“We’ve got to speak up and say ‘this is not right!’” 90-year-old Clarice McKenzie explained why she stood alone along M-37 near Baldwin during a No Kings protest this spring. Baldwin is home to the North Lake Processing Center, the largest ICE detention center in the Midwest. A devout United Methodist inspired by social action, McKenzie joined Grand Rapids clergy on a visit with detainees at North Lake this spring.
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.
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.”
With daily reports flashing from major Midwestern cities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attacks on immigrants and communities of color, the Grand Traverse Band (GTB) of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians took the unprecedented step today of issuing an advisory to its tribal members to coach them on how to handle encounters with ICE agents. GTB chair Sandra Witherspoon told the Glen Arbor Sun that, while she has heard rumors of increased ICE activity in northern Michigan, she has no concrete evidence of a stepped-up presence in the coming days. Nevertheless, out of an “abundance of caution,” she said that tribal government decided to issue the advisory. Today’s advisory from the Grand Traverse Band encourages tribal members to carry their GTB Tribal ID card and to calmly identify their citizenship status if confronted by a federal agent. It also mentioned racial profiling practices now permitted under the Trump regime.