News & Commentary

Keyon Harrison, an African American 16-year-old, was doing nothing wrong as he walked home from school on a spring day in Grand Rapids. But a police officer thought he looked “suspicious” — so the officer stopped Harrison, questioned, searched him and took his photograph and fingerprints.

Connecting with the author of Separated

For more than a year, Detroiter Theodore Rice has been in court battling to remain in the place he’s called home for more than a quarter century. As a result, he’s seen firsthand how crucial it is for people facing eviction to have legal representation when going up against a property owners experienced in using the judicial system to their advantage.

I remember listening to my father’s small black radio, tuned to NPR, as I got ready for my journalism classes on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

Trans protection ruling was just the beginning for ACLU’s civil rights plans for LGBTQ+ community

A pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants is within reach. Congress must get it done.

The Biden administration must commit to protect journalists, free press, and free speech.

The ACLU of Michigan applauds Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who announced today that they sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, seeking a briefing about allegations of abuse and discrimination by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The letter comes after the ACLU published a 50-page report, “The Border’s Long Shadow: How Border Patrol uses Racial Profiling and Local and State Police to Target and Instill Fear in Michigan’s Immigrant Communities.” The ACLU report, which Raskin and Tlaib cite in their letter, describes how CBP’s Border Patrol, which defines the entire state to be within its jurisdiction, routinely stops, searches and detains people of Latin American origin, who are longtime residents. We look forward to DHS’s response to the report and the reforms that come from this briefing. 

When used by police and immigration enforcement, biometric surveillance technology can perpetuate an already dangerous racist system.