Activists gathered from various areas of Michigan to report on the excesses and brutality of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Custom and Border Patrol (CBP) along with the local police and the complicity of political officials.
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Wednesday July 1, 2026
Political Review
On Saturday June 27, the Detroit People’s Tribunal was convened at the Historic St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in the North End.
This event had been in the making for more than five months prompted by a series of developments including the deployment of National Guard and Marine units in other cities such as Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington, D.C. during late 2025 and earlier this year.
Several organizations sponsored and endorsed the event with Detroit Will Breathe, People’s Assembly, Democratic Socialist of America Detroit Chapter among others taking the lead in mobilizing the people. Community groups such as the Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR) also co-sponsored the manifestation.
The surge by ICE and CBP in Minneapolis provided lessons on how broad-based coalitions could be built in a major municipality targeted by the repressive apparatus of the administration of President Donald Trump. In the face of the massive deployment of thousands of government agents in Minneapolis and St. Paul, the people of this leading city in Minnesota organized and mobilized hundreds of thousands of workers, clergy, youth and community activists to resist repression.
Although the National Guard has not been sent into Detroit as of yet various organizations have been discussing potential responses in case the Trump administration authorizes their dispatchment. Nonetheless, ICE and CBP have been very active in the Metropolitan Detroit area. Communities have responded by establishing monitoring committees to alert communities when they are facing surprise attacks.
Detroit has a large population of immigrants and migrants from Latin America, Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. These persons who were born outside the United States and do not have naturalized citizenship or permanent residency are under constant surveillance and threatened
detention. Even those who are citizens and legal residents live in the same targeted communities and are therefore negatively affected by the ICE and CBP.
Michigan has a notorious detention facility which has been described as a “concentration camp” for detained migrants. Transcripts and recorded messages from inmates and former detainees were played at the Tribunal. The conditions of those trapped in these institutions, particularly the North Lake Detention Center located in Baldwin, Michigan described conditions as horrendous citing rotten food, deliberate denial of sleep, lack of adequate medical treatment and racist bigotry, resulting in verbal and physical abuse by guards.
As a result of the awful conditions at North Lake, inmates are suffering from numerous ailments including dental problems, psychological distress stemming from the maltreatment by guards along with beatings carried out by staff. One account by telephone from the institution from an inmate alleged that Black detainees are subjected to racist name calling and beatings if they complain over the abuse.
Despite efforts by several groups around the state to appeal to the Michigan Department of Health, no real positive responses have been enacted. There have been hunger strikes carried out by inmates aimed at bringing in better food and access to medical assistance. Although these are federally managed detention centers, the State of Michigan, including Governor Gretchen Whitmer, could demand inspections of the living situation inside North Lake and other holding facilities.
No Detention Centers in Michigan was present at the Tribunal and emphasized their mission of abolishing all of such institutions in the state. The organization firmly believes that no one should be subjected to the treatment being meted out across the United States against migrants whose fundamental human rights and due process are being violated daily. (https://nodetentioncentersmi.
One recent victory for the people of Michigan was the cancellation of plans to create an ICE detention center in the city of Romulus which is near the Metropolitan Airport. The announcement that the center would not open was the direct outcome of mass demonstrations and coordinated political pressure by people in Romulus and others around the state.
Impact on Schools and Smaller Municipalities
A Detroit Public School teacher made a presentation on the way in which educators and their students are being affected. Oftentimes the ICE agents conduct surveillance and abduction operations outside schools.
At Western International school on the southwest side, a teacher reported about 46 abductions by ICE agents of students and parents. This community is heavily populated by people from the Latin America region including people from Mexico and Venezuela.
In Pontiac, located in northern Oakland County, ICE has been very active in targeting and detaining people. The organization called Community Aid for Empowerment (CAFÉ) presented information on the number of those detained in Pontiac where 400 people have been counted.
CAFÉ believes that Pontiac has become a focus due to the relatively small numbers of people living there in comparison to larger cities like Detroit. Although CAFÉ is a small group, they are making an impact by tracking the activities of ICE and following up on the conditions of those being targeted and detained.
In Southfield, a suburb just across the northwest border of Detroit, an organization has surfaced which monitors the activities of ICE inside the city. The Southfield Neighbors Action Committee (SNAC) has held demonstrations against ICE while exposing the role of a real estate firm which provides office space to lawyers that offer legal support for detentions and deportations. (https://michiganadvance.com/
A SNAC representative spoke at the Tribunal outlining their work which is putting political pressure on the One Town Square complex where the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor is housed. Southfield has many Jewish American residents and the progressive elements in the city are taking the lead in combating the role of ICE in their community.
Violet Ikonomova, an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press, addressed the Tribunal revealing that the majority of people detained by federal agents had no criminal record and were legally pursuing permanent residency and naturalized citizenship in the U.S. These facts are rarely cited in the corporate media which regurgitates the stereotypical utterances of the Trump administration which seeks to demonize migrants as criminals. (https://www.deadlinedetroit.
Electronic Surveillance
In addition to human monitoring of migrants and their supporters, the increasing role of Flock license plate readers was discussed in detail. Flock cameras are being utilized across Detroit as well as nationally.
These devices are mounted to take images of license plate numbers and storing this information in cloud databases. In Michigan, due to the anti-migrant bias within the state legislature, driver licenses are not made available to undocumented people.
Therefore, this is another reason provided to law-enforcement for the pulling over and detaining of undocumented persons using racial profiling. Speakers at the Tribunal attested to the fact that this is a major mechanism for the initial detention and deportation of migrants.
Flock cameras have come under heavy criticism by concerned organizations and communities around the United States. In Colorado, the cameras were removed, not as a result of their inefficiency, there are issues related to protecting privacy of individuals and communities. (https://www.flocksafety.com/
This technology is being utilized in Metro Detroit. There are concerns regarding who has access to the data collected. Although the company says it does not share data with firms such as Palantir, there remains serious concerns about privacy rights.
Since the beginning of the second non-consecutive term for the Trump administration, private capitalists such as Elon Musk have been allowed access to information on rank-and-file residents of the U.S. Under the guise of “government efficiency”, the country is being plunged deeper into debt and economic insecurity.
Continuing the Legacy of People’s Tribunals
This was not the first People’s Tribunal held in Detroit. Just six years ago during the George Floyd uprising, there was a similar event sponsored by the Detroit Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability (DCPTC) which was formed during the summer of 2020 in the aftermath of the law-enforcement execution of Hakim Littleton.
Perhaps the first of such hearings was held on August 30, 1967, just one month after the Detroit Rebellion in late July of the same year. The gathering was convened in response to the police execution of three African American youth: Carl Cooper, 17; Fred Temple, 18; and Aubrey Pollard, 19; during the early morning hours of July 26 at the Algiers Motel located on Woodward Avenue.
The police and National Guard entered the Motel Annex and falsely accused the youth of firing weapons. Their executions were carried out by three white police officers who were never held accountable for these brutal murders.
Thousands attended the August 1967 Tribunal held at the Central United Church of Christ, later renamed the Shrine of the Black Madonna and the Pan-African Orthodox Christian Church. Deliberations among the participants declared the police guilty of premeditated murder. This event was considered one of the political highlights of this period in Detroit where the largest urban rebellion took place in the history of the U.S. up until that time.
Like the Tribunals of 1967 and 2020, the hired agents of the state were found guilty of crimes against humanity involving racism. The Detroit People’s Tribunal of June 2026 could serve as an important turning point aimed at building networks to end the reign of terror imposed by the state against migrants and the larger communities in Metro Detroit and throughout Michigan.
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Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT–
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