A group of state senators, representatives, city councilmembers, and community leaders gathered Friday to hear from members of immigrant and refugee communities who said they were unfairly targeted by federal immigration enforcement.
Elected officials highlighted legislation they said would add transparency and limit overreach of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, with the goal of improving public safety.
“ICE agents do not — and should never — have the authority to intimidate, kidnap, or bring harm to our communities,” said state Senator Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Twp.) in a press release.
For Cavanagh and other legislators, key issues included the potential for arrests made without judicial warrants and the use of face coverings to shield the identities of immigration agents.
The lawmakers said Senate Bills 508, 509, 510, House Bills 4858 and 4859, and Senate Resolution 86 would:
- Designate schools, hospitals, courthouses, places of worship, and organizations serving disabled individuals, pregnant women, and victims of crime as protected spaces from immigration enforcement unless in case of imminent public danger or a judicial warrant is provided
- Prevent disclosure of certain personal information to government entities for immigration enforcement purposes without a judicial warrant
- Require immigration enforcement to wear certain uniforms and prohibit the use of masks to conceal their identity unless in case of undercover operations or special circumstances
- Urge Congress to pass legislation requiring immigration officers to adhere to the above tenets
State Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit) said the goal is to put in place what she called common-sense immigration enforcement. “What's happening has been devastating for many of our communities, for our neighbors ... for some of you, your family members,” Chang said.
State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield) said the government needs to be strategic with its approach to immigration enforcement. “When the United States gets immigration right, it saves lives,” he said at the conference. “When it gets it wrong, it can literally destroy lives. So here we are in this moment right now, watching our federal administration, the Trump administration, perpetuate harm on immigrant and refugee communities and black and brown communities generally in our state and our country.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has said the Trump administration's intensified immigration enforcement keeps criminals off the streets and protects the safety and security of the country.
"Countless lives have been saved, communities have been strengthened, and the American people have been put first again," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement earlier this month.
State Representative Veronica Paiz (D-Harper Woods) said she recently traveled to Minnesota and met with activists who had formed parent patrols outside of daycare centers to protect children from ICE. She said it’s important to have legislation that helps safeguard immigrant communities.
Ann Vue told the legislators that her husband, Lue Yang, was detained by ICE for several months last year, despite that he came to the U.S. as a refugee when he was eight months old.
ICE made the arrest based on a decades-old criminal conviction that had since been expunged but was still visible to immigration agents.
Vue said visitation was extremely difficult, and Yang kept getting transferred from one detention facility to the next.
“You hear children just crying and grieving" at detention centers, Vue said. “Inside these facilities, people fight to stay mentally strong, and then outside of these facilities, families have to fight to hold themselves together.”
