KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
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Community organizations and a Kansas City immigration attorney shared their voices with KSHB 41 News after reports surfaced Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) toured a warehouse in Kansas City for a potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility.
READ MORE | Jackson Co. legislator says DHS touring south Kansas City warehouse for ICE detention facility
KSHB 41's Sarah Plake was at the south Kansas City warehouse, near the intersection of Missouri Highway 150 and Botts Road, while ICE agents were there Thursday morning.
Jackson County legislator Manny Abarca confirmed to KSHB 41 News he spoke with a DHS official inside the warehouse. Abarca said the official told him DHS toured the warehouse for a potential 7,500-bed detention center.
“What are we hearing? It’s not much from federal sources, and I think this is the disconnection that we’re seeing," Ryan Hudnall, executive director of Della Lamb Community Services, said. "There’s an absence of partnership between federal and local which is really bearing itself out, which is really causing issues of trust as we navigate how ICE is operating in our city."
Della Lamb Community Services is a refugee resettlement agency in Kansas City's Northeast neighborhood.
“As a resettlement agency, we just get the incredible opportunity to watch so many who are making Kansas City a home, and those who are coming are so rooted in the idea of Kansas City being a safe and healthy community," Hudnall said.
Hudnall said Friday, Jan. 16, will mark one year since Della Lamb has resettled someone in Kansas City. On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that suspended the United States Refugee Admissions Program until it "aligns with the interests of the United States."
"There’s an increasing restriction on legal pathways to get here, which we find deeply concerning," Hudnall said.
Hilary Singer is the executive director of Jewish Vocational Service, another refugee resettlement agency in Kansas City.
"A huge amount of fear from folks that we serve that have entered through the refugee process, who followed all of the rules, who underwent extensive vetting before entering the United States, and for them to be fearing for their safety and not wanting to leave their house, is really, we have come to a really devastating place," Singer said.
Singer said she thinks there is "a lot of fear" that ICE efforts in Minneapolis could "come into our region."
Rekha Sharma-Crawford is an immigration attorney in Kansas City. She said she thinks an ICE detention center in the area would be disruptive.
"I encourage local lawmakers to really step up, that they get involved, that if they are going to have this detention facility here, that there be adequate oversight over those detention facilities to ensure that human rights are not violated," Sharma-Crawford said.
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