Rally draws hundreds to protest ICE action outside Michigan processing facility

BY BEN SOLIS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—More than 200 members and supporters of a group opposing ICE enforcement and detainment policies gathered over the weekend outside of the reopened Michigan processing facility in Baldwin, formerly known as the North Lake Correctional Facility.

A large focus of the rally was to protest what members of No Detention Centers in Michigan have called punitive cancellations of family and attorney visits.

“Cancelling family visitation is a cruel, punitive and arbitrary response,” said Mindy Domke, a member of No Detention Centers in Michigan. “The GEO Group did not have to do this. They are looking for any excuse to isolate people even further, extending their fundamental practice of cutting off our immigrant friends and loved ones from their support networks and the outside world. It’s yet another reminder of why we oppose the system of immigration detention in the first place.”

Domke also noted that attorney visits had also been described as “unavailable” up until this past Sunday.

Attendees traveled from across the state in solidarity with the hundreds of immigrants now held at the Baldwin facility, which is operated by the federal government through GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison company.

Reports have emerged of harsh conditions at the facility, a trend reflecting the long history of ICE and other federal correctional detention facilities, with immigrants describing inadequate food and delays in their legal cases – and the latter leading indefinite terms of confinement.

“The members and movements of Fountain Street have stood beside you and will continue to stand beside you,” said Rev. Nathan Dannison of Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids in a recorded message to the crowd. “You have allies in the faithful people of Grand Rapids. Any Christian who knows their Bible can tell you, somewhere inside the North Lake facility, a baby is being born into a manger. Somewhere inside the North Lake concentration camp, the soldiers of GEO Group are nailing Jesus Christ to the cross. Your actions today will serve as a testimony to our grandchildren—that we refused. … Enough!”

READ MORE: Demonstrators gather on Independence Day to protest ICE detention center in Baldwin

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.