Is Hamtramck a target of ICE for a crackdown on immigrants?

A retired Hamtramck officer says the Department of Homeland Security is seeking people with law enforcement experience to patrol in Hamtramck, presumably to focus on illegal immigrants. Hamtramck has long been an immigrant destination. File photo

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck, the city of immigrants, may be the target of ICE agents soon.
According to a Facebook post by a retired Hamtramck police officer, Walt Tripp, who is also a former investigator for the state Department of Health and Human Services, he has signed up for work with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work in the 48212 zip code – which includes all of Hamtramck.
And, according to the officer, the DHS is seeking others with law enforcement experience and who are familiar with Hamtramck to patrol here.
Hamtramck, once a Polish-American majority city, is currently home to a large number of residents who emigrated from Bangladesh and Yemen. According to the U.S. Census, about 44 percent of the city’s approximate 27,000 residents were born outside the U.S.
The census does not question whether residents are legal citizens.
The immigrant crackdown by ICE, which is under the auspices of the DHS, has alarmed a number of people here and across the country for its aggressive rounding up of suspected illegal immigrants.
Mayor Amer Ghalib, who endorsed President Trump in the 2024 presidential election, downplayed the chances of ICE coming here, telling The Review: “I don’t think they have any interest in Hamtramck, simply because we don’t have illegal immigrants here.
“They would have to use the microscope to find them because they don’t exist in our community; at least, to my knowledge.”
Back in 2018, the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim rights group, warned that ICE agents were active in the city.
Amy Doukoure, an attorney for CAIR, told WXYZ Channel 7 news back then that ICE agents are “fishing to see if they can find undocumented individuals out in the community.”
But, at that time, the Hamtramck Police Department said it had no knowledge of ICE agents being active in the city.
Ghalib told The Review that his issue is that “some people in our community who claim that they watch out for their neighbors, are trying hard to prove that we are illegal immigrants, and I have seen some posts and articles with a lot of misinformation directed against certain individuals. This is the hypocrisy and unethical behavior that we see in some of our community members.”
Ghalib added: “They call people to watch out for their neighbors but they try hard to label some legal immigrants as illegals. I hope they stop this kind of double standards behavior. We can disagree over some political views as much as we want, but trying to score points by hurting others is so unethical. If we can’t help people, at least don’t harm them.”
Ghalib, a Yemeni immigrant, is also credited with influencing a number of other Arabs and Muslims to abandon the Democratic Party and throw their support behind Trump.
Trump campaigned heavily in 2024 on deporting illegal immigrants, although critics say ICE agents are targeting those who are here legally, or who are going through the lengthy legal steps to remain in the country.
Trump later nominated Ghalib to be ambassador to Kuwait, apparently in gratitude for his support. Ghalib is waiting to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to take on that role.
Former Mayor Karen Majewski, who was supportive of a prior city council resolution barring police officers from questioning people about their citizenship status, warned residents on her Facebook page of a possible crackdown here.
“Back in 2008, when we created a policy enjoining our own police from questioning people about their immigrant status, it was because we recognized the flaws in the U.S. system that placed administrative and financial barriers on establishing legal status,” Majewski said, in reference to the city council’s resolution that banned police officers from inquiring about a person’s immigration status.
Majewski continued: “It was because we honored Hamtramck’s reputation as a city that welcomed immigrants and understood their importance to our national ideals and identity. It was because we were committed to keeping our residents safe. The presence of ICE in our city would be a betrayal of the promise we made to our residents, and to the rule of law as enshrined in our Constitution.
“If our elected officials and our police won’t protect us, it’s up to our residents — especially those of us at less risk because of our own position of privilege — to stand up for our Constitutional guarantees and to stand up for our vulnerable neighbors.”
Also weighing in is Lynn Blasey, who is a write-in candidate for mayor in the upcoming Nov. 4 election.
“We, as a city of immigrants, need to stand together against the kidnapping of our neighbors and friends,” Blasey said.
Blasey also said that the 2008 city resolution “is not bold or strong enough for the current environment, especially with the removal of the right to due process for individuals kidnapped by ICE by executive order earlier this year.”
Posted Oct. 17, 2025