EL CENTRAL Hispanic News reporter Estefania Arellano-Bermudez conducted an interview with State Senator Mary Cavanagh (D-Sen District 6) to discuss a bundle of bills that were introduced in August of 2025. Bill 508 protects schools, churches, courthouses, and hospitals from immigration enforcement, except in cases where there is a signed warrant. Bill 509 prevents government officials from sharing personal information with immigration enforcement without a warrant. Bill 510 prohibits law enforcement from wearing masks or concealing their identity.
EL CENTRAL: You recently introduced one of three bills – Bill’s 508-510 regarding immigration and ICE. They’re currently going through the Senate committee on Civil Rights, judiciary and public safety. What prompted you, Senators Stephanie Chang and Jeremy Moss to introduce these bills?
State Senator Mary Cavanagh: From what the senators and myself have been seeing, families being torn apart, people regardless of their citizenship status. They’re snatched off the streets or even from their schools, their courthouses, by masked officers and due process is being completely ignored.
As a daughter of a Mexican immigrant, this is deeply personal to me. Senator Chang, myself and Senator Moss all came together. We heard about what was happening in communities across Michigan and felt like it was our responsibility to act because when people live in fear, no matter their immigration status or what community they come from, going to school or going to the doctors or even participating in your faith, it actually makes the community more unsafe and it really goes against the public safety of the entire community. We really thought that what was happening was cruelty and these bills reestablish, at least here in this state, that this is a state of dignity, transparency, and accountability for all of our residents, no matter what you look like.
EL CENTRAL: How do these bills address public trust when it comes to victims of crime who may currently fear seeking services?
Senator Cavanagh: These bills, other than making sure there’s due process, are making sure that people aren’t being kidnapped. Although we are seeing actual officers not have identification or masks, we are also seeing people pretend to be ICE officers and kidnapping people. We are seeing people afraid to not only show up to court, but we’re talking about reporting a crime. We’re talking about seeking urgent healthcare needs. They might be legally here or even citizens. They’re just fearful of being detained, of being questioned, or even just disappearing without any follow up.
If they see something, they’re very, very scared of going in and reporting that.
With these bills the clear message is: Michigan, you can report a crime, you can seek justice and access care without being the fear of being kidnapped. This isn’t just for the immigrant community. This is for all individuals that are afraid of what might result just in going into those spaces.
EL CENTRAL: Would bill 509 stop, say a doctor from calling ICE on a patient? Would that be something that bill would do because that’s personal information?
Senator Cavanagh: It would require a warrant for any of that personal information to be shared.
EL CENTRAL: What do you see as a potential community benefit of these bills?
Senator Cavanagh: Taking away that fear from the community, I think is the greatest benefit. People are scared to report a crime. More crimes are going unnoticed or unreported, and that continues to drive public safety in the opposite direction. When people know their rights will be protected and respected, they participate fully. These bills kind of make it very transparent and very clear what people’s rights are and where those spaces are. This looks like sending their kids to school or testifying in courts, going to hospitals. We can even hear it in kind of the testifiers or even how we talk about these bills.
These are spaces to protect the public. It’s not for personal gain. It’s to make sure that people are going to school, that people can send their children to school without being worried of detainment or being mixed up in a system that, oh, they just had the wrong last name, they had the wrong first name, and now you don’t know where your child is. The potential benefit of this is to really create these spaces and create this public trust just to strengthen public safety. And also our communities right now, there is a great fear of people even going to their local doctor’s offices, going outside their houses, getting their water being shut off and going to get public services. People can continue to do life without being fearful and knowing that their rights are protected in the state in the law of Michigan.
EL CENTRAL: Critics may argue that these bills would create tensions between federal and local authorities. How might these proposed protections reshape the relationship between local police and federal immigration agents?
Senator Cavanagh: I’m hearing a lot of that feedback, especially as prior to introduction, working out how this might look like as state enforcement and also that immigration is a federal issue, let’s face it. I do think at the federal level, the immigration system and we are seeing it play out firsthand is broken.
While our federal representatives sort out that mess a little bit, public safety is our responsibility as a state and even as legislators and as representatives. I do think that the federal administration is a little chaotic, but they’re actually acting a little bit inhumane in their enforcement. And we’re seeing that in the streets and in the grassroots. Our legislation doesn’t prevent federal agents from enforcing immigration laws. It simply states that when officers must do this type of act that they have to in the state of Michigan act as a judicial warrant. There needs to be an actual reason for that, and they can’t operate just to strip people’s trust.
I do want to just mention this package (of bills) strengthens the relationship with the communities because it actually clarifies for local law enforcement on their business of carrying out these secretive ICE raids. These are people that know the community and don’t want to go out and do things that they don’t feel comfortable with. It gives them trust that their job can be handled by certain standards and accountability.
EL CENTRAL: Would any of this address racial profiling?
Senator Cavanagh: I do think it will, and especially as we’re hearing that it will be a little bit more of a driving force, especially after that recent (Supreme) court case.
People are being more targeted by the color of their skin or even speaking a different language. Bill 509 and 510 together help try to protect against that racial profiling by personal information needing a warrant. It makes at least police officers feeling a little bit more nervous about asking for that actual information, making sure that they’re abiding by the law.
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Estefania Arellano-Bermudez is a Latina freelance writer living in metro Detroit. She is a regular contributor to EL CENTRAL Hispanic News and a member of Planet Detroit’s Neighborhood Reporting Lab.
This article was made possible thanks to a generous grant to EL CENTRAL Hispanic News by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at www.pressforward.news.
