By Francis X. Donnelly, fdonnelly@detroitnews.com
Hundreds of people gathered in downtown Detroit and in Oak Park Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s crackdown of illegal immigration.
The demonstrations were among hundreds across the country over the weekend to protest administration policies, especially the use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fight immigration.
At Hart Plaza in Detroit on Saturday afternoon, Micki Sanderson of Warren said the federal government was violating its own laws in driving residents out of the country.
“No due process. No constitutional rights,” she said. “When your own government is breaking the law, that’s tyranny.”
The ICE Out for Good rallies were organized in response to the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good, 37, on Wednesday in Minneapolis, after she was stopped by ICE agents during immigration enforcement activities.
Video shows an ICE agent demanding Good open the door of her vehicle, and the SUV suddenly driving off, resulting in another agent firing into her vehicle. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called the incident an “act of domestic terrorism” and said the officer acted out of self-defense, although it’s unclear if Good’s vehicle made contact with the officer. Critics have labeled it an unnecessary shooting and labeled it “murder.”
An investigation into the shooting continues.
In Detroit, the protesters held signs and chanted slogan, including several scatological ones aimed at Trump and ICE.
Among the signs were: “Abolish ICE” and “Democracy Now, Fascism Never.”
Barbara Hodge of Clarkston said she hoped the protests would galvanize elected officials to become more invested in their fight against Trump policies. She said she hoped Michigan officials would try to prevent ICE from working within the state.
“Where does it end? They’re killing people,” she said. “We need to draw a line in the sand.”
As the protesters chanted in the cold, a soft rain turned into snow. Several people held American U.S. flags and others beat drums in time with the chanting.
Other protesters were unhappy with other Trump administration policies, criticizing the president for invading Venezuela and removing President Nicolas Maduro from the country.
Phil Bianco, co-chair of Metro Detroit Democratic Socialists of America, took issue with the Trump administration’s decision to invade Venezuela and remove its president from power.
Bianco said the administration was inciting an illegal war for oil, just as President George Bush had done in Iraq.
“Now is the time for people to stand up against fascism, imperialism and state violence,” he said.
He said it was the administration’s goal to install a leader in Venezuela that the U.S. would control.
In Oak Park earlier Saturday, protesters held signs and waved to cars along Coolidge Highway and West 10 Mile Road.
Among the signs were “ICE = Murder,” “Love Trumps Hate,” and “Trump is Our Crime Problem.”
Scott Larson of Ferndale was one of the protesters outside the parking lot of the Parkwoods Plaza shopping center.
“They’re a bunch of Nazis,” he said about officers who belong to ICE. “They’re using Gestapo tactics.”
Patrice Rodriguez of Oak Park said ICE was kicking people out of the country willy-nilly, including people who were in the country legally.
“They’re not checking records. They have a quota,” she said. “It’s terrible, disgusting.”
Rodriguez and others huddled against the morning cold.
The federal agent who shot and killed the driver in Minneapolis is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Jonathan Ross, who shot Renee Good on Wednesday, has served as a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.
In the wake of the shooting, Detroit City Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero has sent a memo to the city’s legislative policy division, corporate counsel and department, arguing the city needs to “enact and enforce” policies like those other major cities have done to curb ICE activity. The councilwoman said in a separate memo to Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison that her office has received reports alleging the department may have supported ICE operations.
Santiago-Romero said in the memo that she and Council President Pro Tem Coleman Young II are seeking to know how the city can ban or limit ICE activity inside city limits, on city property, around areas like schools, hospitals and places of worship, and in conjunction with the Detroit Police Department. They are also inquiring about which sanctuary city policies Detroit lacks that other major cities have, according to the memo by Santiago-Romero, who represents District 6’s predominantly Latino residents.
