• FBI agents and Ann Arbor Police stand outside the home of a pro-Palestine activist, April 23, 2025 (Instagram)

US law enforcement, including the FBI, stormed several residences in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Canton Township, Michigan, on April 23, targeting student organizers involved in pro-Palestine protests at the University of Michigan.

Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) stated that agents seized personal belongings, including electronics, during the raids. Four people were taken into custody but were later released.

The TAHRIR Coalition, a student group advocating for divestment from "Israel", reported that during the raid in Ypsilanti, officers initially declined to show warrants. The group also noted they could not verify if the ICE was involved in the operation.

BREAKING: Early this moring in Ypsi, Michigan the FBI/police raided the homes of Univ. of Mich. Pro-palestinian protestors, including a @CommunityMvt Builders member. They refused to show warrants, seized electronics & personal items. Temporarily holding 8 people. Updates to come pic.twitter.com/OvjLvHTyIQ

— Kamau Franklin (@kamaufranklin) April 23, 2025

Crackdown in Michigan

A Detroit FBI spokesperson declined to explain the reason for the warrants but confirmed the case is being handled by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who has not confirmed any link to Palestine activism. However, her office previously filed criminal charges against at least 11 protesters from last fall’s Gaza encampment at the University of Michigan.

Earlier this month, federal immigration agents detained and interrogated attorney Amir Makled, who is representing one of the targeted students.

Makled, who was returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic with his family, was questioned for 90 minutes but refused to hand his phone over to the agents.

Take a burner phone, or keep your phone turned off, when traveling through the U.S. border, recommends attorney Amir Makled.

Makled, who represents pro-Palestine student protesters, had his phone seized by federal agents while traveling. pic.twitter.com/ITpWqPQ2Ub

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) April 11, 2025

“The purpose of searching my phone doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism, there’s only a chilling effect, and it’s done to be intimidating, in my opinion, for the causes that I was engaging in,” Makled told NPR. “I’m standing up for students. I’m standing up for immigrants and political dissenters. And I think this was a way to try to dissuade me from taking on these types of cases.”

U-M Regents pressure Nessel to charge protesters

The Guardian investigated and revealed that the University of Michigan regents, six out of eight of whom donated over $33,000 to Dana Nessel’s campaigns, pressured her to pursue charges against student protesters. In response, Nessel took the cases from local District Attorney Eli Savit, a very rare move, as such matters are typically handled at the local level.

According to the University of Michigan website, Eli Savit is a lecturer at Michigan Law. After law school, Savit worked for two federal judges, then as an appellate and Supreme Court lawyer. 

“The University of Michigan’s alleged frustration with local prosecutors stems from a November campus sit-in at which Ann Arbor police arrested a group of 40 protesters,” The Guardian investigation explains. “[Savit had] announced in May that his office would dismiss 36 cases and recommend four for diversion programs where they faced a light punishment.”

“That incensed U-M’s pro-"Israel" regents and police department because they wanted swifter, tougher charges, according to sources with knowledge of the process,” it continues. “They then asked Nessel to take the cases and university police sent warrant requests to her office.”

In the context of Trump crackdown

The growing repression in Michigan is part of a broader nationwide crackdown on the pro-Palestine movement under the Trump administration, which has recently revoked hundreds, possibly thousands, of student visas, many belonging to individuals who protested the genocide in Gaza or publicly criticized "Israel".

This week, Senator Ed Markey and Representatives Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern (all Democrats from Massachusetts), Troy Carter (Democrat from Louisiana), and Bennie Thompson (Democrat from Mississippi) visited an immigration facility in Louisiana to meet with Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk and recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, both facing deportation over their support for Gaza.

What we saw & heard in Louisiana was harrowing. It was heartbreaking & it is enraging.

Our visit was about accountability, transparency, & affirming that no one in America should have their constitutional rights to free speech & due process ripped away.

Free Rümeysa & Mahmoud. pic.twitter.com/tfezLvGKW0

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) April 23, 2025

“We can’t stand by while the Trump Administration violates free speech and unlawfully detains people with no due process,” Pressley posted on X.