Group supports local families disrupted by ICE arrests

Below is an article in today's edition of the Grand Haven Tribune that deals with the ministry of our parish.

A support group is working to help local families whose lives have been disrupted due to arrests made by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Immigrant Relief Fund at St. John’s Episcopal Church confirmed on its Facebook page earlier this month that a West Olive man was detained by ICE and is being held at the Northlake Detention Center in Baldwin. The Immigrant Relief Fund is helping the man’s wife and three children.

Abby Teasley, who works with the support group, confirmed to the Tribune that ICE also detained three individuals from a local farm recently.

The Rev. Jared Cramer is the rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church. He said the relief fund actually started during COVID as a way to assist immigrants in need of help.

“During that time, we helped over 100 families, distributing about $110,000 in funds, donations and grants throughout Ottawa County,” Cramer said. “We kept it going because we kept getting donations, and it’s really re-invigorated this year with increased ICE enforcements we were starting to see happening.”

Cramer said it’s been difficult to see the effects ICE arrests have had on the immigrant population in West Michigan.

“We have people we’ve worked with and spent time with who are increasingly uncomfortable leaving their house,” Cramer said. “They’re scared, and this includes legal immigrants.”

Cramer said the St. John’s support group was approached by another organization, Lakeshore Rapids Response to ICE, which asked if the church would cooperate with the group to offer help where needed.

“We now have two funds, the immigrant relief fund and also an immigrant advocacy fund, which supports those doing advocacy to help immigrants,” Cramer said. “That’s where it started. Then we heard of issues with the Baldwin center up north, with people being released.

“This should not be a surprise for anyone that when they get released from prison, they don’t have anything. You get what you went in with. It’s cold. People have been detained by ICE in different climates and are being released into our winter climate. So we put out a call for help.”

In late December, St. John’s Episcopal Church shared a Facebook post showing a closet overflowing with items collected to support those being released from detainment – clothing, food items and more.

Cramer said they send volunteers to Baldwin to greet detainees as they’re released, bringing warm clothes and offering other help as needed.

“We try to have someone greeting them, a friendly face, to give them some things and get them started on their journey,” Cramer said.

He noted that the push to help immigrants fits well with the Episcopal church’s mission.

“For St. John’s, we’ve had a commitment to the Latinx community for 10 years now, with everything from offering mass in Spanish once a week, and we still do bilingual services,” he said. “We’ve had members, immigrants, both undocumented and documented, that we’ve built relationships with along the way. These aren’t statistics. These are our friends, people we know, who are trying to build a life for themselves.”

For more information, search “Immigrant Relief Fund at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Grand Haven” on Facebook. To donate, go to http://sjegh.com/immigrantrelief.