It prompted one Kalamazoo nonprofit to warn against spreading possible rumors. One of those posts centered around a grocery store.
Soon, those calls were coming from customers asking if agents were at the store. Institutions push back on ICE church, school arrest policy. She said calls from customers and even other stores had staff worried. Staff started checking cameras and around the store. Still a little frantic, a little scared, of course, which is understandable. Kalamazoo nonprofit El Concillio made a post that same day that it could not confirm the presence of immigration agents in Kalamazoo.
One customer said it was a different experience in the neighborhood. He said people were fearful about ICE agents appearing all around Kalamazoo. After Friday, he said that panic has settled, now replaced with an uneasy caution. ICE arrests Sunday as nationwide raids continue. Rietkerk said that fear has some customers shopping for friends and family worried about leaving home.
She hopes in the future, people post responsibly. ICE officials said the first wave of the target operations have a focus on persons with known serious criminal records. News 8 reached out to the ICE Detroit field office to learn if any of those operations took place in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids in the last week but has yet to hear back.
The Muskegon Police Department posted a list in both English and Spanish aimed at clearing up the rumors. It also clarified that Muskegon PD officers would not arrest or detain anyone for their immigrant status or check immigration status during any interaction with anyone.
