Plans for a federal immigration detention center in Romulus appear to be dead.
The Department of Homeland Security planned to house up to 500 detainees at a warehouse. But local residents and immigrants’ rights groups opposed those plans.
The New York Times is reporting the Romulus location is one of seven nationwide ICE is looking to sell. The agency spent more than $700 million buying warehouses to house detainees rounded up as part of a nationwide crackdown on undocumented individuals.
Back in March, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed suit to block the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
“Together we showed the federal government that they cannot come into Michigan, break our laws, disrupt our communities and expect us to sit on our hands,” Nessel said in a video statement on Thursday.
ICE’s decision to scrap its plans for a Romulus detention center is being greeted warmly by local officials.
“We want to thank DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin for listening to us and taking into consideration the issues that would have made this the wrong location for a detention facility,” said Romulus Mayor Robert McCraight in a press release.
Protesters wait to be let in at the Romulus City Council meeting. Most are turned away, told that the room already reached capacity.
“The City’s position should not be confused with opposition to responsible enforcement of our country’s laws. Instead, the facility’s proximity to residential neighborhoods, schools, and wetlands made it the wrong location. Locating a facility like this in our community would have been an incredible burden on our already limited public safety resources and a violation of our zoning ordinance,” McCraight said.
Nessel said the AG’s office will keep the lawsuit against ICE active until the paperwork for the sale of the property is complete and it’s official that DHS and ICE will not use the property for a detention center.
State Representative Dylan Wegela represents Romulus. He says this is a win for are residents, but the fight isn’t over.
“We are still seeing increased funding. We are still seeing ICE operate in ways that we do not want to see. They’re taking illegal actions, repeatedly losing in court, and we got to keep fighting back,” he said in an interview with WDET on Thursday evening.
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Have you ever wondered which communities in Metro Detroit are part of the Downriver area, and how it got that name?
Listener Scott Troia of Ann Arbor wonders.
“I was curious about where the term ‘Downriver’ originated from: Who, when, why they started using it. Is it a geographic boundary, or is it cultural? Who identifies as being from Downriver?”
WDET’s Pat Batcheller does. He was born and raised in Trenton and has lived in Southgate with his wife Amy since 1999. Pat’s happy to answer Scott’s question.
What does “Downriver” mean?
Elizabeth Park sits along the Detroit River in Trenton, Michigan.
As the name suggests, Downriver refers to those communities on the Detroit River as it flows down into Lake Erie. Humans have lived in the area for thousands of years. The term Downriver is more recent. It appears as two words in a 1917 magazine published by the city of Wyandotte. In 1963, Thomas J. Anderson wrote a book called “The History of Southgate and Downriver”—one word. Today, the term covers a lot more territory than just the riverfront.
Which communities make up Downriver?
That depends on who you ask. Lisa Wayne is the CEO of the Downriver Community Conference. The nonprofit helps people find jobs through the Michigan Works program. It also coordinates grants for its 20 member communities.
“We serve Allen Park, Brownstown, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Flat Rock, Gibraltar, Grosse Ile, Huron Township, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, River Rouge, Riverview, Rockwood, Romulus, Southgate, Taylor, Trenton, Woodhaven and Wyandotte,” Wayne says.
The DCC started with 11 communities and includes Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. Many consider those cities to be outside of the traditional definition of Downriver. Ron Hinrichs grew up in Dearborn but didn’t consider himself a Downriver resident.
“I remember someone asking me once, ‘where are you from?'” Hinrichs recalls. “And I said, ‘I’m from Dearborn.’ And they said, ‘oh, so you’re—you’re from Downriver.’ And I said, ‘I’m not from Downriver, I’m from Dearborn.'”
Hinrichs leads the Southern Wayne County Regional Chamber, which promotes the Downriver area. He says if you ask ten people where Downriver is, you’ll get ten different answers.
Where does Downriver end?
Downriver does not have defined borders, but most descriptions stop at the Huron River separating Wayne and Monroe counties. That would make Rockwood part of Downriver, but not its next-door neighbor, South Rockwood, a village in Monroe County’s Berlin Township. Stephanie Hawkins is the president of the Berlin Charter Township Historical Society. She says if you ask South Rockwood residents, they’ll say they feel closer to Downriver than Monroe.
“They mentioned that when they want to do something like go shopping, they go north because it is closer than driving all the way down to Monroe,” Hawkins says. “So, I think that’s why you’ll find that the folks who live in the village itself do identify with being Downriver.”
So do people in Taylor, which is not on the Detroit River. Karl Ziomek is Taylor’s communications director and a former journalist at the area’s paper of record, the News-Herald. He recalls newsroom arguments about how far west Downriver reaches.
“And there are a lot of people I think to this day who would believe that Taylor is even stretching it,” Ziomek says. “Certainly, Romulus does. It goes on the other side of Metro Airport, then people start going, ‘well wait a minute, is this really Downriver?”
Pearl Varner laughs at the suggestion that Romulus is part of Downriver because of its distance from the Detroit River. Her family has lived in Romulus for over a century. She runs the city’s historical museum. But Varner says if it brings more visitors to the museum and the downtown area, she’s fine with being considered Downriver.
“You want people to come and see what you’re doing, what your museum is like, what your city is like, what your people are like,” Varner says.
What are people like Downriver?
Ted Butkin is a lifelong Wyandotte resident.
Each community is unique, but they all share common roots. Many are descendants of European immigrants who worked in factories or started their own businesses. Some settled in Wyandotte, where Ted Butkin has lived his whole life.
“We had a German festival, a Polish festival, a Mexican festival and there was one other that were just huge because everyone was represented in this melting pot of Wyandotte,” Butkin says.
Wyandotte is the second oldest incorporated city in Wayne County, after Detroit. Joe Gruber is the city’s economic development director. He says its vibrant downtown attracts people from Downriver and beyond.
Joe Gruber is Wyandotte’s economic and downtown development director.
“All of the small business owners and entrepreneurs in our community are really, really engaged and hard working,” Gruber says. “We try to offer a lot of fun quality-of-life events and opportunities for families to come, especially those events that are free.”
Anthony Beitel moved to Wyandotte a couple of years ago. Before that, he had lived in Detroit and the northern suburbs. Beitel says he didn’t know much about Downriver before relocating with his partner, who is from the area. He says he loves how people support the local economy.
“They have this whole ‘Shop The Dotte’ initiative, which is all about promoting small businesses,” Beitel says. “And it’s just really great to see that sense of community and everybody kind of supporting each other and lifting each other up.”
Industry drove Downriver for decades, for better or worse
Small businesses have always been a vital part of the Downriver economy, but through much of the 20th century, heavy industry was the main source of jobs and tax revenue. It was also a major source of pollution, such as coal dust. Lisa Donovan lives in Brownstown Township but grew up in Wyandotte. She says sometimes when the wind blew, it turned houses black with ash.
“And they would have piles of coal next to the park in Wyandotte that’s on the waterfront, and you’d come home with ash on you.”
Because of that, Donovan says some people—mainly outsiders—saw Downriver as a dirty place to live. That reputation lingered long after downturns in the automotive and steel industries forced many factories to close. Business and civic leaders suggested dumping Downriver in favor of something they thought sounded more attractive—Metro Shores. But, unlike coal dust, that name didn’t stick.
People have pride in Downriver, even those who are new to the area
Michael Echols moved from Detroit to Ecorse a couple of years ago. Ecorse started as one of Wayne County’s original townships in 1827. Today, the cities of Ecorse, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, River Rouge, Southgate, and Wyandotte comprise what used to be Ecorse Township.
Echols says Ecorse is a peaceful place.
“It’s a different variety of people down here, but it’s everybody getting on, and that’s the most beautiful part,” he says.
The river itself defines the region
John Hartig managed the Detroit International Wildlife Refuge for 14 years and has written several books about the Great Lakes.
Just a few hundred feet offshore from Ecorse is Mud Island, part of the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. John Hartig once managed the refuge, which includes Grosse Ile and the entire Michigan shore of Lake Erie. He says it took decades to repair the industrial damage to the environment and restore the river’s natural habitat.
“We’ve seen some dramatic improvements in water quality,” he says. “Bald eagles are back, and peregrine falcons, osprey, lake whitefish, lake sturgeon, river otter and beaver are back.”
Downriver has its own culture
Hartig says the river’s revival is changing perceptions of Downriver, its people, and its culture. Linda Francetich is trying to do the same. 15 years ago, she started a website called Discover Downriver to promote the area’s cultural activities, such as festivals and concerts. Francetich says the area might not have the vibe of Royal Oak or Birmingham, but that’s OK.
“Everyone has their own regional culture,” she says. “But I think Downriver has a very unique culture because of how close everybody is and how supportive everybody is.”
Francetich says Downriver has a lot of musical talent, including bands such as 50 Amp Fuse and the Transit Brothers. Chris French plays trumpet for the Transit Brothers and the Downriver Community Band. He also owns a family law firm and organizes yearly concerts to benefit Downriver veterans. French says the region has a lot to offer, including a variety of real estate.
“You want a farm, we have farms,” he says. “We’ve got water everywhere, so you can buy a house on the water.”
Some of the most impressive homes on the water are on Grosse Ile, which sits in the middle of the Detroit River. Tony Krukowski is the vice president of the Grosse Ile Historical Museum. He says the island’s scenery is a big draw.
“People just love to drive around the island, especially around East River Road and West River Road to take in the natural scene,” he says.
Two bridges connect Grosse Ile to the rest of Downriver. Listener Scott Troia, who asked the question, says he understands the area better now that we’ve connected the dots for him.
“What are the boundaries of it and do people from different communities actually self-identify with being part of Downriver that might be on some of those fringe cities? You very much covered those topics, really.”
Thanks, Scott. It’s why we’re here.
WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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The State of Michigan and the City of Romulus have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop them from converting a warehouse into an ICE detention center.
This week on MichMash, Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben talks with Attorney General Dana Nessel to discuss her concerns about the department’s actions and much more.
Why did the State of Michigan and the City of Romulus sue the U.S. Department of Homeland Security?
Attorney General Nessel’s take on Pres. Trump attending Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship.
Data centers in Michigan
What Attorney Nessel plans to do after leaving office this term.
Nessel felt that the legality of the Romulus warehouse purchase was in question, and even pointed out the irony of the DHS operation.
“They are taking people who mostly have no criminal records of any kinds and [saying] that these people didn’t come into the state properly so we are going to detain you or deport. Well, DHS didn’t come in to Romulus properly. They are not abiding by the laws. So I think it’s a bit of hypocrisy by the federal government.”
Nessel said they filed a preliminary injunction so that DHS could not proceed with the project while the legal battle evolves.
One-of-a-kind podcasts from WDET bring you engaging conversations, news you need to know and stories you love to hear. Keep the conversations coming. Please make a gift today.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the city of Romulus filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to stop the Trump administration from converting a local warehouse into a large-scale immigration detention center.
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