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KSHB 41 News has been investigating the potential for an ICE detention center in Kansas City, Missouri, since anchor/I-Team reporter Sarah Plake broke the story last month.
Plake reported on talks of a potential ICE facility in south Kansas City, along with KSHB 41 News reporter Rachel Henderson's coverage of CoreCivic's proposed site in Leavenworth and a local congressman offering a site in Cass County.
A viewer sent an email to our newsroom with a question: If one site is approved, do they need the other?
We reached out to ICE and CoreCivic.
Ryan Gustin, senior director of public affairs for CoreCivic, referred us to ICE. We had not heard back from ICE at the time this story was published.
Kansas City is not the only city grappling with vague, limited details about the potential of an ICE detention center in its area.
A list reportedly containing the locations of two dozen potential sites circulated on social media, with the source of the list still unconfirmed.
That's how protesters knew on Jan. 15 to come to 14901 Botts Road in south Kansas City.
"I saw them, and I saw Kansas City, and I saw the address," Melissa Kane told us that day.
It's the same location where a tipster told us ICE would be touring a massive warehouse. That tip turned out to be true; we saw ICE officials at the site.
Jackson County Legislator Manny Abarca was let inside the building that day and said he talked to Shawn Byers, a deputy field office director with ICE.
"They're talking everything that was suggested: 75, 7,600 beds," Abarca told us after meeting with Department of Homeland Security officials.
Salt Lake City, Utah, is also on that list. Backlash followed when the information became public, and protesters gathered outside a warehouse there.
The Scripps News station in Salt Lake recently reported that a local business said it would not sell that warehouse to ICE. KSHB 41 News is also a Scripps station.
In Surprise, Arizona, hundreds of people packed a city council meeting on Tuesday to talk about a recently purchased warehouse for ICE.
All the other locations we have researched are also large warehouses, most located in industrial areas. They range from around 400,000 square feet to more than a million square feet.
The sites would either be mega centers or processing sites containing thousands of people.
The Kansas City site is roughly 920,000 square feet.
The Kansas City, Missouri, City Council passed a five-year moratorium banning any non-municipal detention centers. It spurred some discussion about its effectiveness if the federal government ends up buying the south Kansas City property at 14901 Botts Road.
Legislator Abarca introduced a similar ordinance at the Jackson County Legislature meeting on Feb. 2, which would ban permit and zoning approvals for non-county or municipal government-owned detention facilities.
Platform Ventures, the investment firm that owns the south Kansas City warehouse, said "negotiations are complete" after receiving an unsolicited offer in October to buy the property.
"PV does not question prospective buyers on their intent after close, and we will not engage in public conversations involving speculation over future uses," Platform Ventures said in a statement on Jan. 16.
County records do not reflect a sale has gone through yet.
Port KC provided millions in incentives and tax breaks to Platform Ventures to build the warehouse with the hope of it spurring economic development.
After learning of the potential sale to ICE, Port KC said it plans to dissolve its agreement with Platform Ventures. The agenda item was originally supposed to be discussed on Jan. 23 but was rescheduled. The new date has not been announced.
The news of the potential ICE facility has been met with mixed reaction, but most of the talking comes from activists speaking out against ICE operations and groups urging Platform Ventures not to sell to ICE.
An ICE spokesperson told KSHB 41 it does not have any new detention centers to announce.
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