Detroit — In a stunning move, Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison has stated he intends to fire two of his police officers for allegedly cooperating with ICE and Border Patrol agents during two recent traffic stops in the city.
Named Detroit’s police chief by Mayor Mike Duggan in 2024, Bettison was reappointed by incoming Mayor Mary Sheffield and confirmed by the City Council. During that confirmation appointment hearing, the notion of cooperating with federal immigration agents was discussed. Bettison informed the council that he intended to only cooperate with such efforts if a warrant was signed by a federal judge.
According to multiple reports, incidents occurred on Dec. 16 and Feb. 9, with two officers responding to traffic stops and reporting unnamed individuals to Border Patrol.
Both officers, one of whom is a sergeant with DPD, were suspended and placed on unpaid leave. But apparently that wasn’t enough punishment. Now Bettison plans to fire these officers.
Why is he acting so rashly? After all, Bettison even admitted that at least one of the individuals reported to Border Patrol officers was an illegal alien.
The decision to fire the officers appears in response to several outside forces converging on him.
Activist media coverage by the Detroit Free Press has been fixated on ICE and Border Patrol activity in Detroit to the degree that one reporter captured video of the Feb. 9 traffic stop with Border Patrol officers and DPD officers. One might wonder: How did she get there in time?
In addition, City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero, a far-left community organizer representing Detroit’s District 6, has been a sharp critic of ICE, Border Patrol, and Detroit Police during her two terms. During Bettison’s confirmation hearing, Santiago-Romero peppered him with aggressive questions regarding DPD’s methods and motives. In response, he declared the department would not cooperate with federal agents without signed judicial warrants.
Lastly, Mayor Sheffield herself is a clever force behind the scenes. Bettison serves at her pleasure. The work of a police chief is to navigate political initiatives and agendas while carefully placating the powers that be. Bettison is no outlier. Within minutes of his stated intent to fire both police officers, Sheffield released a statement approving of the chief’s plan to fire the officers.
The downstream effect of these firings spells gloom for neighboring municipalities and additional tensions between police departments, city halls, and police unions.
In recent weeks, local, state, and federal politicians seeking to further entrench their voting bases have flowed into local city council meetings demanding harsh responses to local police departments if they cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
Last month, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and State Rep. Laura Pohutsky strolled into a Livonia City Council Meeting and stirred an outpouring of trauma over the idea that ICE and Border Patrol were actively cooperating with Livonia Police during traffic stops, with neither actually giving evidence of that happening.
Scores of white boomer grandmas, shaking under the belief they too could be deported, were enough for the city’s mayor and police chief to release public statements indicating a “review” of official policy was a foot.
And all of this after the police chief of Grand Rapids resigned due to the far-left politicking by local city and county officials against his competent police force.
But firing two officers for violating what appears to be politically ambiguous rules when they ostensibly performed the correct law enforcement procedures during traffic stops appears to be inviting a major fight with the Detroit Police Officers Association.
Attempts to reach Detroit’s Police Union President Craig Miller for comment went unanswered but sources within the Police Officers Association of America didn’t mince words: “There’s no way the DPOA takes this one lying down. They’re a strong union with full time staff and they won’t be putting up with this type of political bullshit inside the department. If even they are fired those guys will get their jobs back with back pay.”
Additionally, sources inside the department provided documentation from within the DPD Law Enforcement Code of Ethics stating officers are required to cooperate with other law enforcement agencies. Another high-ranking source within DPD said that if both officers are fired, an arbitration hearing would be triggered with both officers presumably being reinstated with back pay.
But like all heavily politicized procedural dramas, the process in the punishment, and these two officers will be warning to the rest of the rank and final: Don’t follow the law, follow our ideology.
Michigan’s elected class has partnered with establishment journalists to whip up a moral panic around federal immigration enforcement. After trying to handcuff the cops during Covid, the ICE Panic of 2026 might be their opportunity to defund and defang the officers who keep us safe.
Jay Murray is a writer for Michigan Enjoyer and has been a Metro Detroit-based professional investigator for 22 years. Follow him on X @Stainless31.
