Concerned About Kent County's Cooperation With ICE?
We need your voice. Kent County Indivisible is starting a campaign to let the Kent County Commissioners know that we do not want them to enable ICE in our community, and we want you to join us in writing to them.
This is not a new issue and is complex. To write an effective letter, it may help to have some background on how we got here.
Kent County and Grand Rapids law enforcement's relationship with ICE goes back before 2019. In 2019, when ICE ended it's contract with the Sheriff's dept., Sheriff LaJoy-Young released a statement (bolding is my own), saying:
“The current contract with ICE will expire on September 30, 2019 as ICE is not seeking to renew the agreement. In January of this year, we adjusted our protocols within the correctional facility to manage the way we handled ICE requests for detainees. We have thoroughly evaluated this policy and determined it to be effective in protecting the community and in the safe and fair handling of persons of interest to ICE. Therefore, we intend to keep it as part of our standard operating procedure. As a result of the addition of our January protocol, ICE informed my office they would not be seeking a renewal of the contract. The Kent County Sheriff’s Office will continue to work collaboratively with ICE, as we do with all law enforcement agencies, to ensure public safety, due process, and the rule of law for all people in Kent County.”
However, this was before the opening of the Baldwin GEO Detention Facility, Trump's immigration policy and mass detentions. The "safe and fair handling of persons of interest to ICE" is no longer (if it ever was) a given.
In fact, the deportations to third countries and the human rights abuses documented in for-profit detention centers makes this cooperation unacceptable. ICE detention facilities have a long history of medical neglect and abuse, as documented in this ACLU report.
GEO is often cited as among the frequent violators of human rights. When the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, MI was scheduled to reopen the ACLU released this statement citing a past history of these concerns:
"When the facility was last open, six reported hunger strikes were organized, 'primarily led by Black immigrants demanding medical care, better food, and an end to discriminatory confinement in the Restricted Housing Unit.' Reports have also shown a tendency to exploit and cut corners, such as forcing those detained to clean the facility for as low as $1 per day."
Join the discussion about this and more on the Kent County Indivisible Discord
We need to voice our concerns about Kent County's cooperation with ICE abductions and detainments.
Our immigrant neighbors are vulnerable and need us to stand in solidarity with them.
Kent County Indivisible is sponsoring a letter writing campaign to the Kent County Commissioners to let them know that we demand that they not enable ICE's mistreatment of our neighbors.