Lawmaker pushes for end to sanctuary zones in Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The arrest of an undocumented immigrant in the slaying of a Grand Rapids woman has renewed the debate over sanctuary cities and counties in Michigan, including in Kent County.

Michigan House Republican Leader Matt Hall said the slaying of Ruby Garcia has prompted him to demand a hearing on his proposed bill to ban sanctuary zones for undocumented immigrants in Michigan — even though the woman’s death had nothing to do with whether Kent County provides sanctuary.

“Some people want to play semantics, and I’ll just say a sanctuary county or city is not just a county or city that passes a resolution saying that they’re a sanctuary county or city,” Hall, of Richland, said.

Kent County leaders, including Sheriff Michelle Lajoye-Young, insist it is not a sanctuary county, though U.S. immigration officials have said differently.

The issue here is over how the Kent County jail handles undocumented immigrants who break the law.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, routinely ask jails to hold them on a detainer for up to 48 hours after they’re done serving time for their local crimes. That, ICE officials say, gives its agents time to pick them up for possible deportation.

But since 2019, after ICE mistakenly took custody of a former U.S. Marine from Grand Rapids, the Kent County jail has refused to hold immigrants on detainers, instead demanding a warrant .

The Center for Immigration Studies , a think tank in D.C., lists five sanctuary zones in Michigan, including Kent and Kalamazoo counties.

County leaders say the warrant policy is a matter of due process, but insist that doesn’t make Kent a sanctuary county.

“There are counties that have become sanctuary counties, but their boards have voted to do that,” Kent County Administrator Al Vanderberg said. “Having somebody from a whole other jurisdiction across the country say that we’re a sanctuary county really doesn’t pass muster.”

Then-President Donald Trump and ICE blasted Kent County in 2019 after the jail released a Honduran national who had served his time for a violent assault.

“Earlier this year, authorities in the sanctuary jurisdiction of Kent County, Mich. — everybody knows Kent County? — released an illegal alien charged with assault with intent to murder after he repeatedly and viciously stabbed a man in the head with a broken bottle,” Trump said during a rally in Battle Creek. “They let him go to roam free in Michigan communities.”

The actual charge, according to state records, was assault with a dangerous weapon.

Hall introduced legislation in June 2023 to ban sanctuary zones in Michigan.

“If officials in that county or city have a policy that limits the ability of local officials to work with federal law enforcement on enforcing immigration laws, or if it limits their ability to communicate, that is a sanctuary policy,” Hall said.

Hall said the March 22 killing of Garcia led him to call for a hearing. Authorities say Garcia’s boyfriend, Brandon Ortiz-Vite, who was deported to Mexico in 2020 but later returned undocumented to Michigan, confessed to the killing .

In a statement posted to Facebook Friday, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, acknowledged Garcia’s death as “tragic instance of domestic violence,” and said that it is “made even more tragic when it is co-opted by those wishing to score political points by stoking fear, xenophobia, and division.”

“We know that immigrants (of all statuses) are a net-positive to our economy, public safety, culture, and community,” she continued. “We know that immigrants (of all statuses) deserve to be treated with dignity — as all people do. Shame on anyone whose rhetoric (or actions, or policies, or leadership) does the opposite.”

The Kent County sheriff and other local leaders this week asked the Center for Immigration Studies to remove Kent County from its list of sanctuary communities, saying the jail cooperates with ICE. The center could not be reached for comment.

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