Advocacy groups are calling on police and sheriff’s departments across the state to avoid federal immigration enforcement, warning that cooperation with agents undermines public trust, threatens safety, and could expose local agencies to costly lawsuits.
In a letter recently sent to 83 law enforcement agencies, including police chiefs and sheriffs, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) outlined legal and constitutional risks of cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The updated legal guidance, the first issued in 2017, emphasizes that immigration enforcement is the responsibility of the federal government and that local departments are under no obligation to participate.
The 17-page letter points to two instances in which local law enforcement is getting involved with immigration enforcement. One is with ICE detainers, which are requests for local jails or police to hold people beyond their scheduled release so federal agents can take them into custody. The other is 287(g) agreements, which allow ICE to deputize local officers to perform certain civil immigration enforcement duties.
A bill introduced by Republicans in the state House this year encourages local law enforcement to work with ICE by signing 287(g) agreements. According to ICE, these law enforcement agencies in Michigan have signed the agreement: Sheriff’s offices in Berrian, Calhoun, Crawford, Jackson, and Roscommon counties, the Metro Police Authority of Genesee County, and the Taylor Police Department. In all, 287 agencies across the country have signed the agreement.
The ACLU and MIRC warned that the agreements can expose agencies to costly lawsuits and erode community trust.
On Wednesday, immigrant rights advocates, law enforcement leaders, and victims’ rights groups gathered at a news conference to highlight the issue and urge departments to heed the new guidance. Speakers included Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia M. Dyer, Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit, MIRC policy manager Christine Sauvé, YWCA of Kalamazoo Vice President of Victim Services Jessica Glynn, and ACLU senior staff attorney Miriam Aukerman.
The groups said Michigan communities are safest when local police focus on solving crimes, not on enforcing federal immigration law.
“I really think it’s extremely important that local police stick to local crime,” Dyer said. “If they don’t and they start working on these task force models, the trust we built gets eroded and victims of crimes don’t seek help when they need it. … We really need the community to trust us. We need to make sure we are not getting involved in these federal actions.”
Dyer and others said immigrants, even those in the U.S. on visas or green cards, are so afraid of deportation that they aren’t calling police when they are victims of a crime. They’re also less likely to cooperate with investigations or even attend school, religious services, or seek medical care.
“We have victims of crimes who are more afraid of the government than the people that have harmed them,” Savit said. “People are afraid to call 911 in the case of an emergency. People are afraid to talk to the police, and that is because they are afraid of their government right now.”
The letter also warned that honoring ICE detainer requests without a judicial warrant violates the Fourth Amendment and has led to multimillion-dollar settlements in other states. It noted that Michigan law already requires police to issue appearance tickets rather than make arrests for most low-level, nonviolent misdemeanors, an approach that avoids unnecessary fingerprinting and data-sharing with federal immigration authorities.
Aukerman said the Trump administration is pressuring local police to get involved in immigration enforcement.
“The Trump administration has an obsessive focus on driving out millions of non-citizens, many of whom have lived in our communities with their families for decades,” Aukerman said. “This administration is also trying to coerce local police into participating in the creation of a massive immigration dragnet that will separate families and tear apart communities.”
To help departments avoid legal pitfalls, the guidance recommends clear policies such as declining to prolong traffic stops to question immigration status, refusing ICE detainer requests without a judge’s approval, and ensuring noncitizens in custody are informed that ICE interviews are voluntary. It also urged agencies to adopt “welcoming policies” and provide transparency around visa certifications for crime victims who assist police.
Glynn said she sees too many crime victims who are afraid to call authorities.
“Survivors consistently report that fear of deportation keeps them from calling the police and the perpetrators know it,” Gylnn said. “Abusers use immigration status as a weapon. Survivors disappear in the shadows, and serious crimes go unreported. It makes all of us less safe.”
Although the city of Detroit is not helping enforce immigration laws, the police department is helping ICE agents by showing up as a form of crowd control. In June, Detroit police arrested three protesters and deployed pepper spray on residents.
The actions of Detroit police are undermining trust within immigrant communities, advocates said.
“It only makes community members feel less safe,” Sauvé said. “I would encourage local jurisdictions to decline to show up as backup because often when ICE is doing their operations, they have more than one vehicle. They have multiple officers available, and they don’t really need the local police to play an additional role there.”