An off-duty Michigan police captain who has already been named in two racial profiling cases contacted federal immigration authorities after seeing images on television of a Latinx man who had been arrested for setting off a fire alarm at a Grand Rapids hospital, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan said. “Could you please check his status?” Captain Curt VanderKooi emailed. The man that VanderKooi was trying to turn in, however, was a U.S. citizen.
Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, a U.S.-born Marine veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, would spend three days in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody before getting released to his family for follow-up care in a case that the ACLU says is clear racial profiling. “He sees a picture of Jilmar who is visibly, recognizably Latino,” said ACLU attorney Miriam Aukerman, “has a recognizably Latino name, and he contacts his ICE contact to say, ‘Check his status.’”
The Grand Rapids Police Department defended VanderKooi, claiming that Ramos-Gomez’s “actions met the criteria of a potential act of terrorism.” But the ACLU is calling bullshit, because another officer contacted the FBI prior to VanderKooi’s snitching to say that Ramos-Gomez wasn’t a threat, saying, "Vet, PTSD. But not a FBI issue." Additionally, Aukerman points out VanderKooi didn’t contact investigators, but rather ICE, ”the agency responsible for deportations. It shows that what he was doing was profiling based on the way Jilmar looks, and his name."
It’s not like there were a couple of signs showing Ramos-Gomez was in fact born here: “the passport wasn't the only form of identification Ramos-Gomez had on him during his ordeal. Aukerman says he also had a REAL ID-compliant driver's license on him when he was booked into the Kent County jail, and transferred to the custody of ICE in a facility managed by Calhoun County.” It at least caught the eye of a prosecutor, who emailed, “I am confused. Didn’t his property have a US Passport in it? And he was a veteran?!” A Grand Rapids officer replied, “Who knows, not sure it was a US passport. I am not sure about the vet thing.”
Not sure, or don’t care? While the sheriff’s office has announced that it will no longer hold detainees to hand over to deportation agents unless they have an order signed by a judge or magistrate, it’s not just policies that need an overhaul. For his actions, interim police chief David Kiddle said VanderKooi got a firm talking-to for “unprofessional language in his interactions with ICE,” but not for trying to deport a U.S.-born veteran. The ACLU hasn’t launched any action against him or the city, but it “remains a possibility.”
"The idea that you would do that to someone who has fought on the battlefield for our country – that kind of disrespect is—it’s just so appalling to me," Aukerman continued. "And the idea that we would just let that go with a simple, ‘Oh don’t do that again.’ That’s not how we should treat our veterans. That’s not how we should treat people with disabilities." The ACLU of Michigan tweeted that “when ICE and local law enforcement partner up, racist profiling is the obvious result. Cooperation between GRPD and ICE must stop.”
