A Canton Township home was the subject of a raid by local, state and federal agents last week. Search warrants were issued for homes in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Canton for searches in connection to campus protests at the University of Michigan, according to an attorney representing one of the homeowners. No arrests were made at any of the three homes, but agents seized electronic devices at all three locations.
Pro Palestine college students claim the raids were in retaliation of their protest involvement although law enforcement officials denied that claim.
“There’s no question it took everybody by surprise, the scale of it took people by surprise,” said John Philo, an attorney from a law firm representing multiple student organizations whose members have rallied for Palestine. “They’ve clearly been following the students for a period of time.”
“They (agents) seized all their electronics,” Philo said. “We expect that there’s a search of that equipment going on now. They seized the car at one home. They searched bread boxes. Just a wide scope of things that don’t seem to point in any one direction,” Philo told a television news station.
A spokesman from the office of the attorney general said the raids were not connected to protests at the college or college grounds. The spokesperson said ICE and immigration services were not involved in the execution of the warrants. The search warrants, according to the spokesman, were in regard to vandalism.
“That is breathtaking, shocking and appalling, that acts of vandalism at least on the scale that’s occurred at the University of Michigan campus, are no more than misdemeanors, are drawing out federal police, the state attorney general is coordinating with Trump’s administration’s FBI, the state troopers are there, for something they’re calling acts of vandalism,” Philo said.”
