Now that the Trump administration is publishing a list of all the counties that are obstructing federal law enforcement efforts, Michigan governments are trying to tell you that they never actually worked to thwart Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
But during the height of the first Trump administration, when #resistance efforts were strong and the outcry against deportations was great, a number of cities and counties passed a resolution to undermine federal efforts to round up illegal border crossers who’d already been arrested.
Now, given the possibility that the Trump administration will yank federal funds from sanctuary cities, leaders are running away from their resolutions as fast as they can. They shouldn’t get away with it.
This week, the Trump administration removed some Michigan localities from the list of “sanctuary cities,” according to a report from MLive.
The Justice Department says sanctuary jurisdictions have “actions and policies that materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes and regulations,” including those “that refuse to honor ICE detainer requests unless there is a warrant signed by a judge.”
Detainer requests ask local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and correctional institutions to alert ICE about the release of illegal immigrants so the agency can take them into custody in a more controlled environment, the ICE website says.
Retainer requests allow ICE to pick up “potentially dangerous aliens who have been arrested by another law enforcement agency or are removable from the United States.”
East Lansing is now the only municipality still on the list, apparently resolute in its stand against legal immigration requirements.
Kalamazoo County was one of the governments that had previously been listed as a “sanctuary city.” But its spokesman took issue with the designation earlier this summer, noting that federal funding was at stake.
“The recent claim that Kalamazoo County is a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’ is inaccurate,” Taylor Koopman said earlier this summer. “We have never declared ourselves as such, and we do not have any policies that interfere with federal immigration efforts.”
Kalamazoo’s PR flak wants you to believe the county’s prohibition against working with federal law enforcement to get illegal residents who’ve been arrested off the street doesn’t “interfere with federal immigration efforts.”
But Kalamazoo County commissioners passed a resolution in 2018 to no longer honor ICE detainer requests unless presented with a signed warrant from a judge.
ICE designated the Kalamazoo County Jail/Correctional Center last summer as a “limited cooperation institution.”
Similarly, MLive reported that deep-blue Ann Arbor’s Democratic Mayor Christopher Taylor said in May that the city follows the law and hasn’t interfered with ICE.
“Where law obligates our action, we act. End of story,” Taylor said in May. “There is no such thing as a sanctuary city. No set of lies or slogans can change that.”
Taylor himself introduced a resolution in 2017 which sought to limit cooperation between Ann Arbor, its police department and ICE. In 2024, ICE listed the Washtenaw County Jail in Ann Arbor as a “non-cooperative institution.”
Similarly, Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer said her department will not work with ICE.
We can quibble all day about the working definition of a sanctuary city, but it’s clear that Kalamazoo County and Ann Arbor passed guidelines to make life more difficult for federal immigration authorities and easier for illegal aliens who may have committed crimes.
Now they’re trying to rewrite history. They got their progressive brownie points for standing up to ICE, and now they’re playing it off as nothing.
The Trump administration shouldn’t let localities off the hook until they pass new resolutions overriding the old ones. They need to say they’ll work closely with ICE to allow the feds to pick up illegal immigrants out of local jails.
While Democratic politicians quibble about definitions, Michiganders know sanctuary cities by the policies on the books. The inaction of our sanctuary cities and counties speak louder than their words.
Brendan Clarey is deputy editor of Michigan Enjoyer.
