Detroit, MI
Nationwide tour convenes Black leaders and activists, aims to help people in Detroit stop
An 11-city tour convening Black leaders, community organizers and resources at a time of rapid political and economic change has arrived in Detroit.
Dubbed the State of the People POWER Tour, the national campaign kicked off this April in Atlanta, Georgia and organizers are on a mission to “center Black voices, organize, strategize and build with Black communities across the country,” according to a news release. The packed agenda for the two-day event in Detroit, which began May 21, features religious, business, nonprofit and political leaders — such as the Detroit Branch NAACP’s Rev. Wendell Anthony and former NBA star Jalen Rose — alongside mental health, food and utility help for attendees.
“When you go into communities and violence is running rampant and people are being harmed by their own neighbors, that is a problem. When people can’t put groceries on the table, afford to eat and feed their children, where working a job like a teacher in Atlanta who we met, who teaches our students every single day, but didn’t have anywhere to lay her head at night, that is a problem,” said Angela Rye, an attorney and part of the national committee for the State of the People POWER Tour. “So, our issues are wide and disparate. They cross economic boundaries and zip code, and we are here to stand together, to help to fill in the gap, to stand in the gap for those who are in greatest need.”
The Detroit stop was expected to include food distribution at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy and a community resource fair offering housing assistance, health screenings and information about jobs and voting. Panelists were expected to discuss a range of topics from Black economic power in Detroit to community violence intervention. The event was also slated to feature workshops on health, renters’ rights and small business support.
“We want to encourage and empower our families and our communities, and we want to bring and increase that village where we can lean on one another and be able to have those necessary resources, not when it’s convenient for politicians or leaders when they need our vote, but on a regular basis,” said Zsa Zsa C. Hubbard, a native Detroiter and one of the local volunteer organizers for the event. “Our city, we have very minimum resources, but we got a lot of great organizations, and the people need to know about the boots on the ground, the grassroot individuals that are actually doing the work, knocking on doors, feeding babies, helping seniors.”
Rev. Cindy Rudolph of Oak Grove AME in Detroit kicked off the gathering in prayer before railing against President Donald Trump’s policies from immigration to tariffs. “Beloved, what we are witnessing is nothing short of ungodly,” she said.
“We are in a mess,” said Virgie Rollins, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Black Caucus.
She and other speakers told the crowd they are living through dangerous times and urged them to step up their political activism.
Detroit, organizers say, is a “beacon of hope and base for Black activism,” with its history of iconic moments during the Civil Rights Movement, such as the Detroit Walk to Freedom. The city, according to a news release, embodies the spirit of the nationwide tour, “fostering connection, delivering relief and advancing a shared vision for Black liberation.”
“Detroiters are resilient. We are hard workers, we are creatives, we’re innovators and we’re mover and shakers, and this next season in our lives, we are working together to continue to build stronger leaders,” Hubbard said. “We are looking to build a stronger community. We are looking to continue to build strong Black families. We are looking to make sure that our voices are at the table, and if they’re not at the table, we’re going to create tables where our voices are heard and accepted.”
The two-day convening also features a town hall-style conversation on the “State of the People Black Paper,” a policy project involving more than 100 Black scholars and organizers, covering topics from transportation and infrastructure to veteran services and entrepreneurship.
“It’s not about us putting ourselves on a stage and talking at people. It really is about getting involved with the community, letting folks know that we’re here, especially highlighting the organizations that already do this work every single day, and letting them know that these folks have been here, and we’re trying to ensure that they have an opportunity to be connected to them,” Rye said.
The State of the People POWER Tour is taking place at Wayne County Community College’s northwest campus in Detroit and wraps up at 6:30 p.m., May 22. For more information, go to stateoftheppl.com/detroit.
The national tour runs until June 15, and caps off with a national convening on Juneteenth, according to its website. The coalition has so far toured several cities, from Durham, North Carolina to Newark, New Jersey. Next up: Jackson, Mississippi.
Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @NushratR.
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Federal regulators say the autonomous vehicle company Waymo must stop its cars from blocking first responders. Waymo has been testing its vehicles in Detroit. The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the agency found several cases of Waymo driver-less vehicles traveling into emergency scenes, blocking firefighters or failing to stop for flashing lights and flares. Federal regulators say they will meet with autonomous vehicle developers to devise ways to address the problem. A Waymo vehicle will stop, however, if it notices nefarious activity from kids riding in it. A Waymo car in California recently stopped in a parking lot and called police after two teens in its back seat allegedly began drinking alcohol and shooting water beads from a toy gun.
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Detroit Riverfront tour
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DETROIT (FOX 2) – Some Detroit officials are shining a light on ICE chases calling for change, saying they are too fast, too risky, and a danger to the community and everyone involved.
The backstory:
On Wednesday council members Denzel Anton McCampbell, Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Detroit Police Commissioner Victoria Camille, sent a letter addressing it to the head of the Department of Homeland Security – Markwayne Mullin.
In the letter they are demanding that ICE ends “dangerous pursuits through residential neighborhoods.”
They cited two pursuits — in May and June — where ICE sped through areas where children played, and both ended in injury.
Both individuals who were being pursued, they say, had no criminal activity – so they’re calling for an end to these chases.
McCampbell spoke about the letter and what they hope to accomplish.
“Talk about immigration law, this is not criminal law. So these chases are happening based on civil issues and endangering our community,” he said. “So we wanted to ensure that we sent a letter for accountability to Homeland Security to demand that they stop this and follow their own rules to keep our neighborhoods safe.”
In the letter, McCampbell, Santiago-Romero, and Camille call on DHS to:
- Cease vehicular pursuits
- Publicly release its most current vehicular pursuit policy
- Confirm key details regarding the May and June incidents
- Share findings from the resulting investigations
- Hold accountable any agents who break the rules.
They say that the majority of individuals targeted in the Detroit operations do not have criminal records, and that no civil immigration objective justifies high-speed chases that endanger the people being pursued, the agents involved, and innocent bystanders, homeowners, and children.
The other side:
FOX 2 reached out to the Detroit Department of Homeland Security Office requesting an interview and we are waiting to hear back.
Read the full letter below:
Dear Secretary Mullin:
We write on behalf of the residents of Detroit’s Districts 6 and 7 to demand that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) immediately stop conducting high-speed vehicular pursuits through our neighborhoods, and that the Department of Homeland Security enforce its own pursuit standards with the seriousness that human life demands. In the span of three weeks, two such pursuits in Detroit have left two people critically injured, damaged residents’ homes and property, and placed children and bystanders in mortal danger. These are not unfounded notions; they happened on our streets in front of families.
On May 19, 2026, a vehicular pursuit and crash involving ICE left Yerlys Moreno López, a Detroit asylum seeker, with a broken knee and other injuries requiring emergency surgery. On June 5, 2026, ICE confirmed its officers pursued a driver on Detroit’s west side near Whitlock Avenue and Warwick Street. The driver, Mohamd Salim Abdessamed, lost control, crashed through a residential fence and garage, was impaled by a fence post, and landed atop two parked vehicles. He was hospitalized in critical condition. The homeowner reported that her garage was knocked off its foundation, and a vehicle on her property was destroyed. According to neighbors who witnessed the event, agents operated unmarked vehicles, with only one having its emergency lights activated. At this time, it is unclear if sirens were activated.
That last detail is not a minor one. Federal regulation at 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(e) defines a lawful immigration pursuit as one carried out in a “designated pursuit vehicle.” A pursuit conducted in an unmarked vehicle without activated lights and sirens does not appear to satisfy the Department’s own regulatory definition. ICE’s own 2012 Emergency Driving Handbook further directs agents to “consider and evaluate critical safety issues posed by emergency driving, including the potential risk of death or serious physical injury to themselves, the general public, and the suspect, and should engage in emergency driving only when they determine that the seriousness of the emergency or the severity of the suspected criminal offense outweighs the risk of death or serious physical injury associated with such driving.” We have seen little evidence that such a weighing occurred in either of the Detroit incidents.
The U.S. Department of Justice discourages the use of unmarked vehicles in pursuits, precisely because of the catastrophic risk to uninvolved bystanders. Most American police departments, including Detroit, prohibit chases for non-violent offenses and permit them only to prevent an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm. It is indefensible that federal agents operating on the same residential streets should hold themselves to a lower standard of public safety than the local police who patrol those blocks every day. The overwhelming majority of individuals targeted in these Detroit operations have no criminal record. No civil immigration objective justifies driving a vehicle at high speed past a park where children are playing.
Accordingly, we demand that the Department take the following actions:
1. Immediately direct ICE and HSI personnel operating in Detroit and across the nation to cease vehicular pursuits in residential and populated areas except where there is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to a person, consistent with best practices.
2. Confirm in writing whether the agents involved in the May 19 and June 5, 2026, Detroit pursuits complied with 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(e), including the requirement that pursuits be conducted in designated vehicles with activated emergency lights and sirens, and whether unmarked vehicles were used in either pursuit.
3. Publicly release the current ICE and HSI vehicular pursuit policy, as the most recent publicly available guidance dates to 2012.
4. Provide the complete findings of the Department’s investigations into both Detroit incidents, including any after-action review, supervisory authorization records, and any disciplinary or corrective measures taken.
5. Commit to a binding pursuit and use-of-force standard that requires supervisory authorization, prohibits pursuits for non-violent civil immigration matters, and holds agents accountable when they violate it.
Detroit is a community that looks out for its neighbors, and we will not accept a regime in which federal agents treat our streets as a place where bystanders, homeowners, and children are acceptable collateral. The next pursuit may not end with injuries but with a funeral. I urge you to act before it does, and I request a written response within fourteen (14) days of receipt of this letter.
Respectfully,
Denzel Anton McCampbell
Council Member, District 7
Detroit City Council Gabriela Santiago-Romero
Council Member, District 6
Detroit City Council
Victoria Camille
Police Commissioner, District 7
Detroit Board of Police Commissioners
Cc:
The Honorable Rashida Tlaib, U.S. House of Representatives (MI-12)
The Honorable Shri Thanedar, U.S. House of Representatives (MI-13)
The Honorable Gary Peters, United States Senate (MI)
The Honorable Elissa Slotkin, United States Senate (MI)
Watch FOX 2 Detroit Live:
The Source: Information for this report is from an interview with Denzel Anton McCampbell and the letter sent to DHS.
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