District 6 City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero testified on Thursday in support of a package of bills that would limit ICE operations in Michigan.
Senate Bills 508, 509, and 510 would prohibit agents from wearing masks and performing immigration enforcement in schools and places of worship, while prohibiting state disclosure of personal information to immigration agents.
Santiago-Romero previously asked the Detroit Law Department to review the city’s ability to implement similar policies locally, and has aligned with state senators representing Detroit who introduced the bills late last year.
The council member testified in support of the bill package during a Thursday committee hearing that drew a crowd of commenters.
Santiago-Romero, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, said ICE enforcement is impacting Detroiters while national attention is fixed on other cities. She said school attendance has declined, small businesses have suffered and families are forgoing grocery trips, medical appointments and immigration court proceedings out of fear.
“I’m here to let you know that ICE agents in our cities are clearly violating our rights,” Santiago-Romero told the Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee. “They are manufacturing chaos and fear. This is making it so our residents are afraid to even call on the police, and when our residents don’t call local police officers, we are not any more safe.”
Former Detroit Police Chief and Deputy Mayor Ike McKinnon also testified on Thursday. He said law enforcement wearing masks undermines trust and accountability. McKinnon said he’s faced threats to his life during his career and disputed the idea that ICE agents must remain anonymous to protect them from harassment. McKinnon said that’s just part of the job.
“I go back to 1967 during the riots and rebellion in Detroit, when people tried to take their badges off and their ID cards so people wouldn’t identify them,” McKinnon said. “This is what’s happening right now. People who are supposed to protect and serve a community should be identified as to who they are and not wear a mask.”
During the Detroit Policy Conference later in the day, Santiago-Romero said she’s having conversations with Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield about the city’s legal authority to protect immigrant communities from mass deportation efforts that have escalated under the Trump administration.
At-Large Council Member Mary Waters announced she’s seeking an ordinance that would ban law enforcement from wearing masks in honor of Alex Pretti, a Minneapolis man who was fatally shot by ICE agents last week while recording officers with his phone.
Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who is running for Michigan governor as an independent candidate, said he hadn’t seen the bills and declined to comment on whether the state should seek to regulate ICE activity.