Immigration enforcement over the last year has become a lot more visible. Late last year, four Detroit students and their families were detained by ICE. The incident sparked outrage among community members who voiced their concerns.

Teachers, students, and parents requested the Detroit Public Schools Community District institute stronger protections for immigrant students, and over the weekend, protestors urged the city council to make Detroit a sanctuary city.

A new project spearheaded by two Detroiters aims to give people whose loved ones were detained or separated by immigration enforcement a place to heal.

The Altars for Collective Grief Project is an effort by Theresa Beckley-Amaya and Julianna Sanroman to construct altars around Southwest Detroit. They will be made of photos of loved ones who have been detained. Beckley-Amaya and Sanroman joined the show to discuss the project and why they organized around grief.

Submit your photos to the project here.

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During President Trump’s second term, immigration enforcement has become more dangerous and more visible. 

Detention has expanded rapidly. Last year was the deadliest year in more than two decades. Federal records show people have continued to die in custody in the opening days of this year.

There have also been multiple fatal shootings at the hands of on-duty and off-duty ICE agents in recent months. 

In Minneapolis, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. That killing prompted lawsuits from Minnesota and its largest cities. There were also resignations inside the Justice Department after leadership declined to open a customary civil rights investigation.

Other people have also been killed by ICE agents, including Silverio Villegos González near Chicago and Keith Porter Jr. in California. Those deaths, though, did not trigger the same national response.

In Detroit, City Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero is pushing the city to act. She represents Southwest Detroit and chairs the City Council’s Public Health and Safety Committee. She’s asking whether Detroit can legally restrict ICE activity on city property and in sensitive areas, such as schools and hospitals. 

Santiago-Romero joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss how cities can respond when federal immigration enforcement becomes more aggressive, and how local governments weigh responsibility, risk, and trust.

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