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"We want to physically, through mass action, shut down ICE operations," says Kate Stenvig, an organizer with By Any Means Necessary. "We are enforcing Detroit as a sanctuary city."Further reading: Portland: Ground zero for the next American civil war?
More than a dozen protesters have camped outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Detroit, the field office for Michigan and Ohio, with the hope of shutting it down.
The organizers have been gathered outside the federal building at Jefferson Avenue and Mount Elliot Street since Saturday. They said they planned to stay for a week.
"We want to physically, through mass action, shut down ICE operations," says Kate Stenvig, an organizer with By Any Means Necessary. "We are enforcing Detroit as a sanctuary city."
The organizations involved are calling for a shutdown of the nation's detention centers, immediate reunification of children with their families, asylum for all immigrant parents detained trying to enter the United States, and the abolition of ICE.
The protest is one of several "Occupy ICE" demonstrations that have cropped up around the country in the wake of a successful Portland action that forced ICE to temporarily shut down its office there. As of Saturday, Occupy protests were also being held in New York, L.A., and Washington state.
Now, the local police will probably use pepper spray if they have to physically remove protesters, but they'll use batons if hardcore Antifa protesters resist.