immigration

The arrests of the workers at El Potro Mexican Café in February were among the first in the Kansas City area to draw widespread media attention. Immigration attorneys sued the Trump administration for making arrests without a warrant.

Leo Cruz-Silva, 34, was arrested for public intoxication and died by apparent suicide after just one day at an ICE detention center in Ste. Genevieve. He is at least the 15th ICE detainee death nationwide, and the second in Missouri this year.

The move comes amid President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement practices garnering increasing criticism. Kehoe said that Missouri National Guard troops will help with "administrative, clerical and logistical duties."

Owen Ramsingh, a legal permanent resident who lives in Columbia, was detained by ICE in Chicago last Tuesday after flying home from a three-week visit to the Netherlands. Authorities are citing past drug convictions from the 1990s.

National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15 to October 15. Consul Soileh Padilla Mayer, who leads the Mexican Consulate in Kansas City, is spending this month making sure that Latino residents are being treated fairly around the metro, especially as the Trump administration ramps up deportation efforts.

The federal government joined the private prison company CoreCivic in its legal fight against the city of Leavenworth, which has been fighting in court to stop the reopening of a controversial detention center for immigrants.

Former detainees are speaking out about what they say are poor conditions at an immigration detention center in eastern Kansas.

Detainees in a Cottonwood Falls jail describe sleeping on the floor in overcapacity cells. Amid a national deportation surge, this jail is one of the region’s primary immigration detention centers.

The ICE 287(g) program is expanding in the Midwest, and immigration advocates say there’s not enough oversight. This month, the Department of Homeland Security announced new financial incentives that could boost local involvement even further.

Employees at the General Services Administration are scrambling to lease offices to accommodate a rapid increase of immigration enforcement officers carrying out widespread raids across the country. Kansas City is one of the places where federally-owned or leased property might be used.

President Donald Trump’s travel ban and delays in visa applications have blocked some international students from coming to the U.S. to study this fall. International students contribute more than $40 billion to the U.S. economy and could equate to a billion dollar loss to schools and the local communities they serve.

The $500,000 grant will help Overland Park make its streets safer. But several community members raised concerns that the Trump administration's terms require cooperation with immigration enforcement and compliance with executive orders banning diversity.