Detroit, MI — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel rolled out her brand-new “Federal Agents Tracker” this week, a shiny new digital hotline designed to let people report encounters with ICE and Border Patrol like they’re spotting Bigfoot in the woods.
The rollout happened inside Cadillac Place in Detroit, where a carefully selected panel of three law-enforcement figures was presented as proof that Michigan cops are ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder against federal immigration enforcement. On one side of the table sat Chris Swanson, the Genesee County sheriff who just happens to be running for governor. Next to him was Alyshia Dyer, who proudly announced she won’t cooperate with ICE, and whom I have been warning you about for several weeks. Rounding out the trio was David Sosinski, who stressed state troopers don’t touch immigration enforcement. That’s your “task force.” Three officials, all saying the same thing, all pointed in one political direction.
Let’s call this what it really is. This tracker is not about protecting Michigan residents. It is about creating friction between state and federal law enforcement for political theater. Instead of coordinating with agencies whose entire job is to remove violent offenders, traffickers, and repeat criminals, Lansing is now asking residents to report federal agents for doing exactly what Congress authorized them to do.
That is backwards.
Every veteran cop in this state knows the truth: It is always easier and safer to work with the feds than to fight them. Federal agencies bring resources, databases, task forces, prosecutors, and the kind of reach local departments simply do not have. When ICE picks up a gang member, a fentanyl trafficker, or someone wanted for violent crime, that person is off Michigan streets. That is not oppression. That is public safety.
Instead, Michigan’s top law-enforcement official is building a political snitch line aimed not at criminals, but at other law-enforcement officers. That should make every honest cop uneasy.
The panel Nessel chose says everything. A sheriff running for governor, a sheriff from one of the most progressive counties in the state, and a state police official carefully threading the political needle. No Detroit homicide detectives. No narcotics task force leaders. No federal-state joint crime unit reps. Just three voices echoing the same message.
Meanwhile, Michigan communities are dealing with real problems: Violent repeat offenders, fentanyl overdoses, human trafficking, organized retail theft, and carjacking crews that cross state lines. Those are federal crimes. Those require federal partnerships. You do not solve them by launching a website that encourages residents to film ICE agents.
This tracker does not make Michigan safer. It makes it louder, more divided, and more political.
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