Kamala Harris in Detroit: Grants for small businesses, auto suppliers announced

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Charles H. Wright Museum in Detroit on Monday, announcing that millions of dollars will be going towards mom-and-pop businesses and auto suppliers.

"I am proud to announce we are investing $100 million in small and medium-sized auto supply companies, many of which are black-owned and based right here in Michigan," Harris told the crowd. "These grants will allow businesses to upgrade production, and production lines, to produce parts for electric vehicles." 

Harris stopped in Detroit as part of her Economic Opportunity Tour, to talk about the impact of investing into small businesses and to address the challenges they face – like Black entrepreneurs and people of color being denied access to loans.

So, she's determined to change that.

"I’m also pleased to announce the launch of a new program that will match government-backed loans with private equity capital, to help small and mid-sized auto suppliers access loans from a quarter-million dollars to $10 million dollars," Harris said.

The strength of the economy rests on the strength of small businesses, and especially the supply chain, Harris said. This million-dollar investment will help to keep the auto industry afloat and competitive.

"I believe every person in our country must have access to the opportunity to compete, to succeed, and to thrive," the VP said.

While Pro-Palestine protesters marched through Wayne State, down Woodward and Warren – near the museum where Harris spoke, she did not comment on the latest Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.

Until the proposal is official, protesters will continue to take their message to the streets.

"We're demanding they ensure an immediate and permanent ceasefire and that we halt all military aid to Israel because of their ongoing stance in the genocide that’s happening in Palestine, particularly in Gaza," Lexis Zeidan, an organizer, said. "The fact that you’re trying to drop aid in one hand, and then you’re funding the bombs that are decimating Palestinian homes in another is so hypocritical.

"You can’t come into our cities, and you can't come into our states and ignore the demands that the people have made, especially here in Michigan… The birth of the uncommitted movement." 

In February, during the primaries, 100,000 voters hit ‘uncommitted’ on the ballot, which Zeidan says sent a clear message – more than a president, they want a ceasefire.

It is the same message that college students are delivering with encampments nationwide.

"I think that the students are always in the right side of history. From apartheid South Africa, when they protested against that, to the Vietnam War, when they protested against that," Zeisan said. "In ‘82, Reagan called and demanded that the israeli military get their tanks and their missiles out of southern Lebanon when they tried to occupy it, and he shut it down in less than a day. Biden can do the exact same thing and, unfortunately, he just continues to wait for more and more lives to be massacred and decimated in Palestine, to react – and we can't wait any longer."

Hamas announced its acceptance Monday of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its "core demands" and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Still, Israel said it would continue negotiations.