YPSILANTI, Mich. (WXYZ) — FBI raids in three Southeast Michigan cities are stirring up reaction after multiple pro-Palestinian student organizations posted videos of the raids saying some of their members were targeted.
The FBI, along with local and state law enforcement were involved in the raids. The attorney general's office clarified immigration officers were not involved and all involved were American citizens. The AG's office says the searches did not pertain to on-campus protest activity but rather a multi-jurisdictional investigation into vandalism.
From inside a home in Ypsilanti, a student activist filmed as law enforcement put a battering ram through the front door.
Along with homes in Canton and Ann Arbor, it was one of three homes raided Wednesday. Crowds began to form in Ypsilanti to protest the search after student organizations shared information on social media.
“There was no reason noted in the search warrants for the underlying probable cause that the warrants were based on," said Liz Jacob, an attorney with Sugar Law representing those involved. "They weren't charged with any criminal charges that they were being investigated for.”
Jacob says seven people in total were briefly detained, but no arrests were made.
“They (law enforcement) were looking for red and black paint," Jacob said. "They were looking for electronic devices, and they were looking for any kind of communication materials that any kind of individuals had.”
While the AG’s office has not specified the alleged vandalism connected to the search warrants, last June, the law office of University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker was vandalized in Southfield.
Related video: U-M regent says home & car were vandalized overnight while family was sleeping
In October, the home of university President Santa Ono was vandalized in West Bloomfield and later in December, Acker's home and car in Huntington Woods were vandalized. During that incident, mason jars that Acker believed were filled with urine were thrown through his first-floor window. In each case, the vandalism featured messages like "divest" and "Free Palestine" in red paint.
Related video: West Bloomfield home of University of Michigan President Santa Ono vandalized
At least one of those investigations was taken over by the attorney general's office. No arrests have been made and no one has been charged in those cases.
“We've done a lot of work with these students. To our knowledge, there is no vandalism. We have no idea what this is about,” Jacob said. "What I've seen reported other places is some kind of claim of multi-jurisdictional vandalism, which seems like a pretty flimsy pretext to send FBI agents, state police and local police to the homes of young people.”
Both Jacob and the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations have condemned the methods used in the search, calling out what they say is a growing nationwide crackdown on campus protesters supporting Palestine.
“This is just an escalation of the kind of targeting we've already seen toward pro-Palestine protesters at the University of Michigan," Jacob said. "It is reaching scary, scary depths."
“Based on the information that was in the warrant, it appeared to be extremely heavy handed to have that type of aggressive, almost military-style raids that were allegations... that add up to misdemeanors,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of CAIR-MI. “Normally, the allegations that were made would be under the auspices of local law enforcement, but federal law enforcement was brought in. And we believe that it has some relation to the nature of the individuals who were raided.”
The Anti-Defamation League sent us the following statement Thursday:
