How is Ann Arbor responding?
“We have a pre-existing policy with respect to immigration. We do not interfere with the enforcement of federal law,” says mayor Christopher Taylor. “But we also focus our attention on state and local law.” A 2017 city ordinance largely prohibits city employees from asking people about their immigration status, so the city has no information to share.
The arrest by ICE of a Palestinian activist who led protests at Columbia University has spread fears among those concerned with immigration issues as well as free speech and academic freedom. Mahmoud Khalil was taken into custody at a university-owned residence, told his green card permanent resident status had been revoked, and flown to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. State and county officials from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti joined in a letter calling for his immediate release, and supporters rallied on the Diag.
Within days, the U-M chapter of the American Association of University Professors joined the national organization in declaring, “We do not need the crisis to reach our doors before we will rise to defend the … free speech rights and safety of our community members.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, Beth Israel Congregation, Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation, and Temple Beth Emeth also issued a statement: “Merely protesting [or] leading protests … should not be grounds for deportation,” they wrote, “nor should combatting antisemitism be used to justify actions that deny others their civil rights.”
At U-M, ICE agents aren’t supposed to enter residence halls or locked class buildings without a warrant, and students are advised to contact the Division of Public Safety & Security if they encounter an agent in a public space. But it’s not clear how much protection the university can provide.
Related: ICE in A2
“ICE is a violent militarized force [that has] attacked students who have been peaceful,” says Craig Smith, a U-M librarian on the Faculty Senate Assembly (FSA). “U-M guidance on what ICE can and cannot do is slightly helpful but shouldn’t lead anyone to feel like ICE will respect rules.”
Smith says communication with top U-M officials has always been difficult. “Now they’re making decisions in even more secret ways than they have before,” he says. “When you ask a question, they [don’t just refuse to answer], they treat the question as hostile, as though it was inappropriate to ask.”
Although the FSA is charged with reviewing any changes to students’ rights and responsibilities, Smith says, it has been locked out as the administration changes those rules. One recent change allows anyone, even any external organization, to make charges against a student. FSA’s executive committee, Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, declared that the changes “deprive students of the right to due process and fair hearings with faculty oversight, curtail freedom of speech and expression, and radically increase administrators’ power to prosecute students and limit inconvenient forms of free speech.”
Smith says that U-M higher-ups recently canceled a residence hall presentation on the history of Palestine. “The university has never before interfered [with those presentations] without a lot of explanation,” he says. “[President Santa] Ono doesn’t want a target on the university.”
In early February, however, a post from the U-M’s Ford School quoted faculty experts questioning Trump’s immigration orders. Kristina Fullerton Rico, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Racial Justice, noted that “It is not just actual deportations that cause harm. The threat of deportation … discourages people from doing the everyday things they would otherwise do. This can look like parents keeping their children home from school, not seeking medical care, and otherwise staying home.”
Another thing it discourages people from doing is reporting crimes, and that concerns Washtenaw County prosecuting attorney Eli Savit. “What we’re seeing is there is a lot of fear out there,” he says. “Victims of crime are afraid to come forward if they’re not citizens or have family members who aren’t citizens. Frankly, that makes all of us less safe.”
The Trump administration also has halted legal immigration. In addition to serving a variety of needs for the aged and the disabled, the local Jewish Family Services is the only agency in the area resettling refugees from other countries. What started as a grassroots effort to help Jews escaping the Soviet Union grew into a professional operation with substantial federal support. The latest arrivals are Afghans who worked for the U.S. and fled when the Taliban returned.
JFS development officer Melissa Goodson says that four days after Trump’s inauguration, everything stopped. No more flights brought immigrants to the county, and the $4.7 million in federal support the agency was getting annually was cut off—including reimbursement for money already spent. As a result, some staffers have been laid off, while others are taking on multiple roles to ensure refugee clients continue receiving support. “Volunteers are essential in filling the gaps, and we’re always seeking skilled individuals to help, throughout the agency,” Goodson says.
JFS has resettled nearly 2,000 people in the last three years, and “we will not abandon them,” Goodson says. On April 7, they’ll be the beneficiaries of a showing of the Holocaust documentary UnBroken at the Michigan Theater.
“If private funding runs out, I don’t have an easy answer, but I can promise we will do whatever it takes,” Goodson says. “We rely on our community to sustain this work.”
Related: Afghans Arrive