Muskegon: an update on sanctuary county

By: American Decency Staff

 

West Michigan and Michigan:  There is more going on here than meets the eye.  

We have heard that Muskegon is one of the top ten cities in the country being viewed as a city that will be a predictor of how the next presidential election will go.  Why?  Because President Trump only lost by 1,000 votes in the last presidential election.  The view is that how Muskegon goes will be predictive of how it goes for the state of Michigan and the nation. 

It is anticipated that lots of money and lots of persuasion will be pouring into Muskegon and Muskegon County in the coming year.

And we’re already seeing plenty.

There is a document that has been sent to the Muskegon County Commissioners from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Michigan Immigration Rights Center strongly telling the Muskegon County Sheriff and the Muskegon County Prosecutor’s office to stop detaining non-citizens.

“We write to strongly urge you to stop detaining non-citizens at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless ICE has obtained and provided a court order mandating such detention. You have no legal obligation to honor “ICE detainers” without a court order. In fact, doing so is unconstitutional and opens Muskegon County up to liability for violating the Fourth Amendment.”

There was a resulting meeting of the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners, where the public was allowed to come and give a reactionary comment.

But then the public was told the subject would be tabled. We wondered, Is this some kind of stunt?

So sadly, there was a bit of confusion as to whether to show up to testify or not.  But many of us did anyway.

When I arrived, 5 minutes after it started, the small commissioners’ meeting room was packed. The hallways and the hall just beyond the elevator on the fourth floor were crowded.

Within minutes they began to hear public comment, though the public was told that comments on the sanctuary county question had been tabled. 

Still, the public outcry was very strong.  The citizenry were indignant and angry that many of the Muskegon County Commissioners wanted to comply with the ACLU’s request.

The people spoke!  One person who did an informal polling said the comments were something like 56 opposed and 9 supportive.

So, as of the September 10 Commissioners meeting, the Sanctuary County resolution has been referred back to Community Development Committee which meets next on September 17.  No word yet as to whether it will be added to the agenda.

That’s only one way Muskegon County has been targeted.

In addition, there is a website that is called “Welcoming Michigan – Buildling Welcoming Immigrant Friendly Communities.”

This is a strategy to set an atmosphere that opens the door to sanctuary city/county realities.

Predictably, the narrative of the website (Welcoming Michigan) has warm testimonies of needs and needs being met.   But the real question is, how would Christ have us treat this issue? Yes, we must respect the dignity and humanity of illegal immigrants, but we must also insure that those who immigrate here are not a threat to our families! We simply cannot do that with a wide open border.

We now live in a day where we are so bombarded by serious issues coming at us from hither and yon.  Sadly, we recognize that so many of our countrymen and women are oblivious to such matters/issues.  Some of these issues carry implications that are far beyond what we can even begin to imagine. But we cannot bury our heads in the sand!

I thought of Muskegon County and all of us last night as I listened to an interview of a Swedish woman who heartbrokenly tells of how the government ignored the citizenry and how their nation is now overrun by criminality.  Here is an interview with Frank Gaffney, Chairman of the Center for Security Policy, had with Ingrid Carlqvist, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

The short of it is – the Swedish people have been had. They have lost their civility, their law, their country.  We are on the verge.  Listen and share with others.

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