By Kyle Davidson
Gongwer News Service
Elected officials, faith leaders and residents of Southfield gathered on a street corner near the One Towne Square building Tuesday amid concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements is expanding its presence into their community.
In a statement shared with WWJ Newsradio 950, the City of Southfield said the U.S. General Services Administration had leased space at the office complex, located between Interstate 696 and the John C. Lodge Freeway.
While the city was advised that immigration enforcement officers would not be operating out of the location, it said ICE would be using the space for administrative and legal operations.
Jordan Acker, a member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and attorney at Goodman Acker P.C., which operates in the building opposite of where the federal government, pointed to the aggressive actions by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minn. declaring, “We do not want this here in Michigan under any circumstances.”
REDICO, the landlord for the site, said in a statement that the lease is part of a longstanding agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration. The terms of its lease explicitly prohibit any law enforcement, detention or similar activities at the property, with REDICO saying it is prepared to fully enforce that agreement.
However, several speakers outside the building Tuesday noted that ICE cannot operate without administrators.
“As ICE moves into this new office space, this legal and administrative office, some might argue that it’s just administrative,” said Rabbi Nate DeGroot, the director of The Shalom Center. “‘What’s the harm,’ they might say. To which I would respond, abductions can only happen with coordination coming from offices like this one right here, a murder can only be covered up by lawyers working in offices like this one right here, a presidential paramilitary force can only operate with a command center like this one right here.”
The Rev. Chris Yaw of St. David’s Episcopal Church noted that Southfield residents are largely people of color, and that for some members of his congregation, the mere mention of ICE strikes fear into their soul.
“We have to ask, why are they scared?” Yaw said. “These are people who have done everything the right way. They are legal immigrants, they’re business owners, choir members, our friends. And they see the way enforcement works today. It’s often brusque, it’s clandestine, and it feels entirely capricious. They fear that even if they are legal today, the evolving nature of our system means they could be illegal tomorrow.”
State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township), whose district includes Southfield, said the new office means new and bigger ICE operations threatening Southfield’s diverse community.
“There is a rot in ICE from the top to the bottom,” said Moss, who is also running for U.S. representative in the 11th Congressional District. “This is not an agency that can be repaired or reformed under Donald Trump or Kristi Noem.”
He noted that the Michigan Senate had introduced three bills – Senate Bills 508, 509 and 510 – intended to ban immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, bar the state from disclosing personal information to immigration agents without a warrant, and bar federal law enforcement from wearing masks outside of specific circumstances. However, the legislation is unlikely to advance beyond the Republican-Controlled Michigan House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) said ICE has no place within the state, noting that the agency has repeatedly violated court orders restricting their operations. According to a review of court documents from Reuters, judges across the country have ruled 4,400 times that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining people unlawfully, yet has continued to jail people indefinitely.
“My neighbors in southwest Detroit will tell you they have warned us for years,” Tlaib said. “That’s why seven years I’ve been saying Abolish ICE. Because for years they have warned us in southwest Detroit that literally, they were targeting and profiling our Black immigrant neighbors and our brown immigrant neighbors.”
Tlaib said the agency could not be reformed, calling for the impeachment of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Tlaib, alongside U.S. Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit), Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) have all signed on to Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Ill.) resolution to impeach Noem.
“Even if this office isn’t used for detention and it’s filled instead with lawyers, as they say, it will still be used to intensify their operations against our community,” Tlaib said. “It’s not a coincidence, y’all, that ICE is opening this office at the same time as they are moving to build a new warehouse prison – again, a warehouse prison – in Romulus, Michigan, to cage hundreds of our immigrant neighbors. The deportation machine depends on unassuming office buildings like this one.”
REDICO told Michigan Advance that it had offered to meet with Tlaib to review the terms of the lease.
“Transparency and accuracy are important to us, and we welcome constructive dialogue,” the company said.
Gongwer News Service
Elected officials, faith leaders and residents of Southfield gathered on a street corner near the One Towne Square building Tuesday amid concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements is expanding its presence into their community.
In a statement shared with WWJ Newsradio 950, the City of Southfield said the U.S. General Services Administration had leased space at the office complex, located between Interstate 696 and the John C. Lodge Freeway.
While the city was advised that immigration enforcement officers would not be operating out of the location, it said ICE would be using the space for administrative and legal operations.
Jordan Acker, a member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents and attorney at Goodman Acker P.C., which operates in the building opposite of where the federal government, pointed to the aggressive actions by ICE agents in Minneapolis, Minn. declaring, “We do not want this here in Michigan under any circumstances.”
REDICO, the landlord for the site, said in a statement that the lease is part of a longstanding agreement with the U.S. General Services Administration. The terms of its lease explicitly prohibit any law enforcement, detention or similar activities at the property, with REDICO saying it is prepared to fully enforce that agreement.
However, several speakers outside the building Tuesday noted that ICE cannot operate without administrators.
“As ICE moves into this new office space, this legal and administrative office, some might argue that it’s just administrative,” said Rabbi Nate DeGroot, the director of The Shalom Center. “‘What’s the harm,’ they might say. To which I would respond, abductions can only happen with coordination coming from offices like this one right here, a murder can only be covered up by lawyers working in offices like this one right here, a presidential paramilitary force can only operate with a command center like this one right here.”
The Rev. Chris Yaw of St. David’s Episcopal Church noted that Southfield residents are largely people of color, and that for some members of his congregation, the mere mention of ICE strikes fear into their soul.
“We have to ask, why are they scared?” Yaw said. “These are people who have done everything the right way. They are legal immigrants, they’re business owners, choir members, our friends. And they see the way enforcement works today. It’s often brusque, it’s clandestine, and it feels entirely capricious. They fear that even if they are legal today, the evolving nature of our system means they could be illegal tomorrow.”
State Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township), whose district includes Southfield, said the new office means new and bigger ICE operations threatening Southfield’s diverse community.
“There is a rot in ICE from the top to the bottom,” said Moss, who is also running for U.S. representative in the 11th Congressional District. “This is not an agency that can be repaired or reformed under Donald Trump or Kristi Noem.”
He noted that the Michigan Senate had introduced three bills – Senate Bills 508, 509 and 510 – intended to ban immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, bar the state from disclosing personal information to immigration agents without a warrant, and bar federal law enforcement from wearing masks outside of specific circumstances. However, the legislation is unlikely to advance beyond the Republican-Controlled Michigan House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) said ICE has no place within the state, noting that the agency has repeatedly violated court orders restricting their operations. According to a review of court documents from Reuters, judges across the country have ruled 4,400 times that President Donald Trump’s administration is detaining people unlawfully, yet has continued to jail people indefinitely.
“My neighbors in southwest Detroit will tell you they have warned us for years,” Tlaib said. “That’s why seven years I’ve been saying Abolish ICE. Because for years they have warned us in southwest Detroit that literally, they were targeting and profiling our Black immigrant neighbors and our brown immigrant neighbors.”
Tlaib said the agency could not be reformed, calling for the impeachment of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Tlaib, alongside U.S. Reps. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit), Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) and Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) have all signed on to Rep. Robin Kelly’s (D-Ill.) resolution to impeach Noem.
“Even if this office isn’t used for detention and it’s filled instead with lawyers, as they say, it will still be used to intensify their operations against our community,” Tlaib said. “It’s not a coincidence, y’all, that ICE is opening this office at the same time as they are moving to build a new warehouse prison – again, a warehouse prison – in Romulus, Michigan, to cage hundreds of our immigrant neighbors. The deportation machine depends on unassuming office buildings like this one.”
REDICO told Michigan Advance that it had offered to meet with Tlaib to review the terms of the lease.
“Transparency and accuracy are important to us, and we welcome constructive dialogue,” the company said.
