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.
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.
“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.
Michigan State Police have beefed up security at the Capitol Building after rocker Ted Nugent carried a firearm inside the building despite a ban.
Michigan Capitol Commission Chair Bill Kandler said state police started stationing another trooper at the building’s north entrance in the days after the June 25 incident to help screen visitors for firearms.
Nugent, a Michigan native and avid hunter, was brought in June 25 to testify before a joint House committee about accountability for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
As he testified, some lawmakers realized that Nugent had a firearm on his person. Guns are banned in the Capitol, with exception to lawmakers, on-duty law enforcement and other security personnel.
Michigan State Police said the weapons detection system at the north entrance alerted police of a possible weapon when Nugent entered. However, the sole trooper staffing the entrance didn’t notice the alert until Nugent had already left the screening area.
“The (firearm detection) equipment all worked fine,” Kandler said. “It was just human error and it’s not a good thing. But adding another person there, which we were planning to do anyway, eventually, I think it will solve the problem. I hope it will.”
The north entrance is a smaller one and used mainly by staff and contractors, Kandler said. The building’s other entrances all have at least two troopers stationed there.
Michigan State Police did not comment on the added security.
“We are committed to the safety and security of all who work at and visit the Capitol, and we’ll be reviewing this situation to ensure it does not happen again,” said MSP spokesperson Shanon Banner.
State troopers waited until Nugent completed his testimony before approaching him to explain that firearms are banned inside the Capitol.
Kandler and some lawmakers said police should’ve acted sooner.
“As soon as (the firearm) was discovered, that that happened, it should have been removed immediately,” Kandler said.
State Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, was one of the lawmakers who noticed Nugent’s gun and alerted security during the hearing.
She previously said she hopes MSP enacts policy to always and immediately enforce the gun ban regardless of wherever the person with the firearm is inside the Capitol.
“Someone who should not have had a firearm in the Capitol had one, and that should not be permitted,” she said. “I don’t think that Ted Nugent was trying to put anyone in harm’s way.
“But if someone else is permitted, it doesn’t matter how far away they are from the scanner when someone realizes it, they should not be allowed to carry a firearm around in a place where they are not supposed to have it. That can be very, very dangerous.”
The Michigan Capitol Commission that Kandler chairs is in charge of managing, maintaining and restoring the Capitol Building and its grounds.
It’s also the body that issued a ban on open carry in the Capitol in 2021 and then concealed carry in 2023. The bans were prompted by armed protesters who entered the Capitol in April 2020.
Open and concealed carry of firearms is forbidden inside the building for everyone but Capitol security and other on-duty law enforcement personnel. Lawmakers are also allowed to carry concealed pistols.
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Haslett’s Olivia Stoll is the only first-timer in the Michigan Women’s Amateur final four, which will wrap up on Friday at the Eagle Eye Golf Club in East Lansing.
Stoll, who has graduated from Grand Valley and is working for her father at three family-owned courses, beat Jessica Jolly of Rockford and the University of Nebraska, 4 and 3, in the round of 16, and then held off Bridget Boczar of Canton and Baylor University, 2 and 1.
“I hit the ball a lot better today and I’m starting to get a little more confidence with the driver,” Stoll said.
“I’ve made it to the eight a good amount, but this is one step farther and I have a chance on the last day. It’s going to come down to whoever makes the most putts.”
Elise Fennell of Caledonia and Illinois State University, Macie Elzinga of Byron Center and Bowling Green State University and Elayna Bowser, a real-estate agent from Dearborn, are the other finalists.
Stoll will play Bowser Friday at 8 a.m., and Fennell will face Elzinga at 8:15. The winners will square off in the afternoon for the title in the 109th edition of the state championship.
WEXFORD COUNTY, MI – Police are investigating a fire that occurred overnight in a fireworks tent in Northern Michigan.
Michigan State Police in Cadillac responded to a parking lot off Mitchell Street in Haring Township at 4:12 a.m. on July 5. Upon arrival, troopers observed the tent on fire, with fireworks actively going off.
WDIV-TV in Detroit published a video showing the incident in Wexford County.
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