Early Saturday morning, members of Movimiento Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE gathered to take part in what they were calling a Tour of Shame. A caravan of cars visited State Representatives Bryan Posthumus and Angela Rigas, since both of the were co-sponsors of several bills that would punish solidarity with immigrants.
In April I wrote about these bills when they were first introduced, stating:
House Bills 4336 & 4337 create criminal penalties for individuals and organizations who knowingly assist or encourage immigrants without legal status in entering, residing, or being transported within the United States.
House Bills 4338, 4339, and 4342 prohibit a local municipality from enacting or enforcing any policy that limits communication or cooperation with federal officials concerning immigration. Any existing policy that governs how a municipality cooperates with federal immigration enforcement would be voided. Any municipality that violates these laws would have their state funding withheld.
When the group arrived in Rockford at the address for Rep. Posthumus they discovered that this was not his home, but an address he used during his last campaign for State Representative, a tactic that politicians often use to get elected in districts they don’t even live in.
Undeterred, the group then went to the home of Rep. Angela Rigas in Alto, Michigan. The address was the correct one for Rep. Rigas who was home with members of her family. The group attempted to get Rigas to come out and have a discussion with them, along with attempting to get a commitment from her to retract her co-sponsorship of the bills mentioned above.
Rep. Rigas would not come out, so the group attached the document to her front door – shown here above), a document which read:
Rep. Rigas, we demand that you retract your co-sponsorship of Michigan House Bills 4336, 4337, 4338, 4339 and 4342, all of which will increase the terrorism being perpetrated by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents and criminalize anyone who shows any compassion or demonstrates any solidarity with undocumented immigrants. Shame on you for co-sponsoring these abhorrent bills. We are giving you the opportunity to change your position and support undocumented immigrants by signing this document.
Sign here _________________
It document ended with this sentence: The following people are already showing compassion towards undocumented immigrants and they will defy the Michigan bills that you have endorsed. There were numerous people who signed the document.
The group also place some homemade yard signs, seen here on the right. After continued chanting and calls to have her come out to talk and sign the document, Re. Rigas eventually opened the inner door, but slide the top window of her storm door down to tell everyone to leave. One activist made the point that this display of protesting was nothing compared to what immigrant families go through when ICE shows up to take a family member, regularly with force and often at gunpoint. When ICE shows up it is always violent, where immigrant families are traumatized for the rest of their lives.
About 5 minutes after Rep. Rigas refused to talk with those confronting her on co-sponsorship of terrible pieces of legislation a guy in a truck came down the road – a narrow road – and tried to hit people with his sideview mirrors. This same guy parked his truck and walked towards the home of Rep. Rigas and told everyone to leave. The guy went in the house briefly and then came outside and sat on the porch filming everyone there. This white dude had a decal (shown here on the left) attached to the window of his truck that was right behind the driver’s seat.
The action at the home of Rep. Rigas lasted about an hour, when Cosecha organizers decided it was time to go as the action accomplished what it set out to do.
The last stop on the tour brought the caravan to the home State Senator Winnie Brinks. Now, Brinks had nothing to do with the proposed bills that would criminalize acts of compassion and solidarity with immigrants, but as Michigan Senate Majority Leader she said nothing to condemn these bills. What Cosecha decided to do was to offer Sen. Brinks a gift by sharing pro-immigrant legislation that was introduced in New Jersey, the Immigrant Trust Act shown here below. In all, the Tour of Shame was a success and demonstrated that the public can confront politicians outside of the stale and anti-democratic spaces that local and state governments are made up of.
It has been 2 years 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. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Gaza Officials Say Israel Has Violated Ceasefire 80 Times in First 10 Days
The Genocide Will Not End Unless Palestinian Political Leaders are Free
Congress’s Military Budget Carries Perks for Israel
“We Estimate That Nearly One Million of Gaza’s 1.1 Million Olive Trees Have Been Destroyed”
To Media, Gaza Ceasefire Holds Despite Repeated Israeli Strikes
Israeli Knesset Advances Bill to Annex West Bank as JD Vance Visits Israel
The Unvanquished Will: Gaza’s Triumph of Spirit Against the Architecture of Genocide
Analysis & History
Gaza Two Weeks into the “Ceasefire”: Continued Killings, Aid Restrictions, Famine
The Forgotten Captives: Israel Still Imprisoning 9,000 Palestinians Even After Hostage Deal
Censorship and Military Support: How Big Tech Supports Israel
The Gaza Peoples’ Tribunal: Exploring Palestinian Erasure
Image used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/visual/break-the-bonds/
Author and education activist Jonathan Kozol gave a lecture at Fountain Street Church in 2007
Editor’s note: I have been working with Fountain Street Church and looking at a substantial amount of archival materials they have. Today’s post is only possible because Fountain Street Church has provided me access to their archives and they want this information to be public and available to the community. I will be hosting the archival material on the Grand Rapids People’s History Project site, but also posting here on GRIID. This is the second in a series of postings from the archival material at Fountain Street Church.
So far I have posted talks by Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael, James Meredith, Dick Gregory, Amy Goodman, bell hooks and Jane Fonda, all of whom spoke at Fountain Street Church.
Today, I want to share a lecture that author and education activist Jonathan Kozol gave a talk at Fountain Street Church in 2007. Kozol is the author of such books as Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools, An End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America, On Being a Teacher, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, and Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation.
Here is the lecture by Kozol in Part I, followed by the Q & A portion in Part II in audio form, plus a video version below.
What are the Sanctuary policies that Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are demanding from Grand Rapids and Kent County? Part I
This is the first 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. Today I will look at policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements through which ICE deputizes local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.
In a recent post from Political Research Associates, they provide important historical context about 287(g).
Historically, ICE’s 287(g) agreements have relied on two frameworks to advance an “attrition through enforcement” strategy that expands the deportation machine. The “Jail Enforcement Model” deputizes law enforcement to act as immigration agents who assess immigration status and cooperate with ICE to send people from the jail to ICE detention. The “Warrant Service Officer” program, added in May 2019, allows state and local officers to serve administrative warrants, thereby arresting people for ICE and turning them over. Both approaches streamlined the process of deporting people who land in county jails, most of which are run by county sheriffs. The logic relied on an assumption that people in county jails were likely guilty of criminal activity. As then-president Barack Obama said in 2014, “If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported.”
The article goes on to say:
But this year has been a departure from the past two decades—even from the draconian immigration policies of Trump’s first term. DHS has reinstated the so-called 287(g) “task force” agreements, a third, more expansive model that empowers any police officer to detain and arrest people on the street for being potentially deportable immigrants.
Part of the reason why Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE are pushing the City and the County to adopted policies prohibiting “287(g)” agreements is because they both already have a history of cooperating with ICE.
Grand Rapids City officials like to say that their Foreign National’s Policy already prohibits them from cooperating with ICE, but even this policy states:
The policy 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.
This vague language allows the GRPD to determine what is an emergency or a threat to public safety. As we have seen in the past in Grand Rapids, these policies can justify all sorts of police repression and cooperation with ICE.
The Kent County Sheriff’s Department had a contract with ICE from 2012 through 2019. It was discovered several years ago that the Kent County Sheriff, Larry Stelma, signed onto a letter from the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA), a letter dated March of 2018, which said in part:
Congress must act to pass legislation to secure our borders through enforcing immigration laws, tightening border security, support the replacement and upgrades to current barriers and fencing and construction of barriers along the U.S. and Mexico international boundary as requested by those areas where it is needed, suspending and/or monitoring the issuance of visas to any place where adequate vetting cannot occur, end criminal cooperation and shelter in cities, counties, and states, and have zero tolerance and increased repercussions for criminal aliens.
Sadly, today some state and local officials have been enacting policies and giving lawbreakers shelter from being rightfully prosecuted and removed from our communities. In fact, these same laws forbid law enforcement agencies from cooperating with one another, and go as far as forcing the release of dangerous criminals into our communities exposing our citizens and legal residents to be victimized once again.
After a 14 month campaign by Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE, a campaign that got national attention, ICE ended their contract with Kent County in 2019. However, since then it is well documented that the Kent County Sheriff’s Office collaborates with ICE agents by notifying them of undocumented immigrants that were in the Kent County Jail for minor offenses, thus allowing ICE to apprehend them and take them to a detention facility in either Calhoun County or the GEO Group run ICE Detention facility in Baldwin, MI.
Recently the Trump Administration has provided some financial incentives to local police departments around the country to entice them to adopt what is called the 287(g) program, where ICE deputizes local cops to enforcement immigration laws.
The Trump Administration announced:
“Starting October 1, 2025, participating law enforcement will have these reimbursement opportunities,” DHS said in a press release posted today. “ICE will fully reimburse participating agencies for the annual salary and benefits of each eligible trained 287(g) officer, including overtime coverage up to 25% of the officer’s annual salary.”
This offer could certainly be enticing to police departments that are wanting to generate more money for their people, like the Grand Rapids Police Department that is always lobbying for adding more cops.
The Trump Administration announcement also stated:
“Law enforcement agencies will be eligible for quarterly monetary performance awards based on the successful location of illegal aliens provided by ICE and overall assistance to further ICE’s mission to Defend the Homeland:
- 90% – 100% – $1,000 per eligible task force officer
- 80% – 89% – $750 per eligible task force officer
- 70% – 79% – $500 per eligible task force officer.”
A question to ask ourselves is would the Grand Rapids Police Department and/or the Kent County Sheriff’s Department consider taking these incentives?
To date, both Grand Rapids and Kent County have rejected the demands from Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE regarding sanctuary policies, so it stands to reason that they might consider the financial incentives being offered by the Trump Administration. When Cosecha and GR Rapid Response to ICE disrupted a City Commission meeting in late July, the City’s response to was to threaten people with arrest if they did not stop chanting “ ICE and Cops go hand in hand.”
This is exactly why Cosecha and GR Rapids Response to ICE has been pressuring the City of Grand Rapids and the County of Kent to adopt formal sanctuary policies, like prohibiting the 287(g) program, because it would put an end to the GRPD and the Kent County Sheriff’s Department cooperation with ICE in terrorizing immigrants.
In Part II, I will look at policies that would prevent local governments from entering into a contract with the federal government to hold immigrants in detention.
Profits over people: The GR Chamber of Commerce meets in secret to discuss immigration policies
According to a Crain’s Grand Rapids Business article earlier this month, “The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce recently held a closed-door meeting for businesses to voice concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.”
Has the GR Chamber of Commerce decided to stand with Movimiento Cosecha and make demands about ICE not kidnapping immigrants from Kent County? Are the businesses that are part of the GR Chamber of Commerce going to declare their business spaces sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants and share the GR Rapid Response to ICE hotline number with their employees?
Not so fast.
Again, the Crain’s article stated:
The Chamber co-hosted the ninth annual Global Talent Chamber Network Convening in late September with Global Detroit in downtown Grand Rapids. The event was closed to the media, giving business owners a “safe place” for companies to say how they’re at risk of losing workers and customers, chamber leaders say.
GR Chamber spokesperson Omar Cuevas commented that, “We can not have policy that impacts growth. That is anti-business.” I see, so it’s about money, specifically money that will impact businesses who are members of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.
The Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce has partnered with the American Immigration Council, a pro-business immigration entity to publish reports on the economic benefit of immigrants in Kent County. GRIID wrote an article about this report and how the GR Chamber is only interested in immigrant workers making money for the businesses that make up the membership of the GR Chamber of Commerce.
GR Chamber spokesperson Omar Cuevas emphasizing the point about economic impact of immigrants by saying: “We want to figure out how to maximize this talent where individuals are coming to our community with foreign degrees and certifications and work experience for jobs that we have open today.”
The Crain’s article does cite someone from the American Immigration Council who is the only person who mentions ICE, but no one from the GR Chamber of Commerce mentions the level of ICE terrorism in Kent County, which has been documented.
What the GR Chamber of Commerce is concerned about is the bottom line of the businesses that make up the GR Chamber of Commerce, not the level of fear that immigrants are experiencing because of ICE terrorism. In fact, the GR Chamber of Commerce is only concerned with immigrants who come with degrees or those who come through the H-1B program.
I get that Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reports on business issues, but that doesn’t mean they ignore groups like Movimiento Cosecha or GR Rapid Response to ICE, which are on the front lines of the fight against the federal government’s targeting of undocumented immigrants. After all, undocumented immigrants pick the food that businesses rely on, work in the kitchens and hotels for low wages and do an increasing amount of construction work that make roads and buildings possible, all of which businesses depend on. Maybe they ought to give a shit about undocumented immigrant workers and not just about expanding their profits.
No Kings messaging before Saturday and a few reflections about No Kings in GR and the possibility of mass Direct Action
The No Kings events are now in the past, but there is plenty to think about and reflect on regarding some of the messaging leading up to the event, the event itself and some possibilities for moving forward.
There was one meme that was floating around prior to October 18th, which said: Resist like its 1776 or live like its 1984. It’s an interesting framing for our current predicament, but there are several issues I take with the wording.
First, while the colonies in 1776 were fighting against the British army to win independence from England, to say that we should resist like its 1776 would mean that we engaged in armed conflict, since the primary strategy of those in control of the 13 colonies was to wage a war against the British. This contradicts the messaging from the dominant groups across the US that the No Kings events should be “peaceful.”
Notice that I don’t use the word non-violent, because people who have been practitioners of non-violent resistance don’t use violence, they do take actions that result in the state using violence against them. The Vietnam War resistance in 
the US or the Civil Rights movement both engaged in a great deal of direct action, most often civil disobedience to challenge systemic oppression. When the dominant national groups calling for everyone to be peaceful, they mean be nice and don’t break the law. This was certainly the sentiment shared in the Top 10 Rally Reminders here on the left, with most of the reminders reflecting values held by people with tremendous privilege and those unwilling to take risks.
Then there were politicians like Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin telling us that we had a right to protest peacefully or non-violent protest. See her video comments, beginning at 6:06 into the video. Slotkin makes the point that it is important that these No Kings protests need to remain peaceful, that the state is looking for a pretext to be violent and that we shouldn’t give them a reason to engage in repression. Slotkin says, “it’s on all of us to maintain rigorous commitments to non-violence.” It is clear that Sen. Slotkin is unaware of the history of non-violent direct action, which most movements have engaged in, where people collectively challenge unjust and repressive policies or engage in civil disobedience that illuminates how the political and economic system oppresses us. The state never needs a pretext to repress public dissent, since state repression is a constant, even if it isn’t evident to those who disproportionately benefit from the system. Lastly, Senator Slotkin, who recently voted for a $914 billion US military budget, telling us to be peaceful during the No Kings protest is the height of hypocrisy.
No Kings event at Rosa Parks Circle
Just so people are clear, I was there to table with Movimiento Cosecha GR and GR Rapid Response to ICE. Gema Lowe from Cosecha and I both spoke from the stage, with Gema talking about the terrorism that ICE is inflicting on the immigrant community, while I talked about the ways in which we are concretely resisting the ICE terrorism. I also made the point in saying that we have to move from protesting oppression to actually resisting it. Holding signs somewhere is protesting, but it is not resistance.
I was grateful that the event organizers did not invite political parties or candidates to speak because voting will not get us out of the mess we are currently in. Unfortunately, the Kent County Democrats had a booth there, which is a joke, since they do nothing meaningful for the community, especially the most marginalized in this community. They want power, they don’t want collective liberation.
It was encouraging to see the march after the rally go into the street. When there are numbers we should always disrupt business as usual, whether it is state carceral violence or the violence of Capitalism.
It was reported that at least 10,000 people showed up at the No Kings rally at Rosa Parks Circle. It is always great to see people show up in large numbers, especially in a system that promotes consumerism and politics as a spectator sport. However, imagine what could be done if 10,000 people in Grand Rapids showed up in other ways.
It was lovely to see local clergy lead the march after the rally, but it would be even more amazing if the congregations that they are part of would declare themselves sanctuary spaces for undocumented immigrants and commit to providing material and financial support to families that have been separated by ICE. It would also be great if local clergy/congregations would commit to never collaborating with the GRPD or any cops, condemn the economic system of Capitalism, denounce systemic racism in Grand Rapids, practice trans justice and climate justice and commit to actively opposing US Imperialism and the US role in funding genocide in Gaza.
- Imagine if the 10,000 people that came would all have donate $5. That would translate into $50,000 for Mutual Aid support to immigrant families affected by ICE terrorism, or people who need rent assistance or to post bond for people in the Kent County jail so they didn’t have to be locked up until their court dates, or to fund places like SECOM allowing them to provide a shit ton of food assistance right now.
- Imagine if 10,000 showed up to demand that the City and County adopt the sanctuary policies that Cosecha was been demanding since January.
- Imagine if 10,000 people took over the DeVos family headquarters on the corner of Monroe and Lyon and demand they pay reparations for the all the heinous shit they have done over the decades – all the anti-trans, anti-union, anti-public education, shit they have done. We could make them give back the $565 million they got in public subsidies for the Three Towers project they are getting ready to build, how they fleeced the public for millions more with the Amphitheater and the Soccer stadium. Imagine the wealthiest family crapping in their pants as we took over their space and made them pay reparations.
- Imagine if 10,000 people showed up to take over the federal building and demand that Senators Slotkin and Peters, along with Rep. Scholten end their votes for funding Israel and their genocide, stop voting for nearly a trillion dollars annually to fund the US military and make them redirect our money towards housing, healthcare and mass transit.
This is what radical imagination looks like. The possibilities are endless, if we would just realize the collective power we have. This is what scares the shit out of those in power, way more than voting, rallies or people holding signs. Direct Action is what they fear.
One of the many amazing organizers with GR Rapid Response to ICE sent me the narrative below. This narrative is based on the resistance work that GR Rapid Response to ICE is engaged in.
Some of the resistance work that GR Rapid Response to ICE does includes responding to calls from their hotline (616-238-0081), doing accompaniment work for people who have appointments regarding their immigration status, patrols in neighborhoods where ICE has been seen by members of the immigrant community, and work that furthers the political demands of Movimiento Cosecha.
Lastly, this group does Mutual Aid work, which involves providing legal support, resource support, financial support, transportation and sanctuary, if the family no longer feels safe where they live.
Besides working directly with Movimiento Cosecha, GR Rapid Response to ICE also collaborates with No Detention Centers Michigan, which primarily focuses on the GEO Group-owned ICE detention facility in Baldwin, MI. This is the context of the following narrative.
The fact that it was only a few weeks for me, is the most startling realization looking back on it all now.
His family had been living with the stress, horror, and anxiety for three months. 90 days of trepidation, 90 nights of not knowing if they would ever see him again. What did they do to sleep at night, how do you lay your head on your pillow imagining all kinds of unknowns, and find rest?
He lived inside of that horror, carted around the country at the whim of… who? for the purpose of… what?
I imagine for him it was sheer exhaustion that allowed him to sleep at night, and I know that it wasn’t every night.
After meals laced with iodine, maggots and worms, you know none of our Friends rested with full bellies.
I originally got the message that a Friend needed a ride from Baldwin Concentration Camp four weeks ago, he was set to go in front of an immigration judge! We were sure he would be released! He has secure status, no record of anything untoward, a whole loving family and job, zero reason for him to be in a Camp.
Denied.
I was disappointed, but not surprised.
The cruelty is the point.
I am sure he and his family were beyond devastated.
How do you find rest after that kind of blow?
Three more times this happened, each denial or failure of our system became more horrifying, more pointed, more evidence that our immigration policy is built on lies, deception, and cruelty.
Every night and morning (ok every 15 mins) I checked my messages to make sure I didn’t miss the call to drop everything and snatch him away and rush him back to his family. A faint whisper of the anxiety that I know he and his family was going through. If it was whispering in my sleep, HOW were they finding any rest?
It finally happened last Tuesday, he was getting out, could I go? YES! Standby for release time. the minutes and hours ticked by, the facility was not cooperating, another night of unknowns.
Wednesday I went to work as usual.
At 10:42am the facility says he will be out in 45 minutes.
So began the chaos of a situation we had all been hoping for, but had no idea what to expect.
A call went out from me for a ride along buddy. Grabbed that Friend and off we went. An hour into the drive the facility calls and says “where are you? He is ready! Go to the front door with the three flags.” His family has been waiting for THREE MONTHS, you can hang on another 20 minutes.
Going in the front door, the receptionist told us to go to the sally port, “but I was told to come here… “
“Ok, yup, now go to the sally port”
As we drive up to the sally port the guards start yelling at me to go in the door with the flags, park in the lot!
“We did, they sent us here”
“oh fine, he is ready anyway”
The absolute confusion of the pick up process speaks to how many have been released from the inside. Three so far. Deportation happens three times a week, over 900 in the five weeks our Friend was there.
His face remained stoney calm as he walked toward us, but as soon as he crossed the yellow line, the tears flowed freely. I embraced him and said let’s get you the hell out of here, you are safe with friends. He just kept repeating “three months” as we raced off to get him home, where he belongs.
The next hour was consumed with calls to family, McDonalds, facetiming with his mom who sobbed and thanked us and made us uncomfortable by being thankful for us. Feels dirty that transportation and a couple hours of our time could bring such feelings of gratitude, which should never have been necessary.
We had the honor of facetiming his son, wife and darling little granddaughter who sobbed and squealed “PAPI PAPI PAPI” over and over. So many tears evaporated flying down that stretch of highway. Our Friend commented several times through tears and laughter how beautiful our state is. Lady Fall was showing out in full color, just for him.
The last 20 minutes of the ride was him doing his best to fill us in on his three month ordeal.
Shuffled from Virgina, Lousianna, Ohio and then Michigan. Ohio was the worst, rotten maggot food, housed with a rapist and a murderer. The rapist was stabbed while he was there.
He was shackled hands and feet for indeterminate amounts of time. Iodine in the food and water, he is going to make an appointment with his family dr when he gets home, he does not feel well.
As we were reaching the bus pickup location, we realized he only had a phone and a clear garbage bag with a few papers and some napkins. We didn’t bring cash or anything! How is he going to be able to eat or charge his phone on the 15 hour plus bus ride??
We don’t know what we don’t know, so we sent out a call for mutual aid to meet us at the bus location. Our community did NOT disappoint!
By the time he got on the bus he had a whole crowd sending him off with hundreds of dollars, hugs and a backpack filled with fruit, drinks and homemade cake.
This is what community looks like.
The question remains heavy on my mind, how do you rest, how do you ever feel safe again after being kidnapped?
This is generational trauma.
It reaches far and deep.
In order to sleep at night, we build community, we stand up for those who are persecuted, we use our voice, our privilege, to serve, protect, and stand on love.
This powerful narrative not only illuminates the structural violence of the US immigration system, it shines a light on how we all can concretely resist US immigration policies, from ICE arrests, to detention and deportation. This is what resistance and solidarity looks like!
It has been 2 years 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. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
“Israeli Sadism in a Nutshell”: Amira Hass on Israeli Prisons, Settler Violence & Gaza Ceasefire
WE AREN’T FINISHED IN GAZA, U.S. MILITARY CONTRACTORS SAY
Israel accelerates annexation amid statehood recognition moves
ISRAEL’S MOUNTING CEASEFIRE VIOLATIONS IN GAZA
AARON MATÉ: GAZA, GAS, AND THE REAL ESTATE EMPIRE BEHIND TRUMP’S DEAL
“Taken Hostage by the Israeli Military”: Freed Palestinian Prisoners Describe Widespread Torture
West Bank Death Toll Amid Genocide Tops 1,000 as Israeli Forces Kill Child
Analysis & History
Ali Abunimah on the State of the Gaza “Ceasefire”
From Sabra and Shatila to Gaza: The Vicious Cycle of US-Israeli ‘Peace’ Ploys
Gregory Shupak on Gaza Genocide Denial
Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé: Despite Ceasefire, Palestinians Still Face “Elimination, Genocide”
TRUMP’S GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL IS ALREADY FAILING PALESTINIANS
Image used in this post is from Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images.
Michigan National Guard will deploy today to the US/Mexican border, but for what purpose?
Yesterday, Governor Whitmer’s office posted a Media Release stating:
On October 17, approximately 120 Soldiers assigned to the Michigan Army National Guard’s (MIARNG) 1430th Engineer Company, based out of Traverse City, will gather with their families and invited guests at Lawson Ice Arena in Kalamazoo as they prepare to depart for their deployment to the Southwest Border to support the federal law enforcement mission.
The Media Release goes on to say:
The 1430th Engineer Company will deploy in support of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) mission along the Southwest Border. Under the direction of U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force North, their mission is to assist CBP. The Soldiers will provide mission enhancing support to CBP’s border security operations to enable CBP agents to conduct their law enforcement mission. The 1430th Engineer Company last deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. The Soldiers are anticipated to be deployed for up to a year.
Not surprising, commercial news agencies like MLive posted a story about the deployment, but essentially just reworded the Media Release.
Bridge Michigan also included the Media Release language, but did explore the matter a bit more by stating:
Michigan Republican legislative leaders last year had requested state funds to send National Guard troops to the border. At the time, Whitmer’s office said she was serious about immigration and border security but that “the American people want real solutions.”
Illegal border crossings have plummeted this year under Trump. Border Patrol officials reported 204 apprehensions per day in August, a 94% reduction from 2024, according to the administration.
While the Bridge Michigan article did explore other aspects of the deployment, they only rely on US Customs and Border as a source to verify the claims that the number of people crossing without papers has reduced.
The Media Release from Governor Whitmer’s office also included one other bit of information, which states:
This will be the sixth deployment to the Southwest Border for the Michigan National Guard since 2020. Governor Gretchen Whitmer approved prior deployments to the Southwest Border, in 2021, 2022 and 2024 under President Joe Biden, and in 2020 under President Donald Trump.
What this says to me is that Governor Whitmer has consistently supported sending Michigan National Guard troops to the US/Mexican border, no matter who sits in the White House. What this doesn’t tell me is that there is no evidence that such deployments make communities safer. In fact, what National Guard deployment to the US/Mexican border does is to force undocumented immigrants to cross into the US at the most dangerous parts of the border. These facts have been well documented by the group No More Deaths, which you can find here.
Todd Miller, who has written numerous books about the US/Mexcan border also founded https://www.theborderchronicle.com/. There you will find a significantly different narrative about the US/Mexican border, a narrative that is not rooted in state carceral violence.
My annual critique of the “200 Most Influential Leaders in West Michigan” or as I like to refer to the most powerful of them as…..Cartels
Over the past several years the business press in Grand Rapids has been celebrating the 200 Most Influential Leaders in West Michigan. The 2025 list was published on October 14th. I began dissecting the banality of these claims, beginning in 2021, but again in 2022 and 2023.
In each of these years I wanted to center on the power that this small group of people had over the majority of those living in West MI, talking about how they normalize structural racism and economic disparities, and why we need to challenge the power and influence that Crain’s Grand Rapids celebrates.
The 2025 list of the most influential people isn’t much different, apart from a few new names. Here are a few better ways to talk about most of the people on the 2025 list:
- How they influence the ways in which public money is spent in the service of the private sector
- How the Capitalist Class proposes projects in GR, gets the public to pay for most of it, keeps all the profits for themselves, then takes credit for making GR the best place to live.
- How the wealthiest families use their money to influence public policy that perpetuates racial capitalism.
- How most of the 200 influencers destroy neighborhoods through gentrification and displace poor and working class people from the city.
- How the wealthiest families and their minions want to control the economic, social and cultural realities of Grand Rapids and marginalize or silence any critics.
In many ways the annual “200 Most Influential Leaders in West Michigan” is really just a reflection of what I have been calling the Grand Rapids Power Structure. One could easily do a power analysis of the 200 people listed, where those with the most money have the most power to influence what happens in this city, with a second tier that either works for the most powerful or is associated with them through organizational connection such as the GR Chamber of Commerce, the Right Place Inc. the Acton Institute, the West Michigan Policy Forum, the DDA or Grand Action 2.0.
Then there are those listed as Civic Leaders and Non-Profits Leaders, who either receive funding from the GR Power Structure, bend to their will, and will never publicly challenge their power out of fear of losing funding or being blacklisted in Grand Rapids. Welcome to West Michigan Nice!
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 