Kalamazoo commission removes $1.25 million federal police grant from agenda, residents cheer

The Kalamazoo City Commission met April 6 for a regular meeting, where city officials removed a proposed $1.25 million federal policing grant from consideration before discussion began.

City Manager Malcolm Hankins asked commissioners to pull the agenda item, which would have accepted a 2025 U.S. Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program grant to fund 10 new public safety officers.

“I’d ask that item H3 be removed from tonight’s agenda, given the timing and the need for additional review to ensure the commission has a full understanding of the longer-term implications,” Hankins said. “Removing the item, I believe, is appropriate. It also effectively means non-acceptance of the grant at this time.”

Hankins’ comments were met with immediate applause from a packed commission chamber, where many residents had gathered to urge officials to reject the funding. This is the second time the item has been pulled from a commission agenda in recent weeks. As previously reported by Watershed Voice, Hankins also removed the grant from the March 2 meeting without explanation, and commissioners did not discuss it at that time.

Despite the item’s removal, several residents used public comment to criticize the city for pursuing the grant in the first place, raising concerns about federal involvement in local policing and potential immigration enforcement ties.

While the grant would not give federal agencies direct policing authority in Kalamazoo, it does come with a set of federal conditions.

According to the grant documents included in the city’s agenda packet, one condition requires compliance with federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1373, which states that local governments “may not prohibit” officials from sharing information about a person’s citizenship or immigration status with federal agencies .

The grant also includes standard requirements, such as: hiring additional officers rather than replacing existing ones, contributing a local funding match, and retaining the positions for at least one year after the three-year federal funding period ends .

The immigration-related condition does not require Kalamazoo police to collect immigration status information or participate in federal immigration enforcement. However, it does limit the city’s ability to restrict the sharing of that information if it is obtained.

Several residents said the grant would force the city to share residents’ immigration status with federal authorities or tie local policing to immigration enforcement operations.

“It is impossible that the president knows more about how to police Kalamazoo than our own local police department,” said resident Vicki Vannis. “The only reason for these requirements is to make KDPS an arm of his Gestapo-esque ICE raids.”

Concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement have grown nationally in recent months amid an increase in federal immigration enforcement and a series of controversial incidents.

In January, two U.S. citizens — Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse — were fatally shot in separate encounters with federal immigration agents in Minneapolis. Both incidents remain under investigation, and federal officials have said the use of force was justified, while witnesses, video footage, and civil rights advocates have raised questions about those accounts.

The shootings, along with reports of aggressive enforcement tactics, detentions of U.S. citizens, and limited transparency in federal investigations, have sparked protests and legal challenges, including a lawsuit from the state of Minnesota seeking access to evidence in the cases .

For some Kalamazoo residents, those incidents have become a shorthand for broader fears about federal immigration enforcement and its potential impact on local communities.

The grant language reviewed by the commission does not explicitly require cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. However, the inclusion of federal information-sharing requirements — combined with ongoing national controversies — has fueled concern among some residents.

City officials did not take further action on the item Monday night. Removing it from the agenda means the grant was not accepted, though it could potentially return for consideration at a future meeting.

All commissioners were present except Commissioner Stephanie Hoffman.

Maxwell Knauer is a staff writer for Watershed Voice.