Nine local political leaders issued a public condemnation of Rep. Hillary Scholten on Tuesday, following her comments made regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.
All nine are affiliated with local Democratic politics. In late July, Scholten posted a video in which she commented on the August Michigan primary elections. There, the congresswoman expressed support for Rep. Haley Stevens to win the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate over Abdul El-Sayed, who went on to win the primary.
While addressing the election, Scholten condemned ICE’s conduct under the Trump administration, but acknowledged the merits of the immigration enforcement for public safety purposes.
“Most immigrants are good, law-abiding people who just want to make a better life for themselves and our country,” she said. “But there are also bad actors that try to come to our country every single day. Drug smugglers, human traffickers, terrorists, it happens. I’ve seen it at the [Department of Justice] and we shouldn’t ignore it.”
Scholten also criticized El-Sayed’s support of the movement to abolish ICE, which she claimed would come with unintended consequences. She argued that Stevens’ proposed legislation to create an ICE oversight body was a better approach to the issue.
“If we abolish ICE all together, who is going to help us track down and investigate human trafficking in our community?” Scholten asked in the video.
The clip sparked a response from several local leaders, who signed a public letter condemning Scholten. Among them are former Kent County Commissioner Ivan Diaz, Third Ward Commissioner Marshall Kilgore, and Grand Rapids Public Schools President Jose Rodriguez.
In the letter, the leaders pushed back against ICE and called on Scholten to reevaluate her stance ahead of midterm elections.
“As constituents, community leaders and elected officials in Michigan’s Third Congressional District, we reject Congresswoman Scholten’s framing of ICE as a vehicle for public safety in our community,” the letter read.
“Prior to ICE’s creation in 2003, those responsibilities were carried out by other agencies, including the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), U.S. Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Across West Michigan, we’ve seen ICE directly terrorize and detain our neighbors,” the letter read.
The letter closed with a call for unity and asked Scholten to retract her remarks.
“We hope this is an opportunity for the congresswoman to be a unifier and firmly reject the notion that ICE has made our communities safer in any capacity, or that it was ever meant to be,” the letter reads. “As West Michiganders, we are stronger when we stand together.”
Diaz told The Grand Rapids Herald via phone that he was appalled by Scholten’s comments and initially believed they had been falsified.
“Somebody pointed out maybe it’s AI, you never know,” he said of the video. “Between what she’s saying in this video, what her voting record has been in the last six to 12 months, 18 months, and given what happened in the primary and Abdul’s numbers in her district, I just can not understand what my congresswoman is doing.”
Diaz added that Scholten should take note of the letter and claimed a local movement toward supporting her primary challenger is growing in Grand Rapids.
“It’s putting her on notice on all these different factors that she is not representing her constituents when she is acting the way that she is acting,” Diaz said. “I really feel that especially in the last couple of months, her actions have led to way more Democratic primary voters being unhappy with the direction that she’s trying to take the country.”
Kilgore wrote via Facebook that his decision to sign the letter was “rooted in respect,” but called on Scholten to speak out against ICE and its approach to immigration enforcement.
“As elected officials, it is incumbent upon us to be creative enough to fund and build better solutions,” he wrote. “We cannot simply continue pouring resources into broken systems and call that public safety. We can enforce our laws while treating people humanely. We can address trafficking and serious crime while protecting due process. We can build an immigration system that people can trust.”
Scholten did not respond to a request for comment sent to her campaign email address. Her Grand Rapids district office also did not pick up an after-hours phone call from The Herald.
Write to jackson@grherald.com