Extended ICE Detention at North Lake: the psychological impact on Michigan detainees

For many of the people detained at North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, there’s no way to know how long they’ll be there. “I feel abandoned,” said Kamal Tijani, who arrived in the U.S. from Nigeria in 2017. “In here, sometimes you feel down, and sometimes you feel like you know nobody cares about you… you call your friends, and they don’t pick up.” Tijani has been at North Lake in Baldwin since October of 2025—meaning he’s spent nine months in ICE detention. North Lake is ICE’s largest detention center in the Midwest, located just 80 minutes from Leelanau County. The facility currently holds approximately 1,500 detainees, with a capacity of 1,800.Over half of the people held there as of March had no criminal convictions or pending charges. They’re held as “immigration violators”—a civil charge.

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Gazing into a pool of courage

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On the occasion of the nation’s 250th birthday, Leelanau resident and reverend Lucy Waechter Webb shares a journey her family took earlier this year to Webster Groves, Missouri, to celebrate Benny Gordon, Jr, an African-American civic leader who fought Jim Crow segregation and pushed for the opening of the local swimming pool for everyone. Webb’s great-grandfather, “Happy” Appel, the mayor of Webster Groves, denied Black residents access to swim in the city pool. She recently learned about her family’s role in this story when she began asking questions about her ancestry and her people’s relationship to the history of racial violence in this country.

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Profiting from pain: bearing witness inside ICE’s Baldwin immigrant prison

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Elmwood Township resident Scott Perry traveled to Baldwin last month to see for himself what was really happening at ICE’s North Lake Processing Center operated by the for-profit prison corporation, Geo Group. “There was an organized protest at the gate and I wanted to see who would be there. I went to hear what the messages would be, who would be working, and set eyes on the largest immigrant detention center in the Midwest,” he writes. “When you follow the money, it starts to make sense. The Geo Group receives $150 per day per inmate, from our tax dollars. At the time of this publication, that totals more than $40,000, just from my new Venezuelan friend I met inside. North Lake holds approximately 1,500 detainees, with a capacity of 1,800 beds. That amounts to $240,000 per day for Geo Group.”

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Glen Arbor Arts Center observes the Nation’s Semiquincentennial with American Tree

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As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the nation’s layered story of people and place comes into sharper focus. Across the country, this milestone is being marked through ceremony, exhibitions, and public celebration, as communities revisit the question of what it means to inhabit—and be formed by—this history. The Glen Arbor Arts Center responds to that question with American Tree. The exhibition contemplates the role trees played in the formation of the United States 250 years ago—and the role they will continue to play as the nation moves into its next 250 years.

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Can agritourism help Michigan farms survive?

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Small American farmers are facing an existential crisis driven by record debt, corporate consolidation, and policy shifts that have negatively impacted farmers for well over 25 years, according to Time magazine. So how can Michigan save family farms and protect the rich agricultural heritage? Agritourism is one solution. Michigan farmers, and farming families who have been considering growing their agricultural businesses, listened to the opportunities offered during The Agritourism Summit held May 13-14. Starting with a pre-summit farm tour through Antrim County and an evening soiree, the Agritourism Summit was held at the Grand Traverse Resort with a focus on Planting Seeds for a Resilient, Sustainable Agritourism Industry.

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“Disagreeing without being disagreeable.” Leelanau citizens find Common Ground across political divides

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The comedian and clown Patch Adams was onto something when he said, “Humor is an antidote to all ills.” Leelanau County residents Skip Pruss and Jim White may disagree on politics, but Pruss drew a chuckle from White when he joked, “I’m known as the shit man in Lansing,” during their conversation about septic policy earlier this month. They shared a table and bantered during a Common Ground meeting on May 13 at the Friendship Center in Suttons Bay. The monthly gatherings, which were held from January until May and will resume this fall—prior to November’s national midterm elections—are an attempt to break through the caustic national political divide and give citizens of different backgrounds an opportunity to break bread together, discuss local political issues, and find common ground.

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Migrant farm work booms in Michigan despite feds pay cut

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Every year for the past decade, Jose Abel has traveled more than 2,000 miles from the region of Durango in Mexico to tend to the grapes of Northern Michigan’s famed vineyards. The money the 30-year old earns during the nine months that he spends in Michigan allows him—and thousands of other Mexican workers in our state—to have dreams back home. Now, however, the U.S. federal government has lowered the minimum wage—by as much as $4.50 an hour, or 25 percent, in Michigan—for the exploding number of workers who are here on H-2A visas, like Abel. The decision comes after a couple of years of outcry from some farmers that the cost of labor, transportation, and housing for H-2A workers had become untenable, and that, without locals willing to do the job, small farms would not be able to afford the cost of the harvest season. 

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Youth for Christ appeals to Zoning Board, reopens ministry. Leland citizens call on officials to play long game

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As expected, Apollos Properties and “Bear Man” Jim Van Steenhouse last month appealed to the Township’s Zoning Board of Appeals their special use permit application to hold Youth for Christ’s controversial Lighthouse ministry in a building they own that overlooks Fishtown in the heart of Leland’s business district. VanSteenhouse’s attorney Robert Parker informed lawyer Thomas Grier, with the Running Wise Law Firm, on April 28 that “while the matter is on appeal before the [ZBA], Youth for Christ intends to resume its activities at the property. Meanwhile, at the April 15 Planning Commission meeting, Leland citizens called on township officials to overcome fears of future litigation from VanSteenhouse and Youth for Christ. “If you feel you are currently considering approval to avoid a legal battle, then I urge you to move forward with another option: a legislative moratorium,” said Leland resident Lauren Connor. She and other citizens who spoke during the public comment period referenced several recent examples of villages and townships elsewhere in Leelanau County enacting moratoriums to stop developments from outside players that locals opposed. Those examples include dollar stores proposed in Empire and Maple City, an RV park in Leelanau Township, and a campground expansion along Lake Leelanau.

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Crystal River high water: an omen and a lesson in resilience

The good news is that the Crystal River is healthy. She winds like a lazy snake through wetlands protected by the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, so when excessive rain or snowmelt inundate her environment—as happened during record flooding in early April—the extra water has a place to go. The other good news is that the removal of culverts in three locations under County Road 675 during the past five years has helped the river flow more freely and relieves pressure during high water events. The bad news is that two more culverts remain downstream of The Mill. Those culverts restrict water flow beneath Overbrook Drive. The other bad news is that scientists who study climate change in the Great Lakes region predict more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, including rainstorms.

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Traverse City immigrant joins hunger strike inside Baldwin ICE facility; local faith leaders pray, fast in solidarity

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Soon after Lynn’s husband arrived on March 5 at the North Lake Processing Center — the mammoth ICE detention center in Baldwin, Michigan — the food began to make him sick. “I haven’t seen an orange the whole time I’ve been here,” the husband told Lynn, a U.S. citizen and Traverse City resident who shared their family’s story with the Glen Arbor Sun this week. The couple, who have a 2.5-year-old son, worship at Guadalupe Chapel in southeastern Leelanau County, where local clergy held a prayer service and press conference on Monday to illuminate the plight of detainees in federal custody. Lynn’s husband is one of several immigrants detained, as ICE detentions mount in Northern Michigan.

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