Detroit Public Schools officials want Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release four high school students the government is holding, including a star baseball player at Western International High School.

Agents arrested Santiago Jesus Zamora Perez and his mother last weekend. Their lawyer says ICE is holding them in Texas.

At a school board meeting Tuesday, students and teachers described a climate of fear at the school in Detroit’s Mexicantown neighborhood.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti says he and the school board will write a letter to ICE asking them to release the students it detained. 

Additional headlines from Thursday, December 11, 2025

Kronk Gym reopens

Detroit’s Kronk Gym officially reopened this month in the old rec center where Joe Luis trained. It’s now in the recently renovated Brewster-Wheeler recreation center.

Kronk Gym was Founded by Emanuel Steward and trained dozens of world boxing champions including Thomas Hearns and Lennox Lewis. 

Kronk Gym memberships range from $90 to $129 a month, with training and HIIT classes, or $35 a month for youth. 

Human Rights Day march

The social justice group CodePink Detroit will join a coalition of grassroots organizations for a Human Rights Day march this Saturday starting at Hart Plaza.

The groups are calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza and Military aid to Israel, abolishing ICE and ending National Guard presence in some U.S. Cities. The march begins at 2:00pm.

For more information visit codepink.org/detroit1213. 

Dearborn Heights tree lighting saved by local businessman

Dearborn Heights came close to canceling it’s annual tree lighting ceremony this year but a local business man saved the day.

City officials had ordered an artificial tree from China but the shipment ran into serious delays. The city decided to try to find a replacement tree, and businessman Sam Hussein helped pay for it. Hussein told Channel 7 he felt it was the right thing to do and was a great way to give back to his community.

The tree lighting ceremony will take place Friday at 6:30 p.m. outside of the Dearborn Heights City Hall. 

Season of Soul

The Charles H Wright Museum’s Season of Soul is back! The daylong event is Sunday Dec. 14 starting at 10 a.m. The event falls on Second Sunday.

The museum offers free admission on the second Sunday of every month. Activities include morning yoga, photos with Black Santa and Mrs. Claus, and a holiday silent disco.

For more information, check out the events page on the museum’s website at thewright.org. 

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

For more than half a century, Helen “Mother” Moore has been a familiar sight at Detroit school board meetings, whether she is at the microphone, in the hallway rallying parents, or being removed by security after a showdown with the board.

Today, at 89, Mother Moore is still at it. She has helped lead court fights over the state’s management of Detroit’s schools, challenged emergency managers and charter expansion, and pushed for literacy to be recognized as a civil right. 

She also helped launch Let’s Read, a volunteer-driven literacy program created with the Detroit school district. Along the way, Moore has mentored generations of parents to also fight against classrooms with broken heat, missing textbooks, and teacher shortages.

Because, as Mother Moore once put it at a school board meeting: “Education is how we get free.”

This weekend, the Dexter-Elmhurst Recreation Center reopens in her honor. The newly renovated Helen Moore Community Center sits in the west side neighborhood where she nurtured her organizing. It is a brick-and-mortar monument to a woman who has spent decades insisting that Black children should not have to leave their communities to find opportunity.

Moore joined Robyn Vincent to discuss the moments that shaped her and why she keeps fighting. 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Detroit is famous for cars, but getting around the city is complicated if you don’t drive. Deanne Austin has spent much of her life finding ways to make it work.

“I’m the millennial that never got a driver’s license,” she said. “I still don’t drive.”

After graduating from Michigan State during the recession, Austin returned home and took a job in Livonia. The commute required three buses and, at the end, a ride from her grandmother because the line stopped short of her workplace. That experience shaped how she sees Detroit’s transportation system, one that often gets riders close, but not all the way.

Today, Austin serves on the board of Transportation Riders United (TRU) and continues to advocate for more reliable and affordable public transit. She also worked for Detroit Public Schools Community District, where she saw how limited transportation affects students. “My students would tell me, ‘Miss Austin, I’m sorry I’m late, my bus never came,’” she said.

Austin doesn’t rely only on the bus. She often uses ride-hailing services or gets rides from family, especially when time or health limits her options. That, she said, highlights why Detroit’s transit system still needs attention. 

“We need more funding for buses. We need more drivers. We need the city to invest in the people who move Detroit.”

Her message for city leaders: fixing transit means improving access to jobs, schools, healthcare, and civic life. 

Austin joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to explain how, she said, “transit touches everything,” and what Detroit’s next mayor must do to improve it.

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro