Anti-ICE coalition asks Slotkin to help end ICE use of county jails for detention in Michigan

A Michigan-based group of organizations working to end immigration detention has sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly) calling on her to help end the practice of Michigan county correctional facilities and jails being used as detention centers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The letter from The Coalition to Shut the Camps, sent on Aug. 20, makes three specific requests and for Slotkin to take the lead on at least one. That includes a congressional oversight visit to all four facilities, as well as a demand for the release of specific withheld records from Calhoun County. The records were the subject of litigation starting in 2019 from the American Civil Liberties Union, including detainee-level records and inspection reports of the facility.

The group also asks that Slotkin and her fellow federal elected officials help work towards the passage of a law banning that practice, specifically by hosting a convening in Lansing or Battle Creek to build support for state legislation that would end county jail contracts with ICE.

The coalition has requested Slotkin’s staff to respond by Sept. 18, and have said that if she will not take the lead on any of their three requests, they intend to coordinate with other federal elected leadership.

Slotkin spokesperson Josh Steweart told Michigan Advance that the senator was reviewing the letter, and her team has been in touch with the group.

“The Senator is deeply committed to providing strong oversight over ICE in Michigan and has recently done just that in a visit to the Baldwin ICE detention facility and in her work with local leaders to stop the proposed ICE facility in Romulus,” Stewart said. “That work continues as Michiganders look for accountability and oversight of this Administration.”

Currently, four county detention facilities in Michigan — Calhoun County, Chippewa County, Monroe County and St. Clair County — are being used by ICE. 

Based on a Michigan Advance analysis of government data provided by ICE in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, processed by the Deportation Data Project and spanning data between January 2025 and early August 2026, the four facilities collectively held on average 398 ICE detainees daily.

Calhoun County holds the most ICE detainees on average, with its highest daily population last year being 232 detainees. 

Melody Simmons, the chair of the Coalition to Shut the Camps, cited an April 21 sworn declaration from Shawn L. Byers, the deputy director of ICE’s enforcement and removal operations field office in Chicago, presented in litigation over a proposed ICE detention facility, in her calls for Slotkin to act on these county facilities. 

Byers wrote that because ICE has no “for-certain reliable or dedicated detention capacity in the Detroit area and therefore relies on local law enforcement partners in nearby counties to provide space for detainees,” that without increased detention capacity in Michigan, ICE might be forced to make decisions including “forgoing arrest of some individuals who would otherwise be apprehended.”

Simmons said in a press release from the coalition that, “ICE told a federal court that without these county jails, its officers may have to forgo arrests.”

“Four counties are giving ICE the detention space it needs to scale violence into our communities,” Simmons said. “People in Detroit, Dearborn, and Ypsilanti never voted for the sheriffs who made these deals. We are asking Senator Slotkin to visit the jails, demand the records, and bring together the people who can pass a state law.”

Ale Rojas, a member of No Detention Centers in Michigan, said in a news release that the importance of a state law is to prevent ICE from simply seeking out another county to contract with if one of the four currently contracted counties cancels its agreement. 

“We get calls after someone has disappeared into the system. A father can be picked up Tuesday and held in an internment camp hours from his children by Wednesday,” Emily Duthinh, co-founder of Community Aid for Empowerment in Oakland County, said in the press release. “He may be prevented from calling his wife, and his family may not know where he is. His wife and children lose their husband and father, breadwinner and transportation, and sense of safety.”

Duthinh added that “People miss medication, lose jobs, and fall behind on rent while their families search for them.”

“His family may be unable to afford an attorney and document that they are complying with our laws,” Duthinh said. “The result is a child who does not know where his father is because a county agreed to rent ICE a bed.”