On February 2, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested two Amazon Flex workers in Hazel Park, Michigan, as part of the Trump administration’s nationwide escalation of immigration raids.
While the WSWS initially reported one arrest, it has since been established that two Venezuelan men—Edwin Vladimir Romero Gutierrez and Angel Junior Rincon Perez—were taken by ICE agents after entering the Amazon delivery facility in Hazel Park, where they were reporting for work.
Both men are reportedly asylum seekers and hold Temporary Protected Status. Their seizure occurred in full view of Amazon workers, after the two allegedly fled into the facility. These agents were permitted entry by Amazon security.
The arrest of the two Flex drivers on site marks a major escalation and sends a chilling message to the tens of thousands of gig workers across the country. Their arrests are part of a wave of ICE operations targeting immigrant workers across Michigan and the country.
The men are now imprisoned at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan, the Midwest’s largest ICE detention site, with nearly 1,800 beds. Their partners issued public pleas for their release. Franyl Huerta, speaking on behalf of Angel, described him as “a good father, a good son, and a good brother,” who came to the US “to seek a better future for his family.” Edwin’s partner, Maria Zambrano, explained that he is the family’s primary breadwinner, including for his mother, and that his arrest has thrown them into a financial crisis.
The Hazel Park raid has provoked widespread outrage, especially in the working-class and immigrant communities surrounding the Detroit area.
One Amazon worker at the Hazel Park facility stated she thought it was wrong that ICE was after the men, and that ICE’s presence at the facility was “intimidating everybody that works here.”
ICE has stepped up its presence around Michigan workplaces, schools and even daycare centers. In Ypsilanti, parents and teachers have reported sightings of unmarked cars near educational facilities, particularly in neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, and have been forced to draft emergency plans in case of raids.
Four individuals were recently seized by ICE in Ypsilanti. A man was violently arrested in Grand Rapids. His pleading cries for his lawyer in Spanish were captured on video as three ICE agents pinned him face-first in a snowbank.
ICE’s claim that it does not target sensitive areas like schools or bus stops has no credibility. On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration formally revoked the Biden-era policy restricting ICE from operating in such locations. A DHS memo explicitly listed schools among the areas where agents could now operate to “catch criminal aliens.” That ICE continues to deny these operations demonstrates its awareness that its actions are despised by broad layers of the population.
Students and youth have taken a leading role in opposing these raids. Over the past two weeks, hundreds of students have walked out of high schools and colleges across Michigan—including in Ann Arbor, Canton, Lansing, Grand Rapids and Detroit—in coordinated protests against ICE. On January 30, more than 1,000 joined the “Salt the Earth” protest in Ann Arbor, organized by University of Michigan student groups. “Our central demand is to abolish ICE,” said William Lewis, one of the organizers.
As anger has grown, several city councils in Michigan have moved to expand policies of non-cooperation with ICE. On February 2, the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously passed DC-3, which bars city officials and police from assisting ICE without a valid judicial warrant. Similar measures are under consideration in Ypsilanti. Washtenaw County has also prohibited ICE operations on county property without a warrant.
ICE is also seeking to expand its network of detention centers in Michigan. The cities of Highland Park and Romulus have both been identified as potential future locations for warehouse-based immigration detention centers. The Romulus proposal calls for a 500-bed facility. While these projects have been met with overwhelming opposition by communities, local politicians are maneuvering to contain opposition and work with ICE.
Alexis Ramsey, a member of the Highland Park Housing Commission and school board, stated that, while she is opposed to an ICE detention center opening in Highland Park, if one does move forward, the city “must be prepared to negotiate from a place of strength” to determine, in part, what “benefits” Highland Park residents can obtain from the project.
Meanwhile, ICE has enjoyed open collaboration from Michigan police agencies. As of this month, seven police and sheriff departments—including those in Berrien, Calhoun, Crawford, Jackson and Roscommon counties—have joined the 287(g) program, which formalizes local-federal ICE cooperation. Taylor and West Branch police departments have also signed on. Although Metro Flint’s police department withdrew from the program in October 2025, citing staffing issues, the move followed sustained pressure from immigrant rights advocates.
ICE’s deepening integration into public life has extended to universities. In late 2025, the University of Michigan–Dearborn invited ICE to recruit at a campus job fair. After protests from students and faculty, ICE withdrew—but not before the university administration defended the agency’s presence and insisted that ICE could enter public campus areas without a warrant. UM-Dearborn’s capitulation to ICE also follows the arrests of Chinese student researchers at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
The intensified targeting of workers—particularly Amazon Flex drivers—is not an accident. Amazon and other logistics companies are integrated into the operations of ICE through data sharing, surveillance infrastructure and the use of third-party delivery services, which include large numbers of immigrant and undocumented workers.
These events are taking place amid the Trump administration’s push to establish a presidential dictatorship. ICE is being groomed as a de facto paramilitary force loyal not to the Constitution or the rule of law, but to the occupant of the White House. Already, the agency is planning massive detention expansion—including in Michigan—and has been integrated into the political preparation for election interference, alongside threats to cancel or seize elections in key states like Georgia and Michigan.
The working class must draw the sharpest conclusions from these escalating operations. The seizure of workers at Amazon is not just an attack on immigrants—it is a warning to the entire working class, a hideous form of labor-discipline. Defending democratic rights requires the working class to break with existing political parties and to organize independently.
The International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) calls for the formation of rank-and-file committees in Amazon facilities, neighborhoods and schools to mobilize opposition to ICE and the broader attack on democratic rights. The strike wave and student walkouts across the US—including protests by New York City nurses, California healthcare workers and student youth—must be unified in a common struggle against repression, inequality and dictatorship.