“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” — Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
I am a child of immigrants, documented World War II refugees from the Soviet Russian occupation of their Lithuanian homeland. Several of my grandparents, grand uncles, and uncles fought fascists during World War II and the Korean War.
Please accept the following comments regarding the Livingston County’s draft STRATEGIC PLAN 2026 – 2030, to be voted on tonight:
Goal 2 “Protection of God-Given Rights & Freedoms” violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment separation of church and state. Our Constitution and governance are established by the people: “We the People of the United States…do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” (Preamble to U.S. Constitution). Moreover, according to our Declaration of Independence, “Governments are instituted among Men [sic.], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
The third bullet point of Goal 2 makes the unsubstantiated claim that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services imposes “unconstitutional mandates.”
In contrast, the second bullet point of Goal 2 “offer local support to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts” FAILS to mention ICE’s well-documented, widespread violations of our U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law.
According to data from National Public Radio, ABC News, the American Immigration Council and the National Immigrant Justice Center, ICE frequently engages in unconstitutional behavior in violation of Article VI and Amendments 1, 4, 5, 14 of our U.S. Constitution: failure to guarantee the religious rights of detainees; targeting, detaining, assaulting, intimidating and executing observers and peaceful protesters, including people of faith and clergy in prayer vigils; illegal searches/seizures; excessive force; due process violations; lack of accountability; agents lying about the circumstances of detentions; cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment of detainees; use of legally insufficient administrative warrants to enter homes without consent; and racial profiling. ICE’s anti-constitutional actions have affected documented immigrants, undocumented immigrants, US veterans and US citizens alike.
The Deportation Data Project documents the following about ICE arrests in Michigan since the Republican Administration took office: arrests of people WITHOUT criminal convictions rose ninefold, arrests of those with NONVIOLENT convictions doubled, while arrests of people with violent crime convictions merely increased by one-third. Previously, many immigrants were released while their cases were pending in immigration court. That is not the case anymore. Their unnecessary detention costs are borne by the US taxpayers.
For the past few months, Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton have helped First Unitarian Universalists of Detroit with their detained congregant (name withheld by request of his family). He is a DOCUMENTED asylum seeker from Venezuela with NO criminal record. He was abducted without any warrant by ICE on Jan. 22 during a raid on a grocery store.
Despite repeated requests, ICE never provided any reason for his abduction. He was held at the North Lake Abduction Center in Baldwin, Mich., and later sent to a deportation processing center near Phoenix, Ariz. He was denied access to clergy and religious materials. He was held in a cage made out of a cyclone fence with 39 other men. Very little food and water was given to them. There was no furniture: they had to lay on the bare floor. There was no toilet: the detainees used a common bucket that the guards emptied out when it got full. A federal judge granted his habeas corpus petition and ordered ICE to release him, but ICE deported him to Mexico instead. ICE confiscated his passport, ID and personal papers and did not return them when he was deported. He was left without any identification whatsoever. He was treated in Mexico for malnutrition and dehydration.
What happened to the President’s mendacious claims that ICE would deport “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens, including pedophiles, murderers, gang members, terrorists, and rapists?” So far, ICE has not arrested or deported anyone with the President’s criminal history (34 felony counts, adjudicated rapist, 28 accusations of sexual misconduct, harrassment and rape, as well as accusations of pedophelia in the Epstein files).
Livingston County claims to be a “Constitutional County.” Instead of supporting ICE’s unconstitutional behavior, Livingston County needs to protect its residents, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law from ICE’s unconstitutional abuses, as Washtenaw County did in its January 21, 2026 resolution.
Rev. V. Rudra Dundzila
Contract Minister, Community Unitarian Universalists of Brighton
