Sign below to demand that a known ICE collaborator, Captain Curt VanderKooi, be fired immediately from the Grand Rapids Police Department.

Curt VanderKooi was an off-duty cop who called ICE after seeing a picture of Ramos-Gomez on a news story. GRPD has a documented problem with racial profiling in traffic stops and here we see the problem again. Yet unlike a regular citizen calling ICE, VanderKooi was able to abuse his power in the police department to give ICE the police report. Though he also had the power to double-check Ramos-Gomez’s personal belongings for the U.S. passport that was included in them, VanderKooi chose not to do so.

Despite numerous assurances from the GRPD that they are not working with ICE, we now have clear evidence that police like Captain Curt VanderKooi are in fact giving ICE what they call “leads.” The GRPD and the City must show us they are serious about earning our trust.  They must fire VanderKooi immediately. There is no point in having “Policing At The Speed of Trust” meetings if the GRPD is not willing to make the tough calls to regain trust.

GRPD and City Manager Mark Washington, you must fire Captain VanderKooi now to keep our immigrant families safe.