Protest Against ICE Brings Out Hundreds To Calhoun County Jail
Over 200 people stood out on Battle Creek’s Michigan Ave. to protest the separation of children from their mothers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while they are in America illegally.
The Battle Creek Enquirer reports the protest Wednesday afternoon was organized by the Kalamazoo group Justice For Our Neighbors. Around 220 ICE detainees are currently housed at the Calhoun County Jail under a contract the county has with them; However, Sheriff Matt Saxton says almost all of the ICE detainees at the jail were picked up in Michigan, not at the southern border. The Sheriff also says he was told the protest was about the federal government’s southern border policy, not a protest against the jail itself.
The protesters were there for around an hour, and it was a peaceful event.
That very same afternoon President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to prevent the separation of children from their parents when they cross the border illegally.
The order does not address those families that have already been separated.