On the morning of April 23, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies executed search warrants at multiple homes in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Canton Township, Michigan. The raids reportedly targeted a number of student organizers who were connected to Gaza protests at the University of Michigan.
According to the group Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), agents seized the students’ electronics and a number of personal items. Four individuals were detained, but eventually released.
TAHRIR Coalition, a student-led movement calling for divestment from Israel, said that officers initially refused to present warrants at the Ypsilanti raid. They were unable to confirm whether ICE was present at the raid.
“We call into question the aggressive nature of this morning’s raids of activists’ homes, which follows the recent misuse of prosecutorial power in Michigan and throughout our country against pro-Palestinian activists,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid in a statement. “In any other context, such minor infractions would be handled by local law enforcement or referred to local, elected prosecutors — not escalated to federal intervention. This disproportionate response further fuels the perception that Muslim and Arab students, and those who stand in solidarity with them, are being treated overly hostile by law enforcement compared to those who commit harm toward American Muslims.”
Growing Crackdown in Michigan, Across Nation
A Detroit FBI office spokesman declined to explain why the warrants were executed, but confirmed that the matter was being handled by the office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Nessel has refused to confirm whether the raids were connected to Palestine activism thus far, but her office has aggressively targeted the movement. Last fall, Nessel introduced criminal charges against at least 11 protesters involved in the University of Michigan Gaza encampment.
An investigation by The Guardian revealed that members University of Michigan’s governing board had pressed Nessel to bring charges against the students. The report notes that six of eight regents donated more than $33,000 combined to Nessel’s campaigns.
After the regents called for action, Nessel took the cases over from local District Attorney Eli Savit, an extremely rare move, as local prosecutors typically handle such charges.
“The University of Michigan’s alleged frustration with local prosecutors stems from a November campus sit-in at which Ann Arbor police arrested a group of 40 protesters,” explains The Guardian investigation. “[Savit had] announced in May that his office would dismiss 36 cases and recommend four for diversion programs where they faced a light punishment.”
“That incensed U-M’s pro-Israel regents and police department because they wanted swifter, tougher charges, according to sources with knowledge of the process..,” it continues. “They then asked Nessel to take the cases and university police sent warrant requests to her office.”
Earlier this month, federal immigration agents detained and interrogated attorney Amir Makled, who is representing one of the targeted students.
Makled, who was returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic with his family, was questioned for 90 minutes, but refused to hand his phone over to the agents.
“The purpose of searching my phone doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism, there’s only a chilling effect, and it’s done to be intimidating, in my opinion, for the causes that I was engaging in,” Makled told NPR after the incident. “I’m standing up for students. I’m standing up for immigrants and political dissenters. And I think this was a way to try to dissuade me from taking on these types of cases.”
The mounting repression in Michigan comes amid a wider, nationwide crackdown on the Palestine movement from the Trump administration.
In recent weeks, the government has revoked hundreds, possibly thousands, of student visas, many from individuals who have protested against the genocide in Gaza or criticized Israel publicly.
This week Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) Jim McGovern (D-MA), Troy Carter (D-LA), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) traveled to an immigration facility in Louisiana to meet with Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk and recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who are both facing deportation proceedings over their support for Gaza.
“We can’t stand by while the Trump Administration violates free speech and unlawfully detains people with no due process,” tweeted Pressley.
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