Protesters said they are planning a demonstration to demand city officials keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents out of Detroit ahead of the City Council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 13.
Before the 10 a.m. Tuesday session, the group Detroit Will Breathe will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Woodward Avenue, calling “for an end to ICE activities” in the city, aiming their message specifically at council members and Mayor Mary Sheffield.
Organizers said they will speak in opposition of President Donald Trump’s escalation of agents carrying out immigration enforcement actions across the nation — particularly in the wake of an ICE agent shooting and killing Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis mother, last week in South Minneapolis — and the effects of “his aggressive foreign policy against Latin America and Venezuela” on Detroiters.
President Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino Sound Board Theater in Detroit at 2 p.m., following the DEC’s previously scheduled Michigan Economic Outlook meeting program, according to a news release from the DEC.
Protests against Trump and his immigration policies have been held across the region, and across the country, following the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. A protest denouncing Trump also is planned near the site of his scheduled visit and speech at the MotorCity Casino Sound Board Theater.
Another group, the Detroit Anti-War Committee, said they are planning to “pack council” on Tuesday, demanding the city divest from any companies and contracts which “contributes our tax dollars to the war economy.”
City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero, on Thursday, Jan. 8, submitted a memorandum to Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison with a long list of questions and requests seeking further details on how the city’s police department coordinates or handles requests from ICE. Santiago-Romero said in the memo that her office continues to receive reports alleging that DPD “may have engaged in activities supporting” ICE efforts.
She asked for the number of any ICE requests for assistance from DPD that were made, the approval process for those requests, whether the department participated in immigration-related enforcement support for other federal law enforcement partners and the reasons, any instances in which ICE was allowed to use DPD or other city-owned lots to park, stage or store marked or unmarked vehicles and more.
In a committee meeting, Santiago-Romero said city officials “need to ensure that does not happen here in Detroit.” The council member added she wants to identify ways the city can “ban or limit ICE operations, whether that be in schools or places of worship,” or limit interaction on city property.
“We do hear often that people — as they’re picking up their children, as they’re going to a mosque — they’re getting picked up by ICE,” Santiago-Romero said. “Let’s have these conversations. Let’s do some work, because we are in a very different place right now.”
Santiago-Romero is one of several officials scheduled to take part in the demonstration and news conference in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue Tuesday morning. Others scheduled to speak include: Stephanie Chang, State Senator, District 3; Mary Cavanagh, State Senator, District 6; Victoria Camille, Detroit Board of Police Commissioner; the Rev. Paul Perez, pastor, Central United Methodist Church; Eric C. Williams, legal director, Detroit Justice Center; a representative from the Peoples Assembly/Asamblea Popular; and Tristan Taylor, co-founder of Detroit Will Breathe.
Detroit officials have previously emphasized that Detroit is a “welcoming city”for immigrants, but is not a so-called sanctuary city, which can refer to municipalities placing formal restrictions on any cooperation with federal authorities conducting immigration enforcement actions.
Former Mayor Mike Duggan had previously said: “If you are in this country illegally, we should not be shielding you from ICE and federal enforcement, and the city of Detroit does not,” at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s 2025 Detroit Policy Conference.
He added that as a welcoming city, he would encourage anyone to come to the country lawfully. Duggan has pointed to his ancestral roots in Ireland and noted that his grandparents immigrated to the United States.
In a previous statement to the Free Press, the Detroit Police Department said that in so-called sanctuary cities, local police refuse to cooperate with federal agencies in enforcing federal immigration law, reiterating that Detroit is not a sanctuary city.
However, DPD added, the department does not enforce federal or immigration laws.
“When interacting with the public, Detroit police officers do not inquire about an individual’s immigration status. DPD’s long-standing and well-publicized policy that crime victims and witnesses will not be asked about their immigration status in police interviews has been a major factor in building cooperation for crime reduction in Detroit,” DPD said.
Dana Afana is the Detroit City Hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com. Follow her: @DanaAfana.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Protesters to urge Detroit City Council, mayor to end ICE activities
Reporting by Dana Afana, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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