DETROIT —  A massive coalition of organizations joined about a thousand protesters on Saturday, August 20 at Clark Park on the city’s southwest side for a “March Without Fear” to Detroit’s old train station, spotlighting what many are calling a shocking pattern of abusive behavior by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. 

Carrying signs with slogans such as “Undocumented and Not Afraid” and “End the ICE Age,” a diverse group of protesters stressed the importance of unity and perseverance going forward. 

“This is an historic day, a day where people of all different ethnicities and religions must demand that we keep the ideals of this country, the United States of America,” said State Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit). 

Tlaib’s southwest Detroit community has particularly been affected by ICE, as community members in the largely-Hispanic community have said they’ve been terrorized by agents conducting illegal raids at schools, social services buildings, and more. 

The march highlighted shared concerns by the African American, Arab American and American Muslim communities as well. 

“We’ve seen profiling, discrimination, people detained and ripped away from their families,” Tlaib said. “I’m tired of hearing mothers cry after their husbands have been taken away.” 

Other abuses have been alleged against Border Patrol during which American Muslims at the Windsor-Detroit border have been stopped, faced hours of interrogation about their religion, and even been surrounded by agents drawing guns backed up by snipers simply for attempting to cross the border. 

The lack of accountability in both cases has been startling to many. 

ICE recently conducted its own internal investigation into at least 13 allegations of abuse by rights groups in the area including the Alliance for Immigrants Rights & Reform, saying its officers did not engage in any misconduct. 

But the community has not bought the response and remains especially outraged at an incident involving parents dropping their kids off at Hope Academy in southwest Detroit during which parents were allegedly stalked by agents.

Mike Kelly of Amnesty International was among the protesters at the event. 

“The manner in which ICE has been operating, particularly out of its Detroit field office is really scary, it’s a systemic violation of their own policies and then when they review them they clear themselves,” he said. “That’s something you’re used to seeing in other countries but now we’re seeing that same kind of self-excusing here in America.” 

The Border Patrol allegations were compiled into a call for an investigation by U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Detroit), who attended the rally, but according to Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan director Dawud Walid, who also spoke, Congress has not yet responded.

Walid said that the organization and other rights group allies will now call for a meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. 

“They ignored the senior-ranking member of the House judiciary committee, so now we want to call for another meeting…we want the profiling of the Latino community and the Muslim community to cease.” 

The “March Without Fear” event was attended by a wide coalition of local leaders and rights groups. 

Among those attending were State Senator Martha Scott (D-Highland Park), U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Michigan), State Rep. Harvey Santana (D-Detroit), UAW President Bob King and more. 

Organizations endorsing and organizing the event included AIR, the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, UAW Local 600, Detroit NAACP, ACCESS, One Michigan, and more. 

Among their demands are an end to abuses by ICE and Border Patrol, community oversight of federal funds utilized by local police departments through multi-jurisdictional task forces, and a redirection of funding for enforcement programs into job creation, education and blight elimination. 

Despite the massive turnout, those at the rally lamented the lack of local media coverage. 

“We have the major media stations all the way across town covering the Dream Cruise today, but they’re not here covering the push for the DREAM Act,” said Ron Scott, spokesman for the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality.