TAYLOR, MI – In response to the Taylor Police Department entering into an agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Adonis Flores, Training Director at Michigan United, issued the following statement:

““We are deeply disturbed by the Taylor Police Department’s decision to partner with ICE through the 287(g) Task Force model, the most aggressive and problematic form of this federal program. This agreement invites racial profiling, wastes local tax dollars, and endangers the safety and trust of our communities.

“Taylor is choosing to spend its own local resources to do ICE’s work, without reimbursement, while risking costly legal liability and violating residents’ constitutional rights. This policy undermines public safety by driving immigrant families into the shadows and discouraging victims and witnesses from coming forward. 

“The Task Force model was rightly discontinued in 2012 after the Department of Justice exposed widespread racial profiling and civil rights violations. Reviving it now, under pressure from Trump’s latest executive orders, is not about safety. This is about fear and control.

“By voluntarily participating in this program, the Taylor police department is complicit with an administration that disregards court orders and violates the Constitutional right to due process, as evidenced by the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father legally present in the U.S. who was kidnapped by ICE and sent to a concentration camp in a foreign country, without due process. 

“We call on Taylor police and city government officials to uphold the constitutional rights of its residents and refuse to collaborate with a president who has no respect for the Constitution. The Taylor City Council must immediately review and rescind this agreement. 

“Michigan’s communities are strongest when we invest in trust, not in surveillance and deportation. Every local leader should stand up against this harmful collaboration and affirm that everyone, regardless of immigration status, deserves dignity, safety, and justice.”