Livonia — Recent events in Minnesota have sparked outrage and progressive activism across the nation, including western Wayne County and the adjacent counties, but it’s impossible to shake the notion that cynicism, virtue signaling, and opportunism are at play.
Livonia’s state representative Laurie Pohutsky, one of the most progressive members in Michigan’s lower House, fired off controversial social media posts on Friday evening, claiming without any evidence that Livonia’s police department was cooperating with ICE and U.S. Border Patrol.
Indeed, Michigan Enjoyer confirmed through law enforcement sources that the department simply follows federal law, which mandates that if, during a traffic stop, an individual has no state identification and can’t prove they are a legal U.S. resident, that individuals gets flagged to the feds.
In addition, law enforcement sources could confirm only one actual ICE operation that took place inside Livonia within the last year, which allegedly started in a neighboring city and apparently ended within the borders of the city.
ICE could be operating in Livonia, but it would be at such a low level that nobody I spoke with was able to cite a specific operation or event.
Not that actual evidence matters, because what became more obvious over the last few days was that Livonia’s activist class needed badly to feel a part of the national scene.
Enter Pohutsky, who filed for re-election two days earlier and is deeply unpopular with moderate Democrats in the city due to controversies years earlier and is also an open opponent of the Livonia police and back-the-blue voters in the city. Keep in mind, it was Pohutsky who spoke on the very steps of City Hall in summer 2020 to an agitated crowd of BLM activists and vowed to defund the police.
It’s not a leap to speculate Puhutsky is taking advantage of national events to whip up fear and anger while daring moderate Democrats in City Hall and the City Council to defy the extreme partisan wing of the party. Need proof? Pohutsky called out the city’s Democrat mayor, Maureen Miller Brosnan.
Without any active ICE operations, and with sub-arctic temperatures muting the Boomer army, a mass of stirred-up residents flowed into Monday’s City Council Meeting, and they didn’t disappoint.
With speakers lining up at the podium aching to signal their virtue, Rep. Pohutsky sat quietly, ostensibly marveling at the shitshow she created. After the city attorney read aloud a public statement by the mayor indicating a review process, speaker after speaker emoted three minutes of public pleas for the council and mayor to direct Livonia police to defy federal law and to ignore the possibility of criminal illegal aliens trafficking in our city.
In a hilarious moment, one older female resident pulled the “as a white woman” card to claim she feared being deported by ICE because, according to her, federal agents were a potential threat to her own well-being.
Two speakers broke with the consensus and supported ICE and the Livonia police, causing intolerant reactions from the diversity and inclusion types. So angered were the progressives, the council president had to threaten a handful of them with forcible removal.
This was a whole hell of a lot of hand wringing and pearl clutching over activity that nobody can point to, nobody can cite instances of, and oddly timed to stir up the most shit for other Democrats in the city. The left dining out on the left, so to speak.
But wait, there’s more. One attendee walked into the meeting late, sat inconspicuously alone, and then quietly and unassumingly approached the podium. This was Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. She gave an artfully careful and professional political speech lamenting ICE and providing testimony as a daughter of immigrants. Known for bombastic speeches on the House floor, this was not that, not at all. She was more composed and cautious, playing to a more reserved suburban Livonia crowd.
Tlaib is, in fact, concerned with Livonia voters, fully aware she’s less popular in Livonia than other parts of her district and is keeping a watchful eye on Democrats that could spoil her next election. At least one source has claimed to have received a call from the DCCC gauging interest running in a primary for Tlaib’s seat.
The reality is ICE and border patrol are a non-issue in Livonia. Making them an issue appears to benefit professional politicians looking to extend their careers in office, regardless of the damage it causes to Livonia or elected members of their own party.
But undergirding Monday’s meeting was a chilling ignorance of national security concerns that most suburbanites tend to look past. Suburban progressives living comfortable lives are too detached from the scene to understand the real dangers illegal immigration poses to Metro Detroit.
Detroit is one of very few northern ports of entry to the United States. With the Trump administration successfully locking down the southern border, enemies and strategic opponents of America are now forced to probe the Detroit-Windsor border. American national security experts have been calling attention to intense ongoing Chinese spying and espionage on Michigan college campuses.
In light of these concerns, it seems insanely vapid for local cynically motivated politicians to pressure Livonia to ban ICE and border patrol to appease the feelings of those entranced by derangement for the Orange Man.
I can excuse Rep. Pohutsky for being potentially unknowing of such real dangers posed to the state of Michigan. Members of the Michigan House I’ve spoken with across party lines were completely checked out on such issues.
But Tlaib sits in Congress. She damn well knows better.
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.
