County Fight Contested

Kent County MI — ICE Office Expansion and Sanctuary Policy Fight

Kent, MI FIPS 26081

Current status: ICE seeking 10-year lease for Grand Rapids office space via GSA. No sanctuary policy adopted despite community push. No 287g agreement.

The Fight

ICE is seeking to establish or expand office space in Grand Rapids as part of a nationwide expansion. According to a General Services Administration solicitation, ICE is seeking furnished office space in 19 cities including Grand Rapids, with a 10-year lease term. The proposed location is the Waters Center in downtown Grand Rapids, though ICE is not yet listed in the building’s tenant directory as of early 2026 and ICE did not respond to confirmation requests.

Simultaneously, a second ICE office expansion is planned at the One Towne Square complex in Southfield, just outside Detroit.

Community Response

The community response has been significant:

GR Rapid Response to ICE: An organized community group monitoring ICE activity in the Grand Rapids area
Sanctuary policy push: The Minneapolis ICE shooting (killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti) reignited calls for sanctuary policies in Kent County
East Grand Rapids: City considering resolution limiting immigration enforcement cooperation
Kent County Commission: ICE activity and sanctuary status discussed at public meetings, with residents raising concerns about police cooperation with ICE
Flock cameras: Questions raised about whether Flock surveillance cameras deployed in Kent County and Grand Rapids are being used to feed information to ICE

Current Policy

Kent County and Grand Rapids have no sanctuary policies. The Kent County Sheriff’s Office maintains a cooperative relationship with ICE, stating they handle custody and hold requests consistently regardless of whether they come from local, state, or federal authorities. Some Michigan counties (Kent, Oakland, Macomb) cooperate heavily with ICE, while others (Washtenaw, Ingham, Wayne) have more restrictive policies.

Kent County has not signed a 287(g) agreement.

Why This Matters

Grand Rapids is home to a large immigrant and refugee community. The ICE office expansion — from enforcement-at-a-distance to a permanent local presence — represents a qualitative shift. The 10-year lease term signals long-term infrastructure investment, not a temporary surge.

Heatmap Signals

Score 67 with 4 signal types: igsa (3), 287g-agreement (2), county-fight (1), facility (2). The “igsa” signals likely reflect the North Lake Baldwin facility in adjacent Lake County, which draws heavily from the Grand Rapids area for detainees and attorney access.

Sources

This research is published at The RAMM — investigative reporting on the detention pipeline.

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