By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com<\/p>\n
Bitter disagreements and fiery exchanges marked a Michigan Senate committee hearing Thursday as lawmakers considered bills that could impede deportation efforts being carried out by President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
One of the measures\u00a0would limit officers\u2019 ability\u00a0to conduct immigration enforcement actions in places like schools, churches, hospitals, courthouses or buildings that house organizations that assist victims of abuse. Another proposal would\u00a0broadly prohibit\u00a0U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees from wearing masks.<\/p>\n
A third bill would prevent government agencies from disclosing an individual\u2019s personal information to an entity attempting to enforce federal immigration law unless there is a court-issued warrant.<\/p>\n
Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero testified in favor of the package, contending that school attendance was down in Michigan\u2019s largest city because some parents and children were afraid to leave their homes, due to the federal deportation campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE agents in our cities are clearly violating our rights,\u201d Santiago-Romero contended. \u201cThey are manufacturing chaos and fear. This is making it so our residents are afraid to even call police.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Sen. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake Township, repeatedly criticized the bills and the way Thursday\u2019s hearing was run by the Democrats who lead the Senate\u2019s Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. He said the meeting was an \u201cexercise in futility\u201d because federal policies would ultimately outweigh any changes in Michigan law.<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senate-immigration-runsted-013126.jpg\")
State Sen. Jim Runested, a White Lake Township Republican, said legislation seeking to regulation the conduct and tactics of federal immigration agents is an “exercise in futility” because federal policies would ultimately outweigh any changes to Michigan law. (Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen federal and state laws conflict, federal law wins,\u201d Runestad said at one point. \u201cThe state judges are bound by it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless, the bills in the Democratic-controlled Senate are unlikely to make it through the Legislature as Republicans have a majority of the votes in the House.<\/p>\n
The Senate committee didn\u2019t hold a vote Thursday. Its chairwoman, Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, said she hopes to hold votes soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a top priority for a large number of us,\u201d Chang told The Detroit News.<\/p>\n
\u2018Can we control the audience?\u2019<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s hearing showcased the nation\u2019s divided response to the federal immigration crackdown. Every seat in the Senate meeting room was filled when the session began at noon, and more people flowed into a separate room where they could watch the proceedings on TV screens. Senate staff estimated that about 1,000 comments had been submitted about the proposals.<\/p>\n
Runestad, the lone Republican lawmaker who took part in the hearing, accused Democrats of censoring him by not allowing him to ask all the questions he wanted of the people presenting testimony in support of the bills. And some of those in the crowd heckled Runestad as he spoke at various points Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Klan covered their faces too,\u201d a person in the crowd said as someone spoke against the mask ban, referencing the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.<\/p>\n
At a different point, Runestad said the crowd was \u201csnarking away.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"State](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Senate-immigration-chang-013126.jpg\")
State Sen. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat and chair of the Senate’s Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, said the bill prohibiting federal immigration agents from wearing masks and limiting where they can arrest people is a top priority for “a large number” of Senate Democrats. (Daniel Mears, The Detroit News)<\/p>\n
\u201cCan we control the audience?\u201d Runestad, who\u2019s also chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, asked Chang.<\/p>\n
Chang did ask for decorum when someone referred to Runestad as \u201cJimmy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, a Republican, ran for president in 2024, vowing to\u00a0launch the largest deportation program\u00a0in American history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is country changing,\u201d said Trump during a campaign stop in Grand Rapids in April 2024 about a surge in migrants at the southern border. \u201cIt\u2019s country threatening. And it\u2019s country wrecking. They have wrecked our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since he took office in January 2025, Trump\u2019s administration has carried out more than 650,000 arrests, detentions and deportations,\u00a0according to the White House.<\/p>\n
Trump has personally acknowledged that ICE is \u201cgoing to make\u00a0some mistakes.\u201d But agents\u2019 fatal shootings, in recent weeks, of two individuals in Minnesota, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, have set off a new surge in opposition to ICE\u2019s tactics.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur country has always been a beacon and a leader for the entire world, and yet, it is crumbling right before or very own eyes,\u201d state Rep. Mai Xiong, D-Warren, told the committee. \u201cOur federal government is tearing families apart. ICE is making Americans feel unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Runestad suggested that Xiong\u2019s comments were conflating illegal and legal immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is strictly about people here illegally,\u201d Runestad said.<\/p>\n
Mask ban proposed for ICE agents<\/p>\n
Isaiah McKinnon, a former Detroit police chief, testified in support of the mask ban, which would prevent law enforcement officers from wearing masks, unless they were needed to prevent the spread of disease or for physical protection to the face. People who are safeguarding a community should identify themselves, McKinnon said.<\/p>\n
Runestad said ICE officers wore masks because of \u201cegregious\u201d attacks that had been carried out against them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was threatened personally,\u201d McKinnon said of his work as a police officer. \u201cMy family was threatened. And we didn\u2019t wear a mask. This is part of being a law enforcement officer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johanna Kononen, associate director at the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, spoke in support of the bills that barred immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, like shelters for abuse victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllowing immigration enforcement in shelter spaces gives power to perpetrators \u2026 and could unintentionally trap survivors in violent relationships, successfully preventing them from seeking help,\u201d Kononen said.<\/p>\n
But Shari Rendall, director of state and local engagement for a national group called Federation for American Immigration Reform, testified in opposition to the bills.<\/p>\n
Rendall argued there was no indication immigration enforcement raids were being carried out in the locations listed in the proposals. Immigration officials use their \u201cgood judgment,\u201d Rendall said. Taking someone into custody at a courthouse could be safer for the public, Rendall said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot creating a blanket prohibition is crucial,\u201d Rendall said.<\/p>\n
Others who spoke at Thursday\u2019s hearing disagreed with Rendall\u2019s claims. Chang said the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center had designated Rendall\u2019s organization\u00a0a hate group.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you oppose these bills, in part, because the safeguards for people\u2019s rights would make it harder for this current administration \u2026 to achieve the goal of less people of color in the United States,\u201d Chang asked Rendall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not (a hate group),\u201d Rendall said, adding that the Southern Poverty Law Center wasn\u2019t credible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are nonpartisan. We are non-political. We firmly believe in the rule of law,\u201d Rendall said. \u201cWe do not believe that race has anything to do with it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com Bitter disagreements and fiery exchanges marked a Michigan Senate committee hearing Thursday as lawmakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[181,100,143,145,144,13],"class_list":["post-155926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}