Mayor LaGrand claims the GRPD is not sharing Flock camera data with the federal government
Recently, Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand was interviewed for a show on GRTV and the subject of Flock cameras came up.
One of the Cosecha demands is to get the City of Grand Rapids to adopt a formal policy that would prevent them from sharing Flock camera data with ICE. At 33:35 into the interview someone asks a question about Flock cameras and surveillance.
LaGrand begins his response by saying that he opposes surveillance and then continues to talk about ring cameras, cell phones and Alexa systems as giving away our privacy to big corporations.
He eventually mentions Flock cameras and talks about them as tools for taking pictures of license plates, but then quickly makes the comment that cops have for decades run people’s license plates without their consent. The Mayor thinks this is a disarming response, when in fact he is acknowledging that cops engage in surveillance all the time, thus his response strengthens the arguments against surveillance.
LaGrand then talks about having a Ring camera on the front of his house because the Chief of Police told him to. The Mayor then further avoids talking about Flock cameras by talking about Ring cameras and the compromises we all have made for some sense of security.
Beginning at 38:58 into the video the Mayor states, “Grand Rapids does not share Flock data. That is what the Police Chief told me….and was public about. Now, maybe he is lying and maybe Flock is lying. Assuming he is not lying and assuming that Flock is obeying the rules we have a very tight limit on what our flock cameras can be used for. So, we don’t even share that information with other law enforcement agencies. We get information from law enforcement agencies in Georgia, but we don’t give. So, we are a little selfish on our Flock use and I approve of that. I would be very nervous about sharing that data wider and we absolutely do not share it with the federal government, just so we’re clear.”
The thing is that the GRPD has been saying since Cosecha began their came to get the city to adopt 6 sanctuary policies in January of 2025 that they do not cooperate/collaborate with ICE. We know this to be untrue, since we have documented instances that the ICE arrest of Byron Martinez, where the GRPD assisted. We also have lots of first hand accounts where GR Rapid Response to ICE volunteers have witnessed the GRPD collaborating with ICE, along with numerous examples where the GRPD threatens to arrest GR Rapid Response to ICE when they are either attempting to interfere with ICE taking immigrants or when doing accompaniment with immigrants.
Personally, it is hard for me to trust what the GRPD and Mayor LaGrand are saying when people have evidence and first hand accounts that say otherwise. Mayor LaGrand can say that the city does not share Flock data with the federal government all he wants to, but if the GRPD is already collaborating with ICE (a federal government agency), then it seems likely that they are sharing Flock data with ICE as well.
Last June someone sent GR Rapid Response to ICE research on Flock, demonstrating that the GRPD was also using the technology. They wrote:
These are logs from the Flock License Plate Reader System that I obtained that show the searches that Grand Rapids Police have used on the system. It shows the plate searched, the officer that conducted the search, the reason for the search and the time of the search.
In the image above, you can see the data described in the research, with the reasons listed, many of which were Deportation Warrant. If the GRPD is not sharing Flock camera data with ICE, then why do they have Deportation Warrant as a designation on their logs?
The person doing the interview than asks LaGrand about being able to FOIA the GRPD drone data, but that currently the public can’t FOIA the GRPD on Flock data. The Mayor confirms this to be the case and says that the Flock cameras were grandfathered into the old surveillance policy and it needs to be updated under the new policy.
One of the 10 principles of journalism is that it must serve as an independent monitor of power.
Now, I don’t claim to be a journalist, more of a media watchdog, but I do engage in movement media. Movement media is reporting and documenting what social movements are doing, which is what I have been trying to do with GRIID since 2009.
However, since I have been monitoring what I call the Grand Rapids Power Structure for nearly two decades, it seems like a good idea to do a Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids segment.
There are two issues in this segment of Monitoring the Rich and Powerful in Grand Rapids that I want to draw attention to.
First, the thoughts and beliefs that members of the Capitalist Class are always instructive, and infuriating. In a recent article by Dick DeVos, entitled God Loves Work, the eldest son of Rich DeVos shares his insights around the subject of work. Here are three excerpts:
But work, in all eras, is inherently meaningful and important to life. In my book Rediscovering American Values, I wrote some years ago now that too many children were never taught the value or dignity of hard work. That concern feels even more urgent today, as social media and AI increasingly promote an alternative and often dismissive view of work, and all too often frame success as more the result of “good timing” or “luck” than diligence, patience, and hard work.
If our attitude toward our work is right and we still don’t derive satisfaction from it, it may be that what we are doing does not line up with our God-given talents. I believe that we are called by God to utilize the skills He gave us to perform certain kinds of work. When we perform our work with integrity, it becomes a form of ministry. My faith teaches me that all work should be done for the glory of God. Therefore, all work is significant regardless of its financial reward.
My parents gave me a firm foundation when they taught me the joy of utilizing my God-given talents and working to the best of my ability. And no matter how menial the task seemed, it was significant, whether I was weeding the flower beds or scrubbing the bathroom floor. Now having been blessed with success, I must work even harder to achieve new goals.
It is worth acknowledging that Dick DeVos was born into a family that was already wealthy. Dick took over for his father to help run the Amway Corporation, then transitioned to being co-founder of the Windquest Group, which owns multiple businesses you can find here.
Dick DeVos has contributed millions to political candidates during his adult life, which has generally benefited him through buying politicians who will support legislative policies that benefit his financial interests.
Dick also has multiple homes (one with a helicopter pad), several planes, yachts and lots of other material assets. Dick and his family made money off of the labor of others, as all capitalists do, yet he thinks we all will somehow benefit from his insights into work. The arrogance of wealth.
The second example of the rich and powerful in Grand Rapids comes to us via the GR Chamber of Commerce-created group Housing Next. Housing Next recently hosted someone from the American Enterprise Institute to talk about housing construction policies that would primarily benefit developers.
Housing Next has also announced a Housing Summit on August 6th. The keynote speaker is Keynote Coby Lefkowitz, Author of Building Optimism, who cofounded a real estate development firm in 2021. The summit will also feature Sam Cummings, Managing Partner of CWD Real Estate Investment, who will talk about “regional housing trends.”
At a Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce event this past Spring, Sam Cummings talked about a state law that was adopted in 2023, which amended the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act. This amendment made housing development projects, like the One Eleven Lyon project eligible for brownfield capture. Cummings made these remarks at the Spring conference held by the GR Chamber of Commerce, which contributed to LaGrand’s campaign for Mayor and subsequence campaigns for State Representative, which is nothing more than influence peddling by people like Cummings, who has a long history of using public funds to expand his wealth.
Sam Cummings also supported the ordinances that Grand Rapids adopted in 2023 that criminalized the unhoused, plus Sam Cummings has a long history of public looting.
The West Michigan Policy Forum was created as a project of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce in 2008. Their whole objective is to get Michigan legislators to adopt policies that fit their Neo-liberal agenda, like ending the business tax, eliminating real retirement benefits, opposing livable wage standards, opposing the shut down of Line 5 and adopting education policies that support charter and private schools.
In a recent Facebook post, Chase Bolger, the President and CEO of the West Michigan Policy Forum made a pitch for Michigan to opt in to the federal government’s education voucher program called the Education Tax Freedom Credit.
The Trump Administration says:
“If your governor opts in, your family may be eligible to benefit from this transformative program and could use these resources to send your child to a new school, pay for private tutoring, or provide other educational support.:
The America First Policy Institute, which was created in 2020 by former Trump administration officials and has ties to the Council for National Policy, a right wing group that has been around since the 1970s and has been supported by the DeVos family for decades. This is what the America First Policy Institute says about the Education Freedom Tax Credit:
The education freedom tax credit (EFTC) allows taxpayers to claim up to $1,700 in dollar-for-dollar federal tax credits for contributions to Scholarship Granting Organizations (SGOs). These SGOs can then fund scholarships to students, which can be used for a range of K-12 educational expenses, including private school tuition and homeschooling.
Then there is the Koch brothers created American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which also is promoting the federal school voucher plan, stating:
The Education Freedom Tax-Credit Scholarship Program is a generational opportunity for every state. States that have opted in are prioritizing parents and students over systems of education while unlocking tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, of dollars in potential annual scholarship funds at no cost to the state. Opting in to this program is the easiest and most commonsense step a state can take toward unlocking more learning options for students and families.
While she was Secretary of Education under the first Trump Administration, Betsy DeVos also pushed for a federal policy that was similar to the Education Freedom Tax Credit. DeVos called it Education Freedom Scholarships. In 2019, I wrote:
According to DeVos, “The policy will make a historic investment in America’s students, injecting up to $5 billion yearly into locally controlled scholarship programs that empower students to choose the learning environment and style that best meets their unique needs.”
The Michigan Education Association (MEA) had a much different take on the so-called Education Freedom Tax Credit. They wrote, “The nation’s first federal school voucher scheme was tucked inside the tax cuts and spending plan that Republicans in Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed into law.”
The MEA also states, “The evidence is overwhelming in states where universal vouchers have been enacted:
- Vouchers drain funds from public schools, harm student achievement, and lack any oversight or accountability.
- By a 3-to-1 margin, tax credits and vouchers go to wealthy families whose children already attend private schools.
- Rural schools face the biggest pressures from vouchers because they generate less local revenue and rely more on state and federal funds.
For those who are concerned about the future of Public Education in Michigan, it is imperative that we come to terms with the influence that groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum have on public education policy. What I find interesting, and alarming, is that teacher unions, Democrats, School Boards, parent groups and community-based organizations rarely even mention groups like the West Michigan Policy Forum. It is my contention that not only should they be monitoring what the WMPF is doing, they should develop clear strategies for countering their policy agenda.
“In any case, the hidden hand of of foundations can control the course of social change and deflect anger to targets other than elite power.”
– Joan Roelofs, Foundations and Public Policy
Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation
GRIID has always begun our Foundation Watch work by looking at the foundations associated with the most powerful family in West Michigan, the DeVos family. Two weeks ago I posted an article on the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation, and last week an article on the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation. Today, I am focusing on the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, which has been one of the largest in West Michigan.
Dan DeVos is currently the CEO of Fox Motors, a co-owner of CWD Real Estate Investments and owns numerous professional sports teams. According to GuideStar, in 2023, the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation contributed $11,461,500.00 leaving them with $8,826,827.00 of funds left in their foundation account.
The Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation made contributions to dozens of entities in 2024, but there are some clear categories of groups they contributed to, such as the Religious Right, Think Tanks, Education-centered groups, and social service entities, to name a few. Below is a listing of each from these categories, with a dollar amount and a brief analysis.
I also include groups that are DeVos owned or created, along with liberal non-profits. With the liberal non-profits, we believe that funding from foundations like the DeVos family foundations is a form of hush money. When we say hush money, we mean that these entities will not publicly challenge the system of Capitalism, the wealth gap, structural racism and other systems of oppression, which the DeVos family benefits from and perpetuates through their own political funding.
However, before I get to how they distributed their foundation funds for 2024, I think it is important that the Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation paid one DeVos-owned entity to manage how their foundation money was used in 2024. The Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation paid RDV Corporation $174,338.00.
Religious Groups
- Keystone Community Church $75,000
Far Right Think Tanks and Pro-Capitalist groups
- Acton Institute – $10,000
- Mackinac Center for Public Policy – $75,000
Think Tanks influence public policy in individual states, like the Mackinac Center for Public Policy does in Michigan. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a right-wing pressure group based in Michigan. Founded in 1987, it is the largest state-level “think tank” in the nation. It was established by right-wing activists to promote “free market,” pro-business policies.
Political Organizations
- Ada Township – $1,000,000
- Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. – $30,000
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation – $500,000
- Kent County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Squad – $67,500
Education-centered groups
- Davenport University – $527,500
- Grand Rapids Christian Schools – $230,000
- Grand Valley State University – $250,000
- Hope College – $25,000
- Northwood University – $4,075,000 (Dan DeVos is on the Board of Trustees)
- Northern Michigan University Foundation – $1,000,000
Half of the Education groups that the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation contribute to are conservative Christian Schools. GVSU and Northwood University received foundation money, since both of the schools departments and buildings named after the DeVos family, along with the fact that they have influenced business policies at those schools, along with social policies, like delaying GVSU from providing domestic partner benefits by more than a decade because of DeVos funding. In 1994, when faculty and staff at GVSU were meeting with then President Lubbers over the university’s willingness to offer domestic partner benefits, word got out that this was going to happen. At the time GVSU was raising money for a proposed health education building on Michigan St and Peter Cook and Rich DeVos had pledged millions. Once DeVos and Cook found out about the proposal by GVSU to offer domestic partner benefits, they threatened to withdraw their financial support if the university would support a domestic partner benefits policy. GVSU acquiesced to the wish of DeVos and Cook.
DeVos-owned, created or connected groups
- Chicago Cubs Charities – $10,000
- Corewell Health Foundation – $35,000
- Grand Rapids Art Museum – $285,000 (Pamela DeVos is an honorary Trustee)
- Grand Rapids Griffin’s Youth Foundation – $35,000 (Dan DeVos owns the Grand Rapids Griffins
- Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders – $30,000
- Grand Rapids Symphony Society – $1,200,000 (Pamela Roland is a Board member)
- I Understand Love Heals – $70,000 (Pamela DeVos is an honorary Board member)
- John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts – $255,000 (Pamela DeVos is a Trustee)
- Orlando Magic Youth Foundation – $40,000 (Dan DeVos owns the Orlando Magic)
- West Michigan Aviation Academy Foundation – $31,000
Of course all these entities that were created by DeVos family members, also promote their ideological religious and capitalist values. On top of that, it also means that DeVos family members are funding their own entities and using their foundation to fund their own pet projects, and arts and culture institutions that cater primarily to members of the Capitalist Class.
Groups receiving Hush $
- Family Promise of Grand Rapids – $20,000
- Gilda’s Club Grand Rapids – $20,000
- Great Lakes Center for the Arts – $1,110,000
- Heart of West Michigan United Way – $110,000
- Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan – $60,000
- Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services – $500,000
- Grand Rapids Public Museum – $250,000
- West Michigan Sports Commission – $72,500
These groups all provide some sort of social service – people fleeing domestic violence, those who are housing insecure, people with disabilities, adoption and immigration. There are root causes to all of these issues, but these groups are not likely to address root causes and larger systems of oppression. When the DeVos family foundations make contributions, this will increase the likelihood that systems of oppression will not be addressed by these groups.
Foundations rarely make contributions without strings attached. The Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation has a long history of funding far right and religious right groups, which GRIID began documenting over a decade ago when I started this project. Lastly, it is worth noting that the Dan and Pamela DeVos Foundation, like all of the DeVos family foundations, compliments the campaign contributions they make to further impact public policy and promote their religious and capitalist ideologies.
“I’ve got just the place for low-cost housing. I have solved this problem. I know where we can build housing for the homeless: golf courses! It’s perfect! Just what we need. Plenty of good land, in nice neighborhoods, land that is currently being wasted on a meaningless, mindless activity engaged in primarily by white, well-to-do male businessmen who use the game to get together to make deals to carve this country up a little finer amongst themselves.” George Carlin
A few years ago Grand Rapids City officials approved a multi-million dollar driving range that would also include a restaurant/bar to “attract people to visit this city. There was a serious lack of truly affordable housing then, just as there is now.
About three weeks ago Crain’s Grand Rapids Business posted an article about a similar project in Walker, Michigan, one that also caters to golfers, but in a much more elitist way. According to the article:
Bunker Social GR and planned future locations will lean into corporate use and larger event bookings, said David Roden, one of Bunker Social’s four founders who is also the director of growth and operations at Concierge Medicine of West Michigan.
“The general golf simulator business model leans towards hourly rentals and it limits corporate use, and larger event utilization,” Roden said. “Our whole model is based around events, corporate accounts and we’ll have corporate office space for when members want to come in and have a small meeting and then hit golf balls.”
Bunker Social GR is a business run by several men and is a 30,000 square foot indoor golf and social club designed for:
- Host Corporate events
- Provide Championship-level simulator play
- Premium hospitality with a bar setting
- Real sand bunkers & short-game training
If you want to be a members there are three different options for membership fees. The ACE membership only costs $4,491 a year, but comes with the most perks, followed by the Eagle membership at a mere $3,141 per year with less perks and lastly the Birdie membership at $1,791 per year with the least perks.
Then there are corporate memberships at three different levels. The Executive membership is just $22,500 per year that provides full access to 10 employees, followed by the Director membership at $11,250 per year for 5 employees, and lastly the Associate membership at $5,625 per year for 3 employees.
Businessmen get to enjoy this elitist game in an air conditioned setting, drink bourbon and discuss ways to screw working class people even more. Just one more indication of how Grand Rapids continues to be designed to benefit the wealthier, more privileged class of people while so many people can’t even afford the basics. It’s a dystopian future for the greater Grand Rapids area unless we organize a real resistance.
The Great Lakes Homeland Security Training Conference and Expo began today in Grand Rapids at the downtown convention center. The convention lasts for three days and brings federal, state and local law enforcement agencies together.
As an Indymedia writer I was denied access for “security reasons.” This was told to me by a convention center rent a cop who looked at me with suspicion. I pressed him on the matter by asking why a conference that was supposedly dealing with the topic of public safety would not allow me, both as a writer and taxpayer, to attend this event.
Once again he said for “security reasons,” to which I responded who’s security? If the public can’t attend a conference that is suppose to be dealing with public safety, then that seems to be rather contradictory, I retorted.
I then asked if I could just visit the information tables that were part of the expo. Again, he denied me entrance, even to visit the tables and look at information brochures on what government agencies were saying about public safety.
Of course, I am not surprised that I was denied entrance to the Homeland Security conference, This has been a pattern for several years now, where if you are not part of the commercial media establishment, you are not granted access to events which impact the public. About 10 years ago I was denied access to the State Police Network conference that took place in Grand Rapids and for the past 6 years I have not been allowed to attend the West Michigan Policy Conference, even though I used to be able to attend as media.
My reason for wanting to attend or to at least have a look at the groups tabling in the expo area has to do with wanting to see what kind of presence that the Department of Homeland Security has in Grand Rapids that I am not aware of. About a month ago I posted an article on the current ICE contracts in Grand Rapids, where I uncovered more than I expected. What I still did not learn was some of the entities with contracts, since some of the information was limited to the landlord/property management companies that were renting to entities with ICE contracts.
A second reason for wanting to attend this conference was to investigate if the Grand Rapids Police Department, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office or any other local cops were actively collaborating with ICE. We know that the GRPD has been collaborating with ICE by assisting them during arrests of immigrants, as was the case with Byron Martinez.
With the growing public demands to Abolish ICE the public should have the right to attend conferences like the one happening in Grand Rapids right now. More importantly, the public should have a say in denying local cops from assisting ICE in any capacity, which is essentially what Movimiento Cosecha has been demanding with their campaign to get the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County to adopt 6 sanctuary policies.
The Economic Club of Grand Rapids will be hosting their 37th annual dinner on June 2nd at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids.
The annual dinner always features guests speakers who are part of the Capitalist Class, whether they are business people, politicians, academics or celebrities. Those who attend the Econ Club’s annual dinner are also members of the GR Power Structure and those who carry significant class privilege.
On June 2nd, there are two guests speakers, former President Bill Clinton and former President George W. Bush. In addition, the Econ Club will be giving out some awards, which includes the Slykhouse Community Leadership Award that will be given to the DeVos family. The Slykhouse award is named after George J. Slykhouse, the person who founded the Economic Club of Grand Rapids in the 70s.
What is instructive about this event is the narrative that the Econ Club provides regarding Clinton, Bush and the DeVos family, which you can find here. I think it is worth providing a counter-narrative, since the Econ Club treats all of these people as honorable individuals that have made the US a great country.
Bill Clinton – The Econ Club narrative about Bill Clinton focuses on his post-Presidential activities, especially his foundation. Even this aspect of Clinton’s life is a glowing review of his accomplishments.
It is instructive that the narrative created around former President Clinton doesn’t say anything about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which was extensive. More importantly, the only thing it says about Clinton’s presidency is that it “led the U.S. to the longest economic expansion in American history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs.”
The question is always economic expansion for who? According to the Economic Policy Institute 43,600 jobs had been lost or displaced in Michigan – and about 700,000 in the United States – due to the rise in the trade deficit with Mexico alone since NAFTA was enacted in 1994.
During the Clinton Presidency there was a growing movement against globalization that culminated in the WTO protest in Seattle in 1999, along with the growing militant environmental movement. In addition, the prison industrial complex grew during the Clinton years, where Black and Brown people were disproportionately incarcerated, which was complimented by the 1994 Crime Bill (which increased police funding) and the 1996 bill Clinton sign that fundamentally ended welfare.
On the foreign policy front, Clinton continued to provide billions to Israel, maintain the economic blockage against Cuba, began the expansion of NATO, sent the US military to Haiti, bombed Sudan and the former Yugoslavia, attacked Somalia, and bombed Iraq regularly, along with imposing economic sanctions on Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children. 60 minutes reporter Lesley Stahl asked, “We have heard that a half a million children have died… That’s more than died in Hiroshima. And… is the price worth it?” Albright responded: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it”.
George W. Bush – The Econ Club narrative included comments like this – “As Commander in Chief, President Bush worked to expand freedom, opportunity, and security at home and abroad.” This same narrative continued with a sanitized version of history during the Bush years, stating:
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, President Bush responded with a comprehensive strategy to protect the American people and wage a global war on terror. His administration built global coalitions to remove violent regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq that threatened America, liberating more than 50 million people from tyranny. Recognizing that liberty and hope are the best alternative to the extremist ideology of the terrorists, he provided unprecedented American support for young democracies and dissidents in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and elsewhere. President Bush also launched global HIV/AIDS and malaria initiatives that have saved millions of lives, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Wow, this version of history is from an imperialist framework, where the US does no wrong. The truth is that after 9/11, 2001, the Bush Administration used the so-called war on terror to engage in state terrorism, bombing Afghanistan and occupying it for more than two decades, despite the fact that Afghanistan had nothing to do with 9/11, 2001. Then in 2003, under false pretenses, the US invaded Iraq, killed more than 1 million people, including Saddam Hussein, re-wrote Iraq government policy and secured Iraqi oil for the global oil cartels. See the book, War Without End: The Iraq War in Context, by Michael Scwartz.
The Bush Administration has continued to provide billions in military aid to Israel and Saudi Arabia, continued to economic blockade on Cuba, continued to demonize Iran, expanded US military bases in Colombia and promoted economic and political warfare against Venezuela.
On the domestic side the Bush Administration, with Congressional approval, adopted the USA Patriot Act, which gave power to the federal government to increase domestic surveillance, to lock up people of Arab descent or those who identified as Muslims, and criminalized dissent, even non-violent protests. Under the Bush Administration the Department of Homeland Security was created, which also included the creation of Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE), which was designed to criminalize and terrorize immigrants.
Lastly, the cost of the Bush Administration’s so-called War on Terror meant that domestic spending was cut significantly, thus widening the wealth gap and seeing more and more people subject to poverty.
DeVos family – The Econ Club continued to sanitize a narrative around the most powerful family in West Michigan. They write:
Together, second generation DeVos family members lead transformative enterprises and ignite community investments across West Michigan. Their leadership spans managing the family’s professional office, RDV; guiding Amway, a global leader in direct selling, with their partners the Van Andel family; and driving growth through OA Private Capital. Through RDV, their individual offices and businesses, and family foundations, second generation DeVos family members support organizations and leaders who believe in the power and potential of people. Their impact spans education, arts and culture, philanthropy, entrepreneurship, health care, civic initiatives, and community development.
Since 1970, the family has devoted more than $2 billion to philanthropic grants, championing public-private partnerships, fostering community engagement, and investing in the places where neighbors live, work, and serve—especially Grand Rapids.
Again, nothing but a glowing review of the DeVos family by the Econ Club of Grand Rapids. This of course is in no way surprising, considering who makes up the membership of the Econ Club. However, if you wanted a more honest assessment of the DeVos family you could check out my 830 page document entitled, We’re Rich and We Do What We Want: A DeVos Family Reader.
The short version of my response to what the Econ Club has to say about the most powerful family in West MI is this. The DeVos family, which initially made its wealth from the pyramid scheme company called Amway, which blends devotion to Capitalism and Christianity.
The DeVos family has been the largest contributor to the Republican Party in Michigan since 1990 and is increasingly a major contributor to candidates in Grand Rapids and Kent County, candidates who embrace the ideological framework of the DeVos family.
Besides buying politicians the DeVos family controls a great deal of the economy in Grand Rapids, through their extensive list of corporations, assets and investments. The DeVos family has also created or been an integral part of many organizations that have also influenced economic, political, social and cultural realities in Grand Rapids, such as the GR Chamber of Commerce, the Right Place Inc., the West Michigan Policy Forum, the Acton Institute, Grand Action 2.0, local colleges and so much more.
Lastly, the DeVos family uses their foundations to fund conservative political, economic and religious groups/organizations that also seek to impose their will on the general public. The Econ Club claim that the DeVos family is very philanthropic is misleading, since most of their foundation money has gone to the religious right, thinks tanks, universities and anti-Public Education groups, with a much smaller amount going to social service or charity-based groups.
If people want a more detailed analysis of what the DeVos family is involved in then please attend a 2 Part workshop I am doing on May 17 and May 31st at Fountain Street Church. Details at this link.
On Friday, Rep. Hillary Scholten released the following statement on her Facebook page:
I’m relieved my Republican colleagues have come to their senses and allowed us to fund critical DHS programs, including TSA, FEMA, CISA and the Coast Guard, while we continue to negotiate much-needed reforms to ICE and CBP. This is a HUGE win for us. But let’s be real – we could have, and should have – done this months ago! Let’s get down to work on implementing much needed reforms to ICE. I won’t vote for another penny to ICE until those reforms are in place.
While some people might be celebrating this statement by Rep. Scholten I am not fooled into think that she is a champion of immigrant justice. On the contrary, as I have written about previously, Rep. Schoten has voted in favor of several critical bills that have essentially criminalized immigrants, such as the Laken Riley Act. More importantly, there are three solid reasons why Rep. Scholten’s state about ICE and the Department of Homeland Security is deeply problematic.
First, up until the current Trump Administration, Rep. Scholten had no problem funding ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) during the Biden Administration. During the Biden Administration ICE and CBP were arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants. The largest difference is that under the Trump Administration ICE has a much larger budget and has hired lots more agents. Since ICE was created in 2003, ICE has always terrorized immigrant communities, which has included the Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump Administrations.
Second, since the Democrats do not have a majority in the House, voting against any issue that the Republicans are putting forth is not really an opposition vote. It might appear as an opposition vote, but this brings us back to my first point about Scholten voting for DHS programs, including ICE and CBP.
The third issue – which is interconnected to my other two points – is important in that Rep. Schoten is making it clear that she will vote for funding of ICE and CBP if there are “needed reforms.” The so-called reforms to ICE and CBP are really about making white liberals feel better about those two agencies. Here are the so-called reforms that Rep. Scholten and her fellow Democrats are calling for:
- Requiring a judicial warrant to enter private property (as the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment already requires) – this sounds nice, but ICE tactics have been to wait til people they are after leave their house/apartment and then apprehend them and send them to a detention center.
- Verification of non-citizenship before detention and banning racial profiling and profiling based on job, language, and accent – again, this sounds nice, but immigrants from the global south have been racially profiled ever since the US passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. US immigration practices is rooted in racial profiling and simply verifying non-citizenship will not stop ICE from racial profiling.
- Prohibiting immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and requiring them to wear ID and body-worn cameras – this is all about optics and does nothing to stop ICE from terrorizing immigrants. Making ICE have badges and not covering their faces makes white people feel better, but will do nothing to prevent ICE from arresting, detaining and deporting immigrants.
- Prohibiting arrests at hospitals, schools, daycares, churches, polling places, and courts – a nice sentiment, but why limit ICE from arresting immigrants at just these locations? Terrorizing immigrants at their homes, their workplaces or when they are out shopping and going to the pharmacy are equally cruel. Again, this demand is about optics and makes white people feel better about ICE .
- Allowing states to investigate potential crimes committed by DHS and to sue DHS over detention conditions, and requiring state coordination for large-scale operations – This isn’t a bad idea, but how will this be enforced? Also, we know that local police are cooperative with ICE all around the country, so will people/communities be able to sue local police departments for assisting ICE in their terrorizing of immigrants?
- Safeguards including immediate access to attorneys for detainees, allowing states to sue DHS for violations, and unlimited congressional access to ICE facilities – also not a bad idea, but why didn’t Democrats demand this during the Biden and Obama Administrations? Immigrant detainees were being mistreated and many of them died under those administrations as well.
- Prohibit tracking and databases of individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment – Again, these activities have happened under Democratic Administrations, plus government surveillance of people in the US has been happening for a very long time regardless of who sits in the White House.
- Codification and enforcement of a use of force policy – Use of force policies by ICE and local law enforcement always protects the cops. This is why groups like Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE use the phrase – ICE and Cops go hand in hand. The carceral state has always used the threat of force to manage populations, especially BIPOC populations, so simply codifying use of force policies will provide even greater legal protections for ICE and local cops.
We don’t need to return to the “good old days” of ICE, the pre-Trump ICE, especially since ICE was created to criminalize and terrorize immigrants. You can’t reform state carceral violence, not matter what agency we are talking about. Instead, we have to take the following steps to fundamentally change the so-called immigration crisis.
- Provide all undocumented immigrants a clear path to obtaining legal status.
- Abolish ICE, which is exactly what immigrant-led groups and immigration focused groups are calling for. Here are some those groups – Mijente, United We Dream Network and Movimiento Cosecha, Other groups calling for the abolition of ICE are: ACLU, American Friends Service Committee, NAACP, Amnesty International, Detention Watch Network and CASA.
- US Foreign Policy needs to drastically change, since so much of US military spending/intervention and economic policies, like NAFTA, have been part of the root causes for the displacement of so many people, especially from Latin America.
Until we adopt make these three strategies, we are going to continue to criminalize immigrants, engage is white supremacist/xenophobic practices, and rely on state carceral violence to deal with immigration. We also need to stop being fooled by the rhetoric of politicians like Rep. Scholten that do not practice authentic solidarity with those being targeted by ICE.
We are roughly two months away from the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. The GR A250 group, which is significantly influenced by the DeVos family, is gearing up for the anniversary celebration and doing everything possible to dictate the narrative around the nation’s founding.
The GR A250 group is using a series of events in the coming months to make sure that people don’t talk about the fact that the US was founded on settler colonialism, genocide and slavery.
On May 11th, the GR A250 group is sponsoring a session on celebrating the history of inventions in the US, followed by a conversation on what it means to practice courageous citizenship on May 19th. In that session the organizers want to get people to not be so divided, but there is no evidence that this will mean coming to terms with a honest assessment of US history.
On May 20th the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is hosting a workshop entitled, “Defund the Police”, which will involve leaders from across perspectives on this topic. I seriously doubt that this will involved the very groups that have been demanding defunding the police in Grand Rapids, such as Defund the GRPD, the Comrades Collective or ACAB. “Through a structured process, participants will explore differing viewpoints, identify shared values and uncover areas of agreement that can inform future collaboration.” Sounds like a highly managed conversation that will steer people away from the Movement for Black Lives call to Defund the Police.
Then on May 30th there will be a “one-day civics camp to prepare middle school and high school youth to join the American adventure as active citizens.” This event will take place in the DeVos Learning Center, which will include “guest speakers”, even though none of these guests are named.
More importantly the GR A250 group is offering a class entitled, the Meaning of Happiness in America’s Founding. The first question that comes to mind for me is who does or is going to feel happiness when learning about the founding of this country?
This class is based on a book by Jeffery Rosen who is the president of the National Constitution Center. It is instructive to note that Doug DeVos, one of the leaders of the GR A250 group, is also a trustee of the National Constitution Center. Not only that, but Doug DeVos has contributed $10 million to the National Constitution Center between 2022 – 2024 from his foundation.
The conclusion is that the most influential co-founder of GR A250, Doug DeVos, has personally given $10 million over a three year period to the National Constitution Center (NCC), where DeVos is also a trustee and has invited the former President of the NCC to facilitate a class on how the founding of the US is akin to happiness. This is some slick Orwellian shit indeed.
Yesterday, an estimated 250-300 people showed up to participate in the 9th annual May Day march for immigrant justice organized by Movimiento Cosecha.
The energy was high despite there being a chill in the air. People gathered at Garfield Park greeting old friends and making new acquaintances. Eventually Cosecha organizers began to teach people a series of chants that would be used throughout the march, along with a rundown of information on safeties, street medics, those acting as police liaisons and those driving vehicles with supplies and offering rides to those who needed a break. Like most actions people are generally unaware of all the meetings, conversation and prep time it takes to make these kind of actions happen.
I am always amazed by the courage and commitment of the Cosecha organizers, their constant calls for immigrant justice, their demands to have the city and county adopt sanctuary policies and the call to abolish ICE. Cosecha organizers deserve our respect and solidarity.
Just before the march started a GRPD cruiser pulled into Garfield Park. A single officer exited the car and was met by some of the police liaisons. The cop asked the usual questions, like “will you be marching”, “what is the route”, and “ can I speak with the organizers.” No information was given. The cop then said the if people do march that they needed to stay on the sidewalk, since walking in the streets would be “unlawful.”
It is always instructive to hear how the state frames what is unlawful and what is lawful. Currently, it is lawful for ICE to arrest and detain people, causing family separation and family trauma for immigrants that are undocumented. However, immigrants marching in the streets demanding dignity, respect and permanent protection for all 11 million undocumented immigrants is unlawful?
Just before 1:00pm the march got underway and within the fist block we saw GRPD cruisers on side streets just off of Burton St, keeping an eye on the march and making sure that we did not disrupt business as usual. In fact, throughout the march there were about 6 different GRPD cruisers that followed the march, leapfrogging side streets and trying stay ahead of the game since they had no idea what the route was.
The march route itself was deliberate and well planned. For the first time Cosecha organizers decided that the march route would be determined based on locations in the SW part of Grand Rapids where ICE had abducted immigrants – one on S. Division near the railroad tracks, one on Century SW along US 131, and a 3rd location in front of a small, locally owned store on Burton Street SW. In many ways this was the most powerful aspect of the Cosecha organized march, since it provided concrete examples of how ICE is terrorizing immigrants in Grand Rapids at space they we have all passed by, spaces that can now remind us of how state violence will destroy families and terrify entire communities.
The march eventually made its way back to Garfield Park where people celebrated the May Day action by sharing food that the community provided and building community that can sustain us in this fight. I was proud to be a part of the action and to celebrate the people that made it possible.
Where the hell were the white allies?
A day after the No Kings rally in Grand Rapids in late March, where thousands showed up, I wrote the following:
It is imperative that allies, especially white allies, show up on May 1st this year in large numbers to support the demands of the immigrant communities, Movimiento Cosecha and those being targeted by ICE.
We just saw thousands of people show up for the No Kings rally in Grand Rapids, so it would be fabulous if people showed up to the May Day march. It is vitally important that those of us who call ourselves allies show up now and not wait for Grand Rapids to become another Minneapolis. Immigrants in this community are being arrested, detained and deported and have been since 2003, when ICE was created.
Yes there were some white allies who showed up to the May Day march organized by Cosecha, but it was a paultry number compared to the No Kings event. So where were the white allies who were mad about what ICE was doing in Minneapolis earlier this year? Where are all of the white allies who were so outraged over the ICE shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti? Where were the white allies who started holding marches in downtown Grand Rapids in February calling for ICE out of this city? Where were the white liberal groups, the Indivisible groups, the politicians and political candidates who claimed to oppose ICE?
This is the only big annual event that Cosecha organizes so where the hell were the white allies? You can’t claim to be opposed to ICE, to want ICE to be out of Grand Rapids or to abolish ICE if you don’t showed up for those who are the primary target of ICE. I am so over white liberals and their bullshit excuses. If you what to practice immigrant solidarity you need to show up for immigrants and follow their lead!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 