Coffia Amplifies Tribal Concerns about ICE Overreach in Michigan Senate Committee
LANSING, Mich., Jan. 29, 2025 — Today, state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City) testified before the Senate Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety Committee in support of Senate Bills 508–510 and Senate Resolution 86. This bill package is designed to protect the safety of Michiganders, immigrant and non-immigrant alike, from the dangerous immigration enforcement tactics currently being used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol (USBP). SB 510 closely mirrors the bill Coffia introduced in July 2025, House Bill 4760, also known as “Justice Needs No Mask.”
Coffia made her own remarks and also uplifted the following statement by Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians Chairwoman Sandra Witherspoon to the Senate committee:
“The use of heavily armed federal agents operating while masked, in unmarked vehicles, and employing pretextual or ‘Kavanaugh-style’ investigative stops to detain individuals suspected of immigration violations raises profound constitutional, moral and historical concerns. These practices function in effect as racial profiling and create a pervasive climate of fear — particularly for communities of color, Tribal citizens and immigrants — many of whom are lawfully present or United States citizens.
History teaches us that secrecy in the exercise of state power is dangerous. Masked officers wielding federal authority without clear identification erode the rule of law and evoke the darkest chapters of state-sanctioned disappearances and intimidation. Such practices do not make our communities safer. They fracture public trust, deter cooperation with legitimate law enforcement and increase the risk of tragic and irreversible harm — including the detention, injury, or death of individuals who are not ICE targets at all.
For Tribal Nations, these concerns are especially acute. Tribal communities have long endured the consequences of unchecked federal authority exercised without accountability. Public safety must never be achieved at the expense of transparency, due process, or human dignity. Justice administered in secrecy is not justice; it is fear.”
After her testimony, Coffia issued the following statement:
“This is about Americans saying, ‘We don’t want our constitutional rights violated and we don’t want American citizens or any of our neighbors being shot in the street by masked secret police. We don’t want our neighbors who have a skin color different from mine to have to fear being grabbed by masked armed men from their workplaces, school pick up lines, hospitals or even their homes without a warrant and having committed no crime.’ That fear is real in my district and has kept entire populations of Native and Hispanic students home from school in recent days. That’s unacceptable.”
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