Powerful union federation says ‘hell no’ to ICE ramping up presence in Michigan

BY BEN SOLIS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—As federal officials announce that they will pull back Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Minnesota, some remain skeptical about what that might look like, and if the drawdown is a sign that ICE activity could surge elsewhere, like Michigan.

PBS News on Sunday reported that White House border czar Tom Homan said at least 1,000 ICE agents are now out of the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, but a small “security force” would remain as a means to respond when agents need assistance with what he referred to as “agitators” or protestors surrounding them while a smaller group of agents continues their work.

Homan also said Sunday that ICE was not leaving Minnesota altogether, and that there will be mass deportation activity elsewhere in other states.

The seeds of a potential ICE ramp up in the Great Lakes state took shape last week as multiple new ICE-related facilities, from detention centers to legal outposts, were reportedly cropping up in southeast Michigan.

On Monday, the Michigan AFL-CIO, a federation of union organizations with a powerful sway in union-heavy Michigan, said they were standing with their brothers and sisters in the labor movement opposing ICE in Minneapolis and St. Paul, and called for the complete withdrawal of the agency from the Twin Cities.

“The presence of ICE in Minnesota is a threat to all Americans and our sacred rights. Michigan’s labor movement calls for the completion of the planned withdrawal of ICE in Minnesota, accountability for the actions of ICE to the fullest extent permitted by law, and the rescinding of ICE’s massive deportation funding,” said Ron Bieber, president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, in a statement. “ICE is not about safety—it is about intimidation, control, and extremism. The working class must stand united against attempts to intimidate us.”

Bieber also had choice words for the administration of President Donald Trump and Homan as ICE plans to fan out after a disastrous turn in the Minneapolis area that included the shooting deaths of two US citizens.

“To Trump’s plans to have ICE set up shop in Michigan, we say: hell no. Get out and stay out,” Bieber said.

New data shows North Lake detention center running hot

Although there have been rumblings of new detention centers opening in Michigan, the state is home to one of the largest such detention centers in the Midwest: the federal North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, which had been shuttered for years before the Trump administration reopened the facility as an ICE-specific detention center.

ICE data collected by Relevant Research and presented by DetentionReports.com shows that the agency was reporting a slight decline in the total detained population nationwide, which Austin Kocher, a Newhouse School professor at Syracuse University, attributed to a combination of legal challenges and a simple fluctuation in reporting.

That said, some ICE facilities were seeing spiking activity, or were running at a continued high capacity into the new year. The latest ICE data shows North Lake was in the latter category.

As of Feb. 5, the facility was reportedly holding 1,467 people, and has expanded at a high rate since it reopened in the middle of 2025. The facility had fewer than 100 people detained shortly after July 2025, but ballooned to an average daily population under 800 detainees by September 2025.

The average daily population figure reduced significantly to a flat 300 detainees per day between October and November 2025, but grew exponentially again through the end of the year.

By the end of November 2025, the average daily population had risen to nearly 1,600 detainees. That figure dipped slightly into the new year, but remained relatively flat at around 1,500 detainees.

The average length of stay at North Lake is around 45 days, and holds a criminal detainee population of 150 people, meaning the vast majority of immigrant detainees at the facility are listed in the non-criminal category.

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