By Max Bryan, Tribune News Service
Demonstrators across Metro Detroit walked out of school and work Friday as part of what advocates were calling a “general strike” to protest immigration enforcement under the Trump administration and to stand with those in Minneapolis.
Activists advocated for “no work, no school, no shopping” on Friday as a demonstration against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ tactics, which have resulted in the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
In Metro Detroit, that looked like students not attending class or walking out of their classrooms. Students at Grove High School in Birmingham walked out of class in the morning in opposition to ICE’s practices.
Students at Cass Technical High School in Detroit planned a walkout for 2:30 p.m. Friday. Cass senior Patricia Harris, who organized the demonstration, said she expected 60-80 students to participate.
Harris did not attend school Friday as part of the general strike. But she said she planned to attend the protest.
“We have a lot of south Asians, Hispanics, Latinos, Latinas in our school community, and I want them to know that we have their backs. We will stand with them no matter what happens,” said Harris.
“We’re the future of this. Whatever the Trump administration or ICE has going on, we don’t care what you have to say or what you’re going to do. We’re going to do what we have to do to make sure our community stands strong.”
In Detroit, around 100 demonstrators had gathered in the Darou Salam African Market parking lot around 2 p.m., and more continued to arrive. Some held signs that read “ICE out of Detroit” and “Abolish ICE.”
Demonstrator Bill Hickey of Detroit said the federal government was characterizing people they’ve policed as “terrorists.”
“The terrorists are the ICE agents coming into our communities, shoving people around,” he said. “We don’t want that in Detroit.”
Hope Sheffield of Livonia said she came to the demonstration to exercise her First Amendment right in light of what’s happened in Minneapolis.
“I see their constitutional rights being violated, and there’s got to be something we can do about it,” she said.
Organizer Seydi Sarr with the African Bureau for Immigration and Social Affairs said she helped organize the demonstration because “there was a call that was made out of Minnesota.” The African Bureau is one of 40 organizations working together, she said.
Sarr said ICE’s impact is felt locally, too.
“Because we do the work here and we see people in our community being picked up, we see how there was a ramp-up in enforcement,” Sarr said.
But State Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad opposed the general strike, calling it “a complete joke.”
“The people that are most impacted by illegal immigration are the working class. Their incomes have been destroyed with competition from illegal labor, so they’re not for the working class,” Runestad said.
Runestad also cited the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that 70% of ICE arrests are undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of or charged with a crime. A Cato Institute report published at the end of November said this number was lower, and that nearly half of ICE arrests had no criminal charges or convictions.
