On Friday, a group of Detroit-area lawmakers and members of the Detroit City Council opened the floor for community members and local advocates to discuss U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity within the state at a forum in Northwest Detroit.
State Sens. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Township), Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township), Rep. Veronica Paiz (D-Harper Woods), Detroit City Council President James Tate and councilmembers Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Denzel McCampbell, welcomed a variety of speakers to share their experiences and knowledge on immigration enforcement, and invited feedback on what they can do as elected officials.
Chang, Cavanagh and Moss have each introduced legislation – Senate Bills 508, 509 and 510 – intended to offer residents protections and promote accountability for ICE agents, creating data privacy protections, reinstating protections against immigration enforcement at sensitive locations like courts, and limiting mask use by federal law enforcement.
Paiz has also introduced similar legislation in House Bill 4858 to block government entities from disclosing certain information for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
During the forum, the officials heard testimony from Ann Vue, whose husband Lue Yang, was detained by ICE in July of last year, as well as Samantha and Nahomi Ramirez, whose father, Fernando, was previously held at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, a privately-run facility that is ICE’s largest detention center in the Midwest.
While Vue discussed the difficulties their family faced in monitoring her husband’s whereabouts as he was transferred between facilities, the Ramirez sisters discussed their efforts to help other families connect with loved ones who had been detained and access legal services and resources. Where their stories overlapped, was in the poor treatment their family members faced and witnessed while in detention.
“There have been many examples that my dad has witnessed while in North Lake, where he’s seen people go in diabetic shock,” Nahomi Ramirez said. “He himself when he was first detained was, he was telling us that his mouth was starting to become dry because he did not have access to his insulin for three days.”
Vue and Yang are both Hmong American, with Yang immigrating to the U.S. after he was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, as his parents fled persecution in Laos for supporting the United States during the Vietnam War.
Hmong elders fled, believing America would be their safe place, Vue said, however their fear of persecution is rising.
“As my father-in-law said to me the other day, and he was one of those. He said, at least in our country – in the country, in Laos – we can hide behind trees and mountains and caves. Here, there’s nowhere to hide,” Vue said.
She left the panel with three questions.
“Can we uphold enforcement while strengthening transparency to due process? Can we protect public safety without traumatizing our children? Can we ensure humane conditions and stability instead of uncertainty and fear,” Vue asked. “And as conversations continue about expanding the detention capacity, I ask to pause. These are difficult times, but I know that seasons will change. Policies continue to change, and communities will heal. And let us not build permanent systems around temporary fear, because I know one day these times will pass and when they do, I hope we are not left with rows of empty detention centers standing as a reminder of this chapter.”
The forum also heard from Elizabeth Orozco-Vasquez, the CEO of Freedom House in Detroit, which provides shelter and support services to refugees and asylum seekers.
She shared the story of a man who they had helped find a job and housing, and who had purchased a home within Detroit. While walking to the bus, he was detained by immigration officers. His brother reached out to their church and ultimately they were able to collect $15,000 to have him released on bond.
While he had work authorization, had applied for asylum and he had received the documents he needed, his community still needed to pay $15,000 to have him released, Orozco-Vasquez emphasized.
“This isn’t just affecting the immigrants in your communities. This is affecting the citizens, the employers, because as you see, we have other people supporting those other community members and saying that this is not right,” Orozco-Vasquez said. “So I just want to make sure that everybody sees that this is not just an immigrant issue.”
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