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Residents urge Kent County commissioners to adopt six "sanctuary" policies; administrator warns board of legal limits
Summary
Dozens of residents urged Kent County commissioners to adopt six sanctuary policies to stop local cooperation with ICE; the county administrator responded that the board lacks legal authority to set immigration policy and cited standing rules that limit nonbinding resolutions.
Dozens of Grand Rapids residents told the Kent County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 8 that the sheriff’s office has cooperated with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in ways they said separate families and traumatize communities and asked the board to adopt six sanctuary policies to stop local cooperation.
“ICE has been operating in Kent County,” said Jeff Smith, who said protestors were arrested at the sheriff’s office after confronting the sheriff about ICE holds. “People who were in for minor offenses ... say they can’t [be released] because ICE wants us to put a hold on them so we can take them to the detention center, which means they’re gonna be separated from their families.”
Advocates and multiple speakers listed the six-policy package requested of the board: limit local arrests for federal immigration violations and civil immigration warrants; prohibit county…
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