Anti-registered protesters gathered in Detroit, waving Mexican flags and signs in Spanish and English to show their opposition to the border patrol in the area on January 26, 2025 | Photos of Erick Diaz Veliz.
Community members reported Wednesday morning that immigration and customs law enforcement officers were being arrested in a Grand Rapids immigration office where individuals attended the appointments previously arranged as part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to limit those with legal immigration status and deport them.
The radical groups, including the Quick Response to the Ice and Movimiento Cosecha GR, said they quickly mobilized through social media, with members appearing outside the intensive supervision of the appearance program office, allowing newcomers who appear to be appointed newcomers while others know the presence of the ice, while others enter the office to warn people inside.
“This is what we encounter anyway,” Kent County former county commissioner, candidate Ivan Diaz said in a written statement.
ICE agents that detain individuals outside the ISAP (Intensive Supervised Appearance Program) office in Grand Rapids. June 4, 2025. Photo courtesy of Movimiento Cosecha Gr
These arrests are just the latest news for Michigan federal agents, which continues to draw attention between community members and militant organizations to increase the intensity and sweep of federal action on immigrant communities.
Limit legal status
The temporary protection status of immigration and humanitarian parole or TPS protection has the potential to be removed from thousands of foreigners since the beginning of the current government.
Christine Sauve from the Michigan Center for Immigration Rights told Michigan’s Forward how many community members currently live under TPS or humanitarian parole.
“There are currently 31,500 cases in the immigration court in Detroit, most of which involve parole. These people should hear the case and court hearings, especially when they are concerned about persecution in their country of origin,” Sauve said.
Monday, May 19, at least for the time being, the U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the roads to bring the Trump administration to an end to the temporary protective status of 350,000 Venezuelans in 2023.
This was a decision in February that the federal government decided to reduce similar expansions as more than one million Haitians, making them vulnerable to losing their jobs and facing deportation after August.
Additionally, by the end of May, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a court order that protected nearly 500,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants, which exposed them to possible deportation through temporary legal status called the CHNV program.
White House spokesman Abigail Jackson wrote in an X post that the federal government's decision to revoke the Biden administration's temporary status granted within its legal mandate.
“Biden's plan violates the Black Letter Immigration Act and inspires additional illegal immigrants,” Jackson wrote.
Sauve has no hope for those facing deportation to resolve this issue in a timely manner.
“During this time, the current CHNV parole will not have legal immigration status. Individuals have taken advantage of these legal immigration pathways in sincerity, overnight, they were listed without documents, unable to work and deported,” Saf said.
The status of temporary protection and humanitarian parole are two different immigration protection mechanisms. TPS allows eligible nationals who have appeared in the United States to live and work legally for a specific period, while case-by-case humanitarian parole allows certain individuals to temporarily enter or stay in the country. They are awarded individuals from armed conflicts, natural disasters or countries that may face persecution.
“Many people with parole status flee from dangerous situations in their country of origin and have applied for asylum or other possible qualifying immigration benefits,” Sauve stressed. “They built their lives and became part of our Michigan community. They are our neighbors and colleagues.”
Protesters against deportation march through Grand Rapids City on January 20, 2025 | Photos of Erick Diaz Veliz.
Economic consequences
Another aspect of the federal government's commitment to mass deportation is the impact on Michigan's agricultural economy, where the majority of the working population is undocumented.
In March, just days after half a million Haitians discovered their TPS delay cuts, Michigan Foods announced that its operations would be affected by the loss of such a large number of employees. Coldwater's Clemens Food Group employs about 400 Haitian TPS holders as its workforce.
According to a report by the U.S. Immigration Commission, TPS holders have made positive contributions to the Michigan industry and paid a large amount of taxes in the U.S., according to a report by the U.S. Immigration Commission.
“Forcing them to leave the country not only risked these people at risk, but also threatened to severely undermine the local economy,” the report said.
The commission said statewide TPS holders made significant contributions to public inventory and the private economy, including earning $57.9 million in household income, which translated into $5.2 million in state and local taxes and paying $6.7 million in federal taxes.
“The end of TPS and parole is devastating for our clients and their families, as well as for Michigan families, workplaces and communities,” Sauve said. “These programs are the lifeline of vulnerable individuals and should not end prematurely, while immigration cases are still pending or are still unsafe to return.”
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