- Michigan attorney general launches ‘immigration action reporting form’ to collect public tips about ICE activities
- The effort comes as tensions between Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the public continue to escalate around the country
- ICE spokesperson defended immigration enforcement agents’ conduct and urged collaboration from local and state police
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is encouraging residents to report any “concerning behavior” by federal immigration agents in their communities, launching a public form to collect tips on how the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts are playing out in the state.
Joined by elected officials, law enforcement, immigrant rights advocates and faith leaders on Wednesday in Detroit, the state’s top law enforcement officer voiced concerns about how ramped-up immigration enforcement has played out in Minnesota and other states.
Under President Donald Trump, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are “creating an untenable and dangerous situation,” said Nessel, a Democrat. Residents of other states have been “teargassed, attacked and even killed for simply witnessing federal agents in action,” she added.
Nessel said her office “will not hesitate to uphold the law, and that includes me prosecuting unlawful actions perpetrated by federal officers.”
Asked for comment on Nessel’s announcement, an ICE spokesperson said Wednesday that the agency “continues to enforce the immigration laws of the United States as set forth by Congress” and that officers carry out their duties “in accordance with law, policy and procedure.”
“We welcome and encourage any law enforcement agency in the state of Michigan to work alongside us in the interest of public safety and national security,” the unnamed spokesperson continued.
Related:
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- ICE denies targeting schools as Michigan lawmakers eye restrictions
- Dana Nessel: Bar immigration arrests at Michigan courthouses
The Trump administration has amassed federal forces in select metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, where Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were killed last month during separate encounters with immigration enforcement agents.
Border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that the Trump administration is withdrawing 700 immigration agents from Minnesota. At least 2,000 agents remain, though Homan said the ultimate goal is to “achieve a complete drawdown and end the surge.”
ICE in Michigan
Deportations and detentions have steadily increased in Michigan since Trump started his second term, but the state has largely avoided the kind of high-profile conflicts between federal agents and citizens seen in Minnesota.
ICE arrested 2,349 people in Michigan from January through October 2025, nearly triple the number arrested in the state in the same timeframe in 2024, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement data provided to the Deportation Data Project through Freedom of Information Act requests.
ICE had detained 3,338 people in Michigan — most of them at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, which reopened as a detention center in June 2025 — last year through October, nearly triple the number detained in the same timeframe in 2024. Most came from Mexico.
The decision to collect public feedback on ICE activity in Michigan was spurred by increased public interest, according to Nessel’s office, which said the department has already received more than 5,000 emails from the public regarding immigration enforcement activity.
Nessel’s new form asks people to describe any immigration actions they witnessed, including the number of agents, location and the unit. Respondents can also send the attorney general’s office photos and videos, which Nessel’s office plans to monitor daily.
Contact information will be kept confidential “to the extent permitted by law” but could be used “in a legal proceeding or public report or statement,” according to Nessel’s office, and the information may be shared with local law enforcement or other third parties.
The form discourages observers from posting unverified reports on social media and offers advice: “If you document the event, record video horizontally, capture officer details (faces, badges, license plates), and only intervene if safe. Always remain calm, know your rights, and avoid signing anything or discussing your immigration status.”
Enforcing immigration laws
Critics fear the effort could make it harder for law enforcement officials to do their jobs.
House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, said he opposed Nessel’s initiative, arguing that ICE agents working in Michigan are “carrying out those efforts very well.”
“The American people elected President Trump to enforce our immigration laws,” Hall said Wednesday. “We need to be supporting ICE. We need to be respectful toward our law enforcement and ICE officers, and we need to let them do their job.”
Nessel’s actions mirror efforts in states like Maine, where officials last week created a similar tip line to monitor federal immigration enforcement. In New York, Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, announced this week her office will send legal observers as neutral witnesses to ICE raids.
Other Republican-leaning states, including Tennessee, Indiana and Kentucky, have taken the opposite approach, encouraging greater collaboration with ICE through grant programs and legislation.
In comments during a roundtable discussion following Nessel’s remarks, Michigan State Police Lt. Col. David Sosinski and other law enforcement officials said it’s not their policy to directly enforce federal immigration laws.
Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson, currently a Democratic candidate for governor, and Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer stressed that their ultimate goal is to maintain trust in local law enforcement.
Swanson added that local and state police have a “duty to intervene” if they witness a federal law enforcement official acting unlawfully.
Still, several Democratic elected officials and immigration advocates on the panel highlighted the fear the nationwide ramp-up of immigration enforcement has caused, stressing that local eyewitness accounts should be taken seriously.
“I can’t shake off the feeling from my constituents and people that I represent who feel gaslit when they are told by our enforcement and leaders that it’s not that bad here, that it’s not how we’re seeing other places,” Detroit City Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero said. “People need to be reporting, taking pictures, documenting.”
This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.