The mayor of Michigan’s second-largest city believes “it is a terrible, terrible moment for our country” and promises police “are not in the business of enforcing immigration law.”
Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand recently laid out his views on President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on criminal illegal migrants, making it clear he’s not a fan of the 47th POTUS.
“We have an obligation to speak out on this issue and speak out on it in moral terms, and to do everything in our power to respect, honor and support the members of our community who have built their lives here,” LaGrand said at Tuesday’s city commission meeting.
“But we also have to not give false hope,” he said. “So the danger of holding out some media term like sanctuary cities is people may think that somehow that gives them protection they don’t have.”
The comments came in response scores of activists and illegal immigrants who packed the meeting to demand commissioners establish Grand Rapids as a sanctuary city, an issue that was not on the meeting agenda, WXMI reports.
“The immigration system is built so that some people is welcome and some people is not,” said Gema Lowe, community organizer with Movimiento Cosecha Grand Rapids. “And that’s not the fairness.”
“We’re asking for the city to be declared a sanctuary, and for the GRPD to in no way at all cooperate with ICE or any other law enforcement agencies for the apprehension, arrest, detention and deportation of immigrants,” Jeff Smith, volunteer organizer with GR Rapid Response to ICE, told commissioners.
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The comments echoed similar demands during a pro-illegal immigration rally in Grand Rapids last week as Trump was sworn into office after winning in November on a promise to launch the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”
City Manager Mark Washington assured those who attended Tuesday that Grand Rapids Police “are not committing our resources to do things that are not in the highest priority of the city.” The comments echoed the immigration policy Washington outlined alongside Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom at a city commission retreat last week, WZZM reports.
“The Grand Rapids Police Department is not in the business of immigration enforcement, period,” Winstrom said. “We want people to feel comfortable calling 911, especially victims coming forward without the fear of information regarding their documentation status being provided to immigration authorities.”
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Winstrom noted city police work in conjunction with federal law enforcement, but said “there’s a very clear dividing line.”
“We certainly like to be nonpolitical. But this is — I believe we are being nonpolitical — that this is a federal government issue,” he said. “We have a great relationship with our federal partners here. ICE has an office, obviously, local to Grand Rapids. We have a great relationship with all of our federal partners, but made it clear to them as well that there’s a very clear dividing line. We’re going to be doing our job and it’s not going to be doing their job for them.”
The Center for Immigration Studies last year listed Kent County as a sanctuary jurisdiction, based on policies that hinder cooperation with ICE, but removed the designation at the request of county officials after reviewing policies submitted to the non-partisan non-profit.
Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young wrote in a letter to CIS policies include holds for a judicial warrant signed by a judge, or through a request from ICE with approval from the sheriff and signatures from an immigration officer and a completed “Certificate of Service.”
“Departmental review confirms that the requisite authority to detain is in place, LaJoye-Young wrote in a letter co-signed by county administrator Al Vanderberg.
LaJoye-Young said in a statement she’s “thankful for the center’s reviews of the policies and their recognition of our commitment to keeping our communities safe.”
The requested change, which trailed public outrage over the murder of Grand Rapids’ Ruby Garcia by a previously deported illegal immigrant – the second in a year, followed a years-long saga over immigration enforcement in the West Michigan county, where LaJoye-Young in January 2019 announced her department would not agree to detainer requests from ICE without a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
The Trump White House and ICE criticized the policy, noting a correlation between sanctuary policies and risks to community safety. ICE said in a statement the practice of refusing to hold illegal immigrants on detainers without warrants “undermine immigration enforcement and excuse the ill-conceived practices of sanctuary jurisdictions that put politics before public safety.”
U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, then an immigration attorney, applauded the 2019 policy change, suggesting “Sheriff LaJoye-Young has taken a huge stand for public safety, due process, and the rule of law in our community.”
LaJoye-Young recently declined an interview request from WZZM to discuss the sheriff’s immigration policies, instead offering a prepared statement that leaves locals wondering.
“We are in the very early stages of the Trump Administration’s Executive Orders related to immigration law enforcement, and not much detail has been provided,” the statement read. “Exactly what these new orders will mean for law enforcement at the local level is not entirely clear. We are carefully assessing the information we have been provided and will continue to do so as this very dynamic situation evolves.”
In March 2024, shortly after Garcia’s gruesome murder, the Kent County Sheriff’s Office noted the department has transferred several illegal immigrants to ICE custody.
“KCSO treats all law enforcement agencies equally, granting them all access to our facilities for the purpose of questioning and further investigating people in our custody,” the March 2024 statement read. “We share the community’s concern regarding the potential for dangerous individuals to reenter our community after being lawfully removed. In response, KCSO has diligently transferred individuals with ICE detainers to their custody.”
On Tuesday, LaGrand argued “it’s a terrible, terrible moment for our country in my opinion,” and mocked President Trump, suggesting his status as a third-generation American puts him in the crosshairs of potential future immigration enforcement.
“Maybe there will be a move to go back and see whether my grandparents got in legally or not, or to try to retroactively apply today’s quotas to Dutch people in the early 20th century, I don’t know” the mayor said with a smirk. “It’s hard to predict how far and how fast this will go.”