- Fraser officers detained Santiago Zamora Perez and Evelin Josefina Perez for nearly an hour while waiting for a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent to arrive. An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said this was likely illegal.
- Fraser officers viewed detaining migrants as a normal part of their job and joked about transferring migrants to federal custody to save paperwork.
- Local police and the CBP agent discussed immigration policy in nakedly political terms, complaining about Biden-era executive orders and rulings by “leftist courts.”
Police video of a December traffic stop highlights the role local officials are playing in enforcing President Donald Trump’s antimigrant campaign.
Fraser police stopped Detroit residents Santiago Zamora Perez and his mother, Evelin Josefina Perez, on the evening of Dec. 7. The officers turned the pair over to federal immigration agents, who sent them to a Texas detention center. Evelin and Santiago were released this week.
Outlier Media obtained video of the stop through a public records request. The footage below, edited and annotated by Outlier, provides a rare window into a local police department’s decision to deputize itself in service of federal immigration enforcement…