who had been picked up by the GRPD on Saturday and taken to the Kent County Jail. The caller was requesting support with paying the bond. A member of the Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund went to the jail to pay it, and when they asked about a timeline for release, they were told that the man would be held for 48 hours to give ICE a chance to decide whether they wanted to take him into custody. The hold keeping this person in jail after the posting of the bond was listed on the online roster as an ICE detainer, DHS form I-247, despite the Sheriff’s claim in 2019 that Kent County would no longer hold people for ICE without judicial warrant. Read that statement here: Kent County Sheriff Statement, 2019 (ACLU of Michigan).
Longtime Immigration Lawyer Richard Kessler sent us a message stating:
Back in 2019 current Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young after the racist arrest and imprisonment of U.S citizen marine Jilmar Ramos announced a new policy of the Kent County Sheriff’s which would be to only detain and hold persons for the Immigration Customs Enforcement unless they received a specific judicial warrant from a Court. We have learned , however, that in recent times including today, the Kent County Sheriff’s office has changed their past policy and is now holding people pursuant to simple requests and not requiring Judicial warrants.
For several years, Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE have received numerous reports from undocumented immigrants whose loved ones were transferred to ICE custody after being released from the Kent County Jail. These reports indicate ongoing cooperation between the Sheriff’s Office and federal immigration enforcement, despite public claims to the contrary.
Families are being separated, Our communities live in fear, ICE presence in Grand Rapids is growing. These are not abstract possibilities. They are lived realities.
Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE has been leading a campaign to demand that the Kent County passes sanctuary policies ensuring that local law enforcement does not cooperate with ICE or aid in the detention of our beloved community members.
We are here today to demand answers from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office:
- Are undocumented immigrants being held for ICE in violation of the Sheriff’s own stated policy?
- Why are community members still being funneled from local custody into federal immigration detention?
This situation demonstrates clear cooperation with ICE and undermines community trust. It also calls into question whether the Sheriff’s Office is upholding its own commitment to only detain individuals for ICE when presented with a judicial warrant.
We demand transparency.
We demand answers.
We demand justice for undocumented immigrants.”
After reading this statement, the 11 people who had gathered when into the building where the Kent County Sheriff’s office is located. One person asked to speak with Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young, saying it was an urgent matter.
After about 10 minutes someone other than the Sheriff came out, someone who identified himself as a Captain in the Sheriff’s department. He was asked if he could provide the group with information and clarification regarding the 2019 Kent County Sheriff’s decision to require judicial warrants in order for the Kent County Sheriff’s office to hold people in the jail for ICE.
The Captain would not answer the question and instead suggested that we submit a FOIA request to obtain that information. Someone responded by say, “You want us to submit a FOIA, which means you want us to pay money to submit a FOIA request, which will likely take months to get information about whether or not your office requires a judicial warrant to hold people for ICE?”
Several people asked follow up questions, but the representative from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office failed to provide any concrete information, with no commitment to transparency or accountability. You can watch the interaction between members of GR Rapid Response to ICE and someone from the Sheriff’s office.
Of course none of this was surprising, since this is how cops deal with the public, by making them jump through hoops to get information and disregard public concerns over the treatment of immigrants.
Lastly, it is important to note that the Guatemalan man who was arrested by the GRPD on Sunday was taken from the Kent County Jail by ICE just before GR Rapid Response to ICE members showed up to question the Kent County Sheriff.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 