Dearborn

Dearborn City Council will not be renewing its prisoner housing contract with Calhoun County.  The agreement stems from controversy over detentions of undocumented immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  

"We will not be renewing at this point in time and don't anticipate working with Calhoun County," says Mary Laundroche, Director of Dearborn's Department of Public Information.

“ICE RAIDS STARTED IN DEARBORN,” the social media and Whatsapp messages warned on Monday afternoon. Dearborn residents sent the messages to each other after agents from Homeland Security Investigations visited Hamido, a well-known Middle-Eastern Dearborn restaurant.

The manager, Kassem Rizk, says he wasn’t sure at the time if the agents were from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but he says two officers came in, and one officer asked for employment verification forms.

“He said that he was sweeping the area. He said this was his tenth stop,” Rizk says.

A lot of Michiganders have hometown pride. It’s the reason you see so many locals sporting everything from bumper stickers to tattoos celebrating their home. But in some cities, hometown pride is a bit more complicated.

Cities like Dearborn, Michigan.

Dearborn native Rima Fadlallah says many people from her city see being “too Dearborn” as a negative thing. Being associated with the city's large Arab American community, she says, "in some ways is an unpopular thing to do."

A travelling exhibit from Dearborn, documenting the experiences of Iraqi and Syrian refugees and immigrants is being showcased at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration until Labor Day.

“What We Carried: Fragments and Memories from Iraq and Syria” tells the stories of families and individuals that sought refuge and safety in the United States after fleeing the Iraq war in 2003, and the war in Syria beginning in 2010.

A Dearborn man has been arrested in Syria on suspicion of fighting for the Islamic State.

American-backed forces captured Ibraheem Musaibli earlier this month.

The New York Times says that authorities are working to prosecute him in the United States. He's currently being held in an undisclosed facility.

Musaibli has been described as a high school dropout who moved to Yemen before traveling to Syria in 2015.

U.S. Representatives Debbie Dingell and John Conyers joined other members of Congress today to speak out against anti-Sharia law marches planned across the country this weekend -- including two marches in Michigan.

Two men who walked into a Michigan police station carrying guns and wearing body armor are facing felony charges.

James Baker and Brandon Vreeland wanted to make a point about their right to openly carry firearms when they walked into the Dearborn Police Department earlier this month.

They are now facing felony charges, including carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace. They were arraigned today. 

A couple of stunts from open-carry activists, and a threat targeting Muslims have Dearborn's police chief concerned.

Over the weekend a group carrying guns marched down Schaefer Road in Dearborn,  apparently in support of two armed men who were arrested earlier this month. That pair walked into the Dearborn police station carrying guns and wearing body armor.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will not hear a case where Wayne County sheriffs were found to have violated the First Amendment.

The case goes back to Dearborn's Arab International Festival in 2012. A group called Bible Believers showed up and told the mostly-Muslim crowd that their prophet was "a pervert," and that Muslims were going to burn in hell.

Some hecklers threw plastic bottles at the protesters. Eventually, police told the protesters to leave or be arrested for disorderly conduct.

Arab American voters seem to have played a vital role in handing Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders an upset victory in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary.

The results show Sanders won in handily in many precincts with large Arab-American populations, particularly in the city of Dearborn.

The Dearborn City Clerk’s office was raided by the Michigan State Police today.

State police are saying little about the raid. 

“I can confirm that the Second District Special Investigation Section did serve a search warrant today at the Dearborn City Hall as part of an ongoing embezzlement investigation,” says 1st Lt. Michael A. Shaw. “We are not making any further statements as to the nature of the investigation at this time.”

Dearborn’s large Lebanese community continues to grieve those it lost in Thursday’s twin suicide bombings in Beirut.

“You’ve never seen a wife and husband love each other so much,” says Dearborn resident Mehdi Taleb of his sister, Leila Taleb, and her husband Hussein Mostapha.

DETROIT (AP) - Michigan's Republican governor, who has bucked many party leaders for welcoming Syrian refugees, is putting efforts on hold following the deadly attacks in Paris.

Gov. Rick Snyder said in a statement Sunday that the state is postponing efforts to accept refugees until federal officials fully review security clearances and procedures.

Updated at 5:30 pm The city of Dearborn quietly removed a controversial statue of former mayor Orville Hubbard this morning. 

For years, the 10-foot-tall bronze monument stood outside of the City Hall building. 

Now, it’s on its way to the Dearborn Historical Museum.

Hubbard, who ran the city for more than three decades, from the 1940s through the late 1970s, was an outspoken supporter of segregation. 

This article was updated at 4:18 pm on 3/7/2015

An exhibit opening this weekend at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn touches on themes of freedom of expression. 

Detroit to Baghdad: Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here commemorates the 2007 bombing of the center of Baghdad’s bookseller district. Dozens of people died. It took nearly a year for shops to reopen. 

Muslim clerics held a vigil in Dearborn last night to show their opposition to ISIS, and to pray for the family of James Foley, an American reporter killed recently by the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.

The small crowd held candles and signs saying “Muslims against ISIS.”

Sara Albusaid immigrated to Dearborn from Iraq.

She says her husband and son are still in southern Iraq, where they're being inundated with people fleeing the violence in other parts of the country.

"I mean, it's not just my country. I'm very worried about all the world. It makes me cry a lot, because I see you know, innocent people [have] died. I have to raise my voice" said Albusaid.

Albusaid says she’s frustrated with U.S. forces for leaving Iraq and creating the political vacuum that has allowed ISIS to spread.

"I feel very angry because, you know, when they go inside Iraq they said we are the big help for Iraqi people, and then after that, they don't care," she said. "Or there is something they wanted from Iraq, and they take it and they leave."

More than one cleric told the crowd they have to publicly stand up against any group that commits violence in the name of Islam.

A Muslim civil rights group is suing the federal government on behalf of five Michigan plaintiffs who are challenging their placement on the government’s “terror watchlist.”

Civil rights groups, Muslim community and Dearborn city leaders are denouncing that city’s apparent designation as a terrorist hotspot.

The Intercept, an online magazine, obtained secret documents from the National Counterterrorism Center listing “known or suspected terrorists.”

They contain a graphic showing the top 5 locations for “known and suspected terrorists” in the US.