The city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, will pay $190,000 to the U.S.-born military veteran who was racially profiled by police and then turned over to federal immigration agents and detained for days despite showing proof of his citizenship. “The Grand Rapids City Commission approved the settlement Tuesday for Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, 28, who was born and raised in Michigan,” The Detroit News reports.
The veteran, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, was arrested in 2018 after setting off a fire alarm in a hospital, but it was police Capt. Curt VanderKooi who caused him to end up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for three days, emailing an agency official about him—“loco,” or crazy, he called the veteran in the subject line—and asking, “Could you please check his status?”
Ramos-Gomez had already been trying to tell officials his status—in fact, he was carrying his U.S. passport at the time, but it didn’t matter to officials. All they saw was a brown face and a Spanish name. “Body cam footage of Ramos-Gomez's arrest obtained by The Detroit News through Freedom of Information Act requests shows Grand Rapids police officers were aware of Ramos-Gomez' citizenship status and military service before placing him in custody.”
VanderKooi should have been fired for his role in this mess, but he was instead disciplined with just 20 unpaid hours and a supplemental training. While some local reforms were implemented following his detention, an ACLU attorney said that “ICE has not taken responsibility after ordering that Ramos-Gomez be transferred to Battle Creek,” and that the organization “is pursuing litigation against the Calhoun County detention facility after its refusal to release documents related to the incident.”
ICE has a years-long history of targeting U.S. citizens, more recently keeping Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Texas-born 18-year-old, detained for even longer. He’s also pursuing legal action, but these injustices will only continue until there’s a complete overhaul of our federal immigration agencies—and those who have control over them. “Once again, it’s not about legality, but our brown skin in America,” tweeted activist and author Julissa Arce.