“It all comes together to now have something tangible because the city is reluctant to move forward.”
Gemma Lowe is a community organizer with the Grand Rapids chapter of pro-immigrant group Movimiento Cosecha. She says after a year and a half of the city refusing to declare itself a sanctuary city, the group has drafted an ordinance they will present to the city commission in the hopes that it will be passed.
“Preventing GRPD from collaborating with ICE. Prohibit GRPD from detaining people in civil immigration warrants. Prevent ICE from carrying out civil arrests on city properties.”
The group also wants the city to ban all automated license plate readers including Flock cameras.
The Grand Rapids Police Department has consistently stated it does not coordinate or participate with ICE activities and only provides crowd control at the request of the federal agency, while the city as well as Kent County have stated they have no plans to declare Grand Rapids a sanctuary city.
“Since the city commissioners and the mayor are not acting, they need to feel the public pressure, so they move forward.”
The group plans to present the ordinance to city commissioners by September 22.
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