Human Impact Project

ICE conducted a multi-day operation called 'Operation Safe Community - Kansas' from September 22-25, 2026, arresting about 104 people in Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal, Hutchinson, Larned and other southwest Kansas communities, including workers at meat processing plants like National Beef and Cargill. Liberal Vice Mayor Janeth Vazquez witnessed agents detain a mother with a baby in her car, and a community volunteer arranged for a family member to retrieve the child. Viridiana Boron, a legal permanent resident from Mexico who came to the U.S. after her family was threatened, spent days delivering meals cooked by her mother and sister to roughly 200 families too afraid to leave their homes, and said she herself felt frightened despite having proper documentation, describing agents stopping cars based on whether someone appeared Hispanic or Latino. Advocates said many detainees had no criminal records, while the U.S. Attorney's Office named five arrestees with convictions including homicide, kidnapping, and sexual assault, disputing claims the operation amounted to discriminatory sweeps. The operation caused widespread disruption, with 120 students absent from one elementary school and businesses closing for the week. Officials did not release a full roster of those arrested or disclose their detention locations.

Frank Duran, a Cargill meat plant worker in Dodge City, and his 20-year-old daughter Guadalupe Navarrete, who works at National Beef in Liberal, were pulled over by an ICE vehicle with sirens while driving home from work in southwest Kansas. An officer approached Navarrete, who was driving, demanding identification but did not respond when she asked if he had a warrant or why they were stopped. Both are U.S. citizens who have lived in Kansas their entire lives, and Navarrete was left shaking and crying after the officer scanned her identification. She told her father, "We're both born here in Kansas. We're legal citizens, Dad. They profiled us." Duran said he believed they had been racially profiled. They were not detained and were allowed to leave after the stop, which occurred amid a broader ICE enforcement action targeting meat processing plants in the region.

Ubaldo Marquez Calderon, 67, was a longtime De Soto, Kansas resident known for biking around town collecting aluminum cans and feeding stray cats at a trailer park every morning. ICE detained him on September 13 at a Casey's gas station near the local high school and held him at the CoreCivic-run Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth. His attorney, Chad Sublet, said Calderon signed a voluntary departure document he did not understand, and while detained he developed a urinary tract infection after being denied water. After more than 20 years living in the U.S. with no criminal record, Calderon was removed to Mexico, arriving around September 28. De Soto community members paid for his flight to Jalisco, and neighbors described him as a 'staple in the community,' saying the town feels 'pretty broken' without him.

ICE agents conducted large-scale enforcement operations in Dodge City, Garden City, and Liberal, Kansas—an area known as the 'golden triangle of beef'—arriving around September 22-23 and departing roughly three days later. Agents in unmarked vans and plain clothes stopped vehicles and detained dozens of people in surrounding communities, including a mother taken into custody with her baby, prompting a volunteer to arrange for a relative to retrieve the child. Hispanic and Latino residents described being stopped based on appearance, with agents even entering a local restaurant before being told to leave. Advocates said many detained had no criminal records, while Dodge City schools warned families of possible relative detentions and 120 students missed school at one elementary school. Community organizer Amy Soberanes delivered food to frightened residents and described children crying over detained parents, while worker Deymi Anayela Martinez Lemus described an empty parking lot and short staffing at area plants operated by Cargill and National Beef. Businesses closed or slowed operations, USDA data showed reduced cattle processing, and industry groups estimated millions in lost revenue. About 200 people protested in downtown Dodge City calling for immigration reform, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 2 condemned the operation. Kansas Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall criticized ICE for failing to coordinate with local officials, while DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said ICE targeted people with final removal orders and criminal histories rather than conducting worksite operations.

Ana Sanchez Ortiz's mother, who has lived in the U.S. since age 16 and worked for years at National Beef Packing Co. while regularly checking in with ICE, was detained on Sept. 23, 2026, despite a 2011 citizenship petition filed on her behalf that never resulted in naturalization. Family members could not locate her in the federal detention system for several days, and although her daughter rushed diabetes and blood pressure medication to the local jail, ICE agents reportedly would not give it to her. The family later learned she was being held in California and traveled there to try to help her, according to Sanchez Ortiz, a senior bank branch manager who became a U.S. citizen through DACA after arriving in the country at age 4.

A Guatemalan man was detained by ICE agents near his home in Dodge City on Sept. 23, 2026, just days after he and his wife brought their newborn son home from the hospital. His wife said agents stopped the family as they traveled home and that her 4-year-old son watched his father be taken away. The man had previously sought asylum and protection under the Convention Against Torture after fleeing gang recruitment threats in Guatemala, but an appeals court upheld denial of his claims; he had been in the U.S. on a work permit that was not renewed. He is the breadwinner for a household of seven, including his wife, three children, his mother, and a younger brother who is deaf, and he told his wife by phone he expected to be deported to Guatemala after being held in San Diego.

Tomas Pacajoj Lastor, known as "the mechanic," was detained by ICE on September 22, 2026, around 7:35 a.m. while driving his young son to school. His daughter Baudelia searched for him through multiple phone calls as he was transferred between detention facilities before she confirmed his location and safety. He has not yet been given a court date and is working with an attorney, while his family describes him as a hardworking provider and devoted father who regularly helped neighbors in need. His detention has left the family struggling financially, as his daughter postponed her college plans at Emporia State University to help care for her nine-year-old sibling and support her mother, who has ongoing health issues.

A father who co-owns a food truck business with his wife was detained by ICE on a Tuesday morning while leaving home to take his children to school. His family describes him as a calm, loving, and hardworking man deeply involved in his community. With him detained, his wife is now struggling to keep the family's food truck business running while covering household expenses and attorney fees.

The petitioner is being held in immigration detention at the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Kansas under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a), which allows for discretionary release on bond. In an earlier habeas case, the court ruled on June 3, 2026 that his detention was governed by this discretionary bond statute and ordered the government to provide him a bond hearing before an immigration judge. That immigration judge subsequently denied his request for release on bond. He has now filed a new habeas petition arguing that changed circumstances entitle him to a second bond hearing under federal regulations, and he states he is simultaneously requesting such a hearing from the immigration court. He is separately appealing his removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals but is not challenging that order or the immigration judge's initial bond denial in this petition. The court found he had not yet shown any violation of federal law, since the government has not denied his pending request for a second hearing. The judge ordered him to show cause by September 25, 2026 why the petition should not be denied, noting the case could become moot if the second hearing is granted or could proceed if the request is denied or ignored.

Katsiaryna Bartko, a 33-year-old Belarusian asylum seeker and thyroid cancer survivor, is being held at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, Kansas, where her partner says her medical condition has severely deteriorated. Lab records show her thyroid-stimulating hormone level spiked to more than 31 times the normal range, with dropping calcium levels causing pain, spasms and voice loss, and she has not been seen by an endocrinologist despite a referral. Days before a federal court hearing on her medical care, she was moved to a solitary isolation room and staff allegedly attempted to confiscate legal documents she had prepared for the hearing. Bartko entered the U.S. legally in 2022 and applied for asylum in 2023 after speaking out against the Belarusian government and the war in Ukraine.

Oscar Sanchez-Corona, a 36-year-old construction worker who was brought to the U.S. as an infant and grew up attending Shawnee Mission schools, was detained by ICE agents on August 18 while pouring concrete at a job site in Lawrence, Kansas, shackled in front of coworkers. Over 18 days he was transferred through Leavenworth's Midwest Regional Reception Center, Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana, and a facility in El Paso, Texas, describing leaking ceilings, understaffed units, inadequate food, denial of contact lens solution, and witnessing other detainees struggle to get insulin; he said he lost eight pounds. He was ultimately deported on foot into Juarez, Mexico, separating him from the two elementary school-aged children he shares custody of in Johnson County. DHS cited reinstatement of a prior removal order tied to a teenage misdemeanor property-damage charge, a 2013 deportation after failing to comply with a voluntary departure order, illegal re-entry, and convictions for drug paraphernalia possession, criminal property damage, and driving without a license. A family friend, Skylar Roush, described him as 'a regular American guy' who lived a peaceful life as a worker and father, and his daughter drew a picture asking ICE not to take him away.

William Israel Martinez Ruiz, 42, a construction worker from Kansas City, Kansas, was pulled over by Anderson County sheriff's deputies in Garnett on August 24, 2026, for a burned-out license plate light while driving his son, Kansas Army National Guard member Louis Martinez, to a state active duty mission for storm disaster cleanup. Deputies discovered his driver's license was expired and questioned him and his wife about their immigration status; he was arrested for driving without a valid license. Under the county's 287(g) agreement with ICE, a detainer was issued the same day, and ICE arrested him on August 26 for unlawful presence. Martinez Ruiz, who had previously held a U visa but did not renew it, is being held without bail at the CoreCivic-operated Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, with a bond hearing scheduled for October 14; his family says he has a pending application to legally remain in the country. ICE has also cited a 2024 federal trespassing arrest it said occurred in Virginia, but his son disputed the location and court records show the incident actually took place at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where the case was later dismissed. His son said, "I'm serving this country, I'm proudly serving, and I love the mission I took on. It honestly feels like betrayal."

The petitioner filed a habeas corpus petition on August 25, 2026, challenging her detention by immigration officials and seeking to stop her removal from the United States. She had previously been held within the District of Kansas, but by the time her petition was filed she had already been transported outside Kansas en route to a detention facility in Texas for her removal by charter flight. She sought a temporary restraining order to block her removal to an alternative third country, arguing due process required certain procedures first. The court held it lacked jurisdiction because she was not confined within the district at the time of filing, and found no evidence the government concealed her location or moved her to evade habeas jurisdiction. The court also concluded that 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g) stripped it of jurisdiction to enjoin execution of her removal order. As a result, the court denied the TRO motion and ordered respondents to file a status update on her removal by September 2, 2026.

Elmer Omar Guevara-Martinez, 28, from Honduras, was pursued by ICE agents on July 26, 2026, during an enforcement operation in Kansas City, Kansas, and was pinned against a plate glass window, crashing through it and severely lacerating his lower right leg to the bone. Witnesses said agents chased and tackled him near 8th Street and Minnesota Avenue after he ran out of fear. His family says the injuries affected his feet, the area below his knee, and his tendons, requiring surgery, and that he remains hospitalized and unable to walk. Guevara-Martinez came to the U.S. from Honduras seven years ago, works as a painter, had no criminal record, was not under a removal order, and was pursuing legal status; his wife, Gracy Venegas, and friend Ronnie Padilla said he was in significant pain after the incident.

Adrian Mendoza, an Ecuadoran man who fled persecution in 2023, was detained during an ICE raid at a food manufacturing plant in the Kansas City area. His wife, Aylin Castro, was not notified by ICE and learned of his detention through social media when agents detained eight people at the facility. Castro told KCUR 893 that the last message she received from Mendoza came as he said goodbye, telling her he loved her and thanking her for breakfast she had packed in his lunchbox.

A 20-year-old lawful permanent resident was detained for hours on July 11 during an ICE operation at an apartment complex in Olathe. He was arrested alongside his cousin, Alan Marquez, after ICE agents claimed both men rammed or attempted to ram into federal agents—a claim the men deny. Police transported both men to county jail and held them for several hours before they were released without criminal charges. The legal permanent resident fears that pursuing legal action could jeopardize his immigration status and has decided not to pursue the matter.

Alan Marquez, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, was detained for hours on July 11 after an encounter with ICE agents at an apartment complex in Olathe. Marquez stopped to watch an immigration enforcement operation when ICE agent Jack Ravencamp approached his red truck and pepper-sprayed his vehicle before reversing into it, causing damage to the door and side mirror. Video evidence reviewed by the Post shows the agent reversing into Marquez's truck. Marquez was handcuffed and transported to county jail by Olathe police and held for several hours before being released without criminal charges. Marquez, a U.S. citizen, says he intends to challenge what happened and pursue a damages claim for the vehicle.

Eight workers were detained during an ICE and Homeland Security Investigations operation at La Fontanella Foods, a food manufacturing warehouse in Kansas City's Historic Northeast, on July 9, 2026. The operation began around 9:45 a.m. and lasted approximately two and a half hours, involving seven to ten federal agents and Jackson County sheriff deputies. A worker reported that agents initially stated no one would be taken into custody and were there only to obtain documents, but later detained the eight people. Agents removed boxes of documents and computers from the facility. Federal officials claimed they were executing a federal criminal search warrant, but no witnesses or employees saw the warrant, and one officer acknowledged not personally carrying a copy. The operation was part of intensified ICE enforcement across the Kansas City metro during June and July 2026.

A stay-at-home father of four young children, including a 4-year-old, was detained by five ICE agents in tactical gear from his front yard on July 9, 2026, while mowing his lawn. His wife was asleep inside and his children woke to find him gone without any opportunity for him to explain what happened. Neighbor Stephen Parish witnessed the arrest, which took only minutes, and noted the family's distress. As of July 10, the man remained in custody. His case exemplifies the dozens of ICE arrests reported across the Kansas City metro during an intensified enforcement surge in June and July 2026.

On June 30, an unmarked ICE squad surrounded a work truck in Olathe and shattered the driver's window, dragging the man through the broken glass while morning traffic passed.