When President Trump was elected, he unleashed a deportation force, terrorizing immigrant communities and ripping families apart. In 2017 the ACLU and the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) created the Immigrant Justice Partnership (IJP) to document these abuses, identify systemic problems, and hold the government accountable. IJP has trained lawyers to assist immigrants who have been arrested, offered “know your rights” trainings to affected communities, and promoted city policies that welcome immigrants. In 2019 we provided extensive recommendations to the Michigan State Police (MSP) about policy changes to ensure impartial policing and prevent entanglement between the MSP and federal immigration authorities, which resulted in policy changes issued in 2021. In recent years we have worked together on issues regarding the heightened dangers of immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as developing resource materials to help immigrants seek relief from detention or deportation under new enforcement priorities adopted by the Biden administration. (ACLU Attorneys Miriam Aukerman, Monica Andrade, and Ramis Wadood; MIRC Attorneys Susan Reed, Ruby Robinson, Anna Hill, Eva Alvarez, and Ana Devereaux.)

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