Lansing — The steps of Michigan’s Capitol building hosted a protest earlier this month. The issue? A series of recent ICE arrests and deportations. Sixteen Hmong migrants were detained by ICE several weeks ago, and an array of groups were up in arms about it.
A visit to the protest showed the fragile coalition the Left is trying to build and foreshadows greater division and defeats down the road.
Regarding the issue at hand—ICE claims the detainees have criminal records which make them eligible for deportation. All of the detained, an ICE spokesperson told the Detroit Free Press, had been ordered to be deported by an immigration judge, some as far back as 2001.
A quick look down their purported rap sheets: breaking and entering, selling controlled substances, child sex abuse, weapons violations, that sort of thing.
Nevertheless, that means little to their families, who naturally want them back. The Hmong community formed a core group at the protest.
It was a strange alliance: Hmong immigrants, families of the detained, geriatric white boomers, transgender activists, and zoomer organizers wearing N95 face masks.
These are groups that have little in common. Maybe they believe diversity is indeed their greatest strength? But that makes for confusing messaging, and one look at the various signs proved it.
The Hmong protestors carried signs and placards advocating for the rights of their specific ethnic group like, “Stop Attacking Our Kin” and “Justice for Hmong.”
The geriatric white boomers carried signs of a more universalist variety, like “Immigrants Make America Great,” or “Protect Refugees” and “Reject Tyranny.”
A few confused, scattered remnants of the “No Kings” protests showed up, elderly couples in festive costumes. They didn’t get the memo that their slogan failed and it’s time to make new signs, apparently.
Some boomers went even darker, like “The Holocaust Started as a Mass Deportation.” Another compared ICE to the Gestapo, the Nazi party’s secret police organization.
My favorite was a man with a cardboard sign that simply read “No.”
That says it all, really. It doesn’t matter what you tell them, the answer is “No!”
As usual, the transgender activists waved pride flags around, interjecting themselves into an issue that has no relevance to them.
That’s the design of the “pride progress” flag after all, isn’t it? The transgender colors directly impose themselves on the rainbow—which already contains every color in the visible light spectrum.
The zoomer organizers are really behind the scenes. They passed out water and snacks, set up the event, filmed it and such. They seemed to work for a variety of NGOs and nonprofits and were getting paid to set this all up. Where does the money come from?
A young man in a Covid mask with a loudspeaker got the event started with a chant, “No fear, no hate, no ICE in our state.”
Can someone tell them their chants are cringe? And is that really what the Left wants, that Michigan ban ICE altogether?
It always falls apart when you talk immigration with the activist class. What’s their solution? Dissolving the government and all federal agencies, having no border, getting around the campfire and singing kumbaya?
They have no answers other than refusing to enforce our laws because they’re mean. It doesn’t matter that every immigration law in the country was passed by democratically elected lawmakers.
Democracy only means something when they support the outcome.
The main event at the protest was an appearance by state Rep. Mai Xiong, the Democrat winner of a special election in 2024. The first Hmong woman elected to the Michigan Legislature, she was the star of the show in bright pink shorts and wedges.
Of course she had to make an appearance, given her ethnic background and ties to the Hmong community. She used the opportunity to do a little campaigning for herself—and attack her opponents.
She railed against the Republicans and the president directly, claiming that they single-handedly invented this issue, created the crisis, and were victimizing migrant communities for no reason other than racial animus.
“Get them out,” she led the crowd in a chant. Get the Republicans out. She pointed at the Capitol building, telling the crowd Republicans now controlled it. Elections have consequences, didn’t you know.
Family members of the detainees stood behind her holding signs. One of the detainees’ daughters came up and spoke about her father, about what a kind and hardworking man he is. She tugged on the heartstrings of the crowd.
Immigration is such a human issue that we lose all nuance and perspective.
If you listen to one side, you’ll hear only that these are honest family men—kindhearted immigrants trying to make their way in the world, with families that love them.
If you listen to the other side, you’ll hear that these are criminal aliens residing in the country illegally. Or, legal migrants who violated the terms of their legal status by breaking the law.
Both can be true. I think we’ve all seen enough prestige television to understand that humans are complicated, morality is often ambiguous, and sometimes good people do bad things.
You can be a good father, a good man, and also be an illegal alien with a rap sheet and a court order for deportation. You can have a troubled past, overcome it, and be a better man now.
That doesn’t mean we should change the law on your account. We have laws about immigration, about who we allow into the country, passed by duly elected officials under the full legality and sovereignty of our Constitution.
Violating them doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a “bad person,” but you still violated them. According to our system of laws, that often means deportation.
Tough break. Heartbreaking in some cases, even. But justice is supposed to be blind, isn’t she?
If Democrats want to stop ICE, they should listen to Rep. Xiong. Go win an election, and then pass some new laws they like better.
Or they can listen to their zoomer activists and defy the federal government altogether. Let me know how that works out.
These protests don’t bode well for them though, if what I saw holds true across the board. The Left’s coalition is fragile, united only by a few topical issues. When something new arises, they’re bound to split, and that bodes poorly for any future hope of electoral victory.
Bobby Mars is art director of Michigan Enjoyer. Follow him on X @bobby_on_mars.
