At First Baptist Church in south Kansas City on Monday night, concerned residents gathered to learn how they can better support immigrants and fight federal immigration enforcement.
In a moderated discussion, local faith leaders and immigration advocates acknowledged attendees were scared, particularly of increased federal immigration presence in Kansas City, and offered ways people can help. They suggested calling Congressional representatives, signing up to observe immigration court or volunteering with local group Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation. MORE2, a social justice advocacy group, hosted the event.
Ivan Ramirez, a Kansas City resident, talked about his experience as an immigrant in the U.S. He came to the U.S. from Mexico in 2000, when he was 13.
He said classmates hardly spoke with him or got to know him.
“I remember I was silent for about eighth grade, all the way until I graduated, even into my community college years,” Ramirez said. “I did not know the culture. The food was different, the music was different, the people were different.”
Ramirez reminded the audience that the current slate of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies from the Trump administration is not new.
“I had to wear my armor for 15 years,” Ramirez said. “Hiding the accent, the way I speak, hiding the way I dress.”
Ramirez works at Revolucion Educativa, a local nonprofit focused on Latino families and educators. He said he worries about the families and children he works with.
“If I'm scared as a full adult,” he said, “how are they feeling?”
Ramirez said it’s overwhelming right now to feel proud of his identity, especially as anti-immigrant sentiment proliferates.
“It's scary to be at the front and also lead people, because you yourself are scared,” he said. “But there's courage that has to come from somewhere — for the love of others, for the love of the community — that has it to overpower those fears.”
Monday’s meeting comes Kansas City residents grow increasingly outraged and afraid over the Trump administration’s plans to build a large Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Kansas City. KCUR reported last month that federal agents with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security toured a warehouse in south Kansas City with an eye to transform it into an immigrant detention center.
The action spurred the Kansas City Council to pass a ban on any permits or local approvals for such a facility. The news has also become a focal point of recent local protests against ICE and Trump’s anti-immigrant policies.
“That's what we're afraid of,” Angela Ferguson, an immigration attorney, said of the proposed immigrant detention center. “They'll be bringing in detainees from other states to be housed here in the Midwest.”
Ferguson said she’s seen how Trump’s policies have upended proceedings in court, leading to immigration agents detaining more people.
“There are traps being set. Folks going to their interviews with immigration thinking that they're there for a benefit, and instead, they're not coming out the front door,” she said.
Instead, Ferguson said, they are detained and then deported.
Rev. Bobby Love, a pastor at Second Baptist Church of Olathe, drew parallels between law enforcement’s actions against immigrants and the violent tactics police wielded against Black people during the Civil Rights movement.
“See, justice means different things to different people, depending upon your station in life,” Love said. “If you're well-to-do, and you're privileged, and you got everything that you think you have, justice allows you to dictate what justice is for somebody else.”
Several attendees raised their hand when asked if they felt lost and didn’t know what action to take. Rev. Shanna Steitz from Community Christian Church had some advice.
“We can show up in little ways of kindness and compassion,” she said. “They can keep us in a space of hope, so that we can keep doing things and showing up for other people who are afraid.”
Leslie Borden attended the meeting. She said she’s going to keep reaching out to her Congressional representatives to voice her concerns about federal immigration enforcement.
“We have lots of work to do,” she said. “But I'm also hopeful that there is a community of people that are interested in tearing down the walls, and trying to face our own discriminatory practices and our own privilege, and see what we can do to be better.”
