Abdul El-Sayed Statement on ICE Presence in Michigan 

MICHIGAN – Today, U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed calls out growing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) presence in Michigan. This week, ICE confirmed the purchase of a facility in Romulus, Southeast Michigan, that will serve as a detention center. Michigan is already home to the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest and one of the largest in the country. 

“Make no mistake: this has never been about border security or even immigration. This is about normalizing a paramilitary force on peaceful streets. As ICE appears to be ramping up to do in Michigan what they did in Minnesota, it’s hard not to connect the dots between this and Trump saying he wants to “nationalize” elections in Detroit. So I speak for all of us who believe in freedom and democracy when I say this: ICE needs to get the hell out of Michigan.” said Abdul. “Even back in 2018, we could see the writing on the wall. We must abolish ICE, no amount of retraining or reforming will address this rot.”

This week, another candidate in the race visited Baldwin, the largest detention center in the Midwest, and “seemed impressed” with how ICE was conducting their detention operations. The other has called to reform the agency “from within” despite the murders of and violence against American citizens on peaceful streets. 

Bridge Michigan reported that: “ICE had detained 3,338 people in Michigan — most of them at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, which reopened as a detention center in June 2025 — last year through October, nearly triple the number detained in the same timeframe in 2024.”

ICE’s budget has dramatically increased following the enactment of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with $85 billion at its discretion.

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