Protesters lined M-37 in Baldwin Saturday, pumping their fists, raising signs and chanting slogans to oppose the operation of the North Lake Correctional Facility.
The 1,800-bed facility was reopened by Geo Group last week to be used as a federal immigration processing center. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed that the facility has taken in its first detainees.
At capacity, it will be the largest immigration processing center in the Midwest and one of the largest in the nation.
Eric Lampinen of the Manistee Democratic Party, the major organizer of Saturday's protest, said their goal was to raise public awareness that Geo Group "cages human beings."
"There is no benefit to having this prison here – for anyone other than Geo Group and their shareholders," Lampinen said. "It doesn't help the community. It doesn't help the immigrant population. It doesn't help anybody."
Geo Group is a private held corporation that owns or operates prisons and immigrant detention centers across the country and internationally.
In a March press release, George C. Zoley, Geo Group's chairman, CEO and founder, expressed his support for the facility's partnership with ICE.
"We expect that our company-owned North Lake Facility in Michigan will play an important role in helping meet the need for increased federal immigration processing center bedspace," Zoley said in that statement.
Protesters who gathered Saturday to oppose the Baldwin facility were waving signs and chanting phrases like "ICE and Geo's got to go!"
One protester beat on a hand drum, providing a consistent beat behind the shouting and honking of car horns.
Another protester, who identified herself only as "Irene" and wore a bandana over her face to conceal her identity, said she did not want to be "doxed" for participating in the event.
"I just cannot stand idly by while somewhere so close to where I grew up is turned into what I feel is a concentration camp," she said.
She expressed the hope that the protest would help others "gain empathy" toward immigrants.
Another protester who identified himself as James said he wants those communities that are negatively affected by the North Lake facility to "feel seen" and know that they have support.
"An injustice on any of us is an injustice to all of us," he said. "And we have to take it with that kind of seriousness."
Lampinen said he attempted to include Baldwin residents in the protest, but was not able to contact anyone.
In the past, the North Lake facility has provided employment for Baldwin, which has recorded a 20.6% poverty rate –more than 1.5 times the national rate.
But the facility has not been a consistent source of support, closing and reopening four times in the past 25 years.
"Baldwin is a great community," Lampinen said. "I've lived in Manistee for 47 years and I come down here fairly often and it's a great community. And you know, we want to have solidarity with Baldwin, it's another northern Michigan town that struggles – just like the rest of them."
Maggie Doyle is a volunteer for No Detention Centers in Michigan, a coalition that aims to abolish immigration detention and migrant incarceration.
Halfway through the protest, Doyle stood on a picnic table to give a speech and pointed out that the location of this facility in Baldwin makes sense.
"They looked at Lake County, one of the poorest in Michigan, and saw vulnerability, and this is not an accident," Doyle said. "This is not the system being broken. This is the system working exactly as it was designed to, to make money off the suffering of others."
Listeners cheered and applauded her comments.
"I hope people keep their foot on the gas, I think that this is the time we hold legislators' feet to the fire," Doyle said. "I'm really proud to be here with so many Michiganders fighting this."
Lampinen said he hopes people will take action and "get involved" in the movement against corporations such as GEO Group.
"We need to contact our state and local representatives," Lampinen said. "We need to contact our congressional representatives and our senators and say, 'No more, no more, get it out of here, close these places down.' "
GEO Group offered no further comment beyond its press release.
This story was produced by the Michigan News Group Internship Program, a collaboration between WCMU Public Media and local newspapers in central and northern Michigan. The program's mission is to train the next generation of journalists and combat the rise of rural news deserts.
Copyright 2025 WCMU