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Activists say southeast Michigan police raids are targeting pro-Palestinian protesters [1]

['John Wisely', 'Tresa Baldas']

Date: 2025-04-23

Activists say southeast Michigan police raids are targeting pro-Palestinian protesters Attorney General's Office says raids are part of a vandalism investigation

Show Caption Hide Caption Watch: University of Michigan tent encampment torn down by police Police tore down an encampment set up my protesters calling for the University of Michigan to divest from Israel amid the war in Gaza.

Police executed search warrants in three locations Wednesday morning.

Several people were detained before being released.

This story has been updated with additional information.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies executed search warrants the morning of April 23 at homes in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Canton.

The Michigan Attorney General's Office said the raids are part of a vandalism investigation but a lawyer who spoke to several people whose homes were raided insisted they were targeted for their pro-Palestinian activism.

"Everyone who was raided has taken part in protest and has some relationship to the University of Michigan," said Liz Jacob, an attorney with the Sugar Law Center in Detroit, which is representing several protesters who say they've been effectively banned from campus. "We are totally convinced that, but for their viewpoints, these students would not have been targeted."

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's Office obtained the warrants. Office spokesman Danny Wimmer denied the homes were targeted because of protests.

"Our search warrants were not related to protest activity on the campus of the University of Michigan nor the Diag encampment," Wimmer said in a statement to the Free Press. "Today's search warrants are in furtherance of our investigation into multijurisdictional acts of vandalism."

He noted that "there is no immigration enforcement angle to the execution of these search warrants."

Jacob said the warrants were signed by Judge Michelle Friedman Appel.

Appel is chief judge in Oak Park District Court, whose jurisdiction includes Huntington Woods, where U-M Regent Jordan Acker, who is Jewish, lives.

In December, vandals spray-painted antisemitic graffiti on his car and smashed a window of his home while Acker and his family slept inside. Last June, vandals spray-painted obscenities and anti-Israel graffiti across the entrance to the Goodman Acker law firm in Southfield, using wording that leaders of the firm said was antisemitic, targeting Acker, the firm's senior partner.

Last month, vandals attacked the Ann Arbor home of U-M Provost Laurie McCauley, breaking a window and spray-painting pro-Palestine graffiti.

In May 2024, protesters paid an early morning visit to the home of another regent, Sarah Hubbard, who lives outside of Lansing. They taped a list of demands to her door, left body bags on her lawn, chanted slogans and posted a video of the protest online.

When asked whether the searches are tied to the attacks on U-M regents' homes, Wimmer would say only:

"We will not be discussing the nature of the investigation at this time."

Jacob said seven people were targeted in the April 23 raids. She said several of them are current U-M students and they were awakened early in the morning when police arrived with search warrants. She said several people were detained briefly while police searched their residences and confiscated cellphones and laptop computers.

No arrests were made.

Gaza War protests have raged on the U-M campus since October 2023 when a Hamas-led attack on Israel prompted the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The school has issued trespassing tickets to numerous protesters and suspended from campus one activist group, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE).

The university's response to the protests has prompted lawsuits from students and others who claim the school violated their constitutional rights.

Some protesters who were arrested last year at an encampment on the Diag at the University of Michigan are waiting to learn whether they will stand trial on felony charges in Washtenaw County in cases brought by the Attorney General's Office.

More: U-M Gaza protesters must wait to learn if they'll stand trial

More: Lawyer for U-M protester detained at airport after spring break trip with family

Detroit FBI office spokesman Jordan Hall confirmed his agency was present in Ypsilanti, but declined to elaborate on the reason, saying only it was for "law enforcement activity."

It's unclear why the FBI would be involved in a vandalism complaint.

"It really sounds like multijurisdictional vandalism is a euphemism for the Attorney General cooperating with the Trump administration to target pro-Palestine protesters," Jacob said.

Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X: @jwisely

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[1] Url: https://www.freep.com/story/news/education/2025/04/23/police-raids-target-pro-palestinian-protesters/83230514007/

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