As large-scale immigration enforcement and deportations take place nationwide, concerns over how and when this may reach Metro Detroit continue to rise, with legal organizations banding together to offer support.
“People need to realize that ICE enforcement is happening in Detroit, and it’s happening really anywhere,” Ramis Wadood, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan, said.
Calling it a “coordinated assault on immigrant communities,” people across the country are raising concerns over a surging number of raids and arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Just like it’s happening in LA, in Chicago, in D.C., in New York, it’s happening in Detroit as well. It may not be at the scale of what’s happening in LA or in Chicago, but it’s serious, and it’s definitely increased since the first Trump administration,” said Wadood.
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Organizations like the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and the ACLU of Michigan say they are seeing the number of immigration cases climb at a rate they have never seen before, after the Trump administration called for ICE agents to arrest nearly 3,000 people per day.
“We are watching and expecting for an increase in workplace raids in Michigan; there’s no reason to believe that Michigan would be exempt from that,” said Christine Sauvé, policy, engagement and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
In Detroit, MIRC says there are more than 30,000 cases pending, at all levels of status, with most facing hearings without representation.
“Each detention, each removal, has an effect on a local family. Each immigration enforcement action has a repercussion that ripples throughout the community,” said Sauvé.
With nearby cities like Chicago bracing for an increase in activity, both organizations say they are prepared to handle what comes.
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“If there’s an accusation that someone’s in the country unlawfully, then they should be able to confront that accusation, either challenge it or seek other forms of relief,” said Wadood.
MIRC and the ACLU of Michigan say they are working together, alongside other community groups, to help as many people as they can, regardless of their status and what they can afford.
A 58-year-old woman is accused of driving a vehicle at the bottom of a ski hill near skiers and snowboarders in White Lake Township, Michigan, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said Saturday.
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Prosecutors allege the Bingham Farms, Michigan, woman drove near guests of Alpine Valley Ski Area, including children, on Tuesday.
According to the prosecutor’s office, witnesses said they saw the woman smoking what appeared to be marijuana before the incident and wearing ski boots while driving. Officers attempting to perform sobriety tests reported that she “exhibited poor balance, slurred speech, and open hostility.”
Online court records show the woman is charged with operating while impaired for the third time. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $5,000 and “mandatory vehicle immobilization” for one to three years, the prosecutor’s office said.
“This defendant endangered children with her irresponsible actions,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a written statement. “There is no excuse to drive impaired, even once. If you’ve had too much to drink or are under the influence of marijuana or other drugs, call a friend, call an Uber, just don’t drive.”
The woman is scheduled to appear at a probable cause conference on March 12.
A long-lost silent film that’s believed to be the first depiction of a robot in motion pictures was rediscovered in Michigan. And it’s a great reminder for film history fans that you shouldn’t give up hope just because a film has been deemed lost.
The film, titled “Gugusse and the Automaton,” is just 45 seconds long and was created in 1897 by French film pioneer Georges Méliès. It shows a magician named Gugusse turning a large crank to control Pierrot Automate, a child-sized robot. The robot grows bigger and bigger until it’s an adult.
Once full size, the robot does a little dance before hitting Gugusse over the head with a stick. Gugusse brings the robot down from his pedestal and then shows him what’s what.
Gugusse hits the robot over the head with a gigantic mallet, each swing making the mechanical man a little smaller until he’s back to his child-like size. Another swing makes the robot a small doll and then it’s just one more mallet slap before the robot disappears completely.
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With that, the film is over.
It’s a short film with a goofy, slapstick premise. But it’s also an artifact that can be interpreted similarly to so much robot-focused media that would come later in the 20th century. The robot harms a human, the human needs to destroy the robot.
We see anti-robot stories pop up especially during difficult economic times, like the 1930s and 1970s, something I’ve written about before at length. And if you’re wondering whether there were hard economic times in France during the 1890s, there certainly were—in the form of a double dip recession, no less.
But putting aside the potential message of the film (and the risk of taking it too seriously as a sign of broader social frustrations), the story of how this film was rediscovered is fascinating.
Bill McFarland of Grand Rapids, Michigan, drove a box of films that belonged to his great-grandfather to the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia so that experts could take a look at what he had.
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McFarland’s great-grandfather was a man named William Delisle Frisbee who had worked jobs as a school teacher and a potato farmer in Pennsylvania, according to a blog post from the Library of Congress. But he also worked nights as a “traveling showman,” according to the Library.
“He drove his horse and buggy from town to town to dazzle the locals with a projector and some of the world’s first moving pictures,” the Library explains. “He set up shop in a local schoolroom, church, lodge or civic auditorium and showed magic lantern slides and short films with music from a newfangled phonograph. It was shocking.”
Frisbee died in 1937 and two trunks of his possessions were passed on through generations until they made their way to McFarland, who was unable to screen the movies from himself because of their condition.
The Library posted a video to Instagram talking about their acquisition of the film and how remarkable it is that such an old film was found. It’s estimated that as much as 90% of films made before 1930 are lost to history.
Other films in the trunks included another Méliès film from 1900 titled “The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match,” fragments of a Thomas Edison movie called “The Burning Stable.” Library technicians scanned the films in 4K to preserve them for future generations.
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The word “robot” wasn’t coined until 1920 for the Czech play R.U.R. by Karel Capek. But visions of artificial men date back centuries. And it’s incredible to see a robot from the 1890s depicted on film for the first time. Even if it’s just 45 seconds long.
Don’t give up hope if you’re longing to watch some movie that’s believed to be completely lost. You never know what someone may have in a dusty old trunk in Michigan.
Kylan Boswell (4) scored 15 points for the Illini but Yaxel Lendeborg (23) scored 16 in Michigan’s win. Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images
Michigan has left no doubt about Big Ten superiority — the No. 3 Wolverines’ 84-70 romp Friday at No. 10 Illinois gives them an outright conference championship with two regular-season games remaining.
The win gives Michigan its first outright title since 2021, and it’s another top-shelf win that gives Michigan (27-2, 17-1 Big Ten) a boost in its pursuit of the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 seed. This matters for the Wolverines because they would be lined up for a potential Final Four matchup with the No. 4 seed rather than either of the two teams that are also in contention for No. 1 — Duke, which beat Michigan last week to gain the inside track, and Arizona.
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Friday’s lone meeting of the regular season between two purported national contenders left Michigan looking much the part, and Illinois looking a tier lower. This was domination, a comfortable second half for a Michigan team that led by as many as 21.
Michigan sophomore big man Morez Johnson Jr., who transferred from Illinois in the offseason, heard a lot of jeers from fans at State Farm Center and responded with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Big man Aday Mara also scored 19. Yaxel Lendeborg, the star of Michigan’s jumbo frontcourt, had 16 points and seven rebounds.
That interior helped the Wolverines to a 42-32 edge in points in the paint and 22 second-chance points. Keaton Wagler had 23 points to lead Illinois (22-7, 13-5), which projected as a No. 2 seed in Tuesday’s Bracket Watch but has lost two straight games and four of six. The Illini are trending in the wrong direction and potentially heading to the three-line.
The No. 1 seed also gets to choose its tournament path, and Michigan has requested Philadelphia as its first-weekend site. Otherwise, the Wolverines will likely be placed in Buffalo, which is closer to Ann Arbor.
