She was injured while filming ICE in Lawrence. Kansas police won’t press charges
Alicia Kinuwan was leaving the Dollar Tree on West 27th Street in Lawrence, Kansas, with her mother Tuesday morning when she noticed several unmarked vehicles near a fast-food chicken restaurant.
Several individuals, wearing bulletproof vests marked “ICE,” were gathered near a Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers when she decided to start recording, she said.
Immigration agents allegedly detained five people in Lawrence Tuesday, according to video and photos captured by bystanders, including Kinuwan.
“So we’re just driving by trying to film it, to, you know, just let everybody know, you know, that ICE is in town, and they’re doing things out here,” Kinuwan said in a phone interview with The Star Tuesday evening.
She was struggling to capture video of a vehicle’s license plate when she decided to pull into a gas station to get a closer look.
‘I don’t know why they did that to me’
Kinuwan had “no intention” of obstructing or “being verbal” with ICE agents, she said in a social media post Tuesday evening.
She was parked away from agents, she said, when a vehicle pulled in front of her.
“...and this guy with a bunch of tattoos and a crazy hairdo started yelling at me to ‘get back, get back,’” Kinuwan said.
In a video of the incident posted to Kinuwan’s social media, a man wearing a tactical vest with a badge reading “ICE officer,” can can be heard saying, “Get back, get back, get all the way back.”
Kinuwan appears to retreat, asking the man, “How far back?”
He then points behind the woman, telling her , “That far.” Kinuwan verbally affirmed that she understood the man.
“And right when he said that is when I finally got that license plate,” Kinuwan told The Star.
She was attempting to walk back to her vehicle, she said, when the man advanced towards her.
“Get back, I said,” the man said in the video.
Several times, Kinuwan can be heard telling the man she needed to get back to her car. The man continued to tell her to “get back.”
There’s a brief moment of silence before the man appears to bump into Kinuwan, yelling, “Get back! I’m not gonna tell you again!”
Kinuwan told The Star something on the man’s vest became caught on her arm, and he jumped on her “with all his weight.”
“I’m just using my camera and walking by. This is a public place, it’s a business, where they welcome people on their property... because it’s a business,” Kinuwan said. “And this person is just out here terrorizing and then proceeds to hurt me.”
During Kinuwan’s interaction with the ICE agent, a man nearby was being detained by several additional agents at the location.
Two agents were allegedly “funneling” the man’s upper body, Kinuwan said, while one attempted to tie up the man’s legs. At one point, a fourth agent retrieved an extra pair of handcuffs.
“Because apparently they don’t know how their cuffs work. I don’t know what they were doing, but they were taking extra long with just one man who was visibly cooperating,” Kinuwan said.
During the ordeal, Kinuwan said she remained at least 15–20 feet away from agents, and around 30–40 feet away from the man being detained.
Running on adrenaline, Kinuwan got into her vehicle and began driving away when a dark-colored vehicle she suspects contained ICE agents pulled up next to her at an intersection. The vehicle matched one Kinuwan had captured on video moments before.
In a second video posted to Kinuwan’s Facebook page, the vehicle can be heard revving its engine before it appeared to stop in the street. Kinuwan can be heard yelling, “Get to work, you’re blocking the highway!” before the vehicle pulls ahead of her.
“So I was like, who are these people? Like, you know, like, oh, why are you harassing us?” Kinuwan told The Star. “Like, yeah, you already hurt me. What? What else do you want?”
The whole ordeal left Kinuwan “taken aback,” and she was left to wonder why agents engaged with her in the first place.
“I don’t know why they did that to me. Maybe it’s fun for them to cause drama and violence, but I don’t see anything, what anyone did wrong, what could we have done differently?” Kinuwan said. “The only ones that could have done anything differently was ICE.”
Around 15 minutes later, Kinuwan was trying to push a cart at a local grocery store when she realized her arm was numb.
“I can’t even grip the cart,” Kinuwan said.
After realizing she was injured, Kinuwan, who needs her arms to work, decided to call police.
Lawrence police say charges can’t be filed until ICE internal investigation conducted
After leaving the grocery store and posting videos of the incident online, Kinuwan called the Lawrence Police Department, hoping to file a report about the incident.
She told an officer that the interaction involved ICE agents, because she was concerned about the violence displayed during the interaction.
“You know, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt, and just let people know like they’re here, this is what they do and they’re here,” Kinuwan said.
Kinuwan gave the officer a potential name for the man, the license plate number of the car he was driving and a physical description of him, down to his tattoos.
But the officer told her there was nothing the department could do.
“The Lawrence Police Department told me that they cannot do anything unless ICE internal investigation deems his actions as against their policy,” Kinuwan said. “And if they do decide, you know, in their own investigation of themselves that they did something wrong, then the Lawrence police will possibly file battery charges on him.”
Lawrence Police Department Communications Manager Laura McCabe told The Star in an email Friday morning that an officer spoke with Kinuwan around an hour after the incident Tuesday.
The officer created an informational report and provided her with a link to submit video of the interaction, McCabe said.
The officer also told Kinuwan she would need to file an internal report with ICE, and that it would be up to that agency “to decide whether or not it was an appropriate use of force to maintain a safe environment,” McCabe said.
The Lawrence Police department does not conduct immigration enforcement operations, McCabe said. According to the department’s immigration policy, employees cannot “stop, question, arrest, or detain any individual based solely upon actual or suspected citizenship or immigration status.” The department does not enter individual’s immigration status information into the National Crime Information Database unless required to do so by law.
McCabe said that because of the Supremacy Clause in the U.S. Constitution, local police can’t interfere with the work of federal officers. She said Lawrence police officers are unable to “physically intervene during ICE enforcement actions, just as it is for citizens to interfere with any law enforcement action.”
The department’s immigration policy says ICE can request assistance from the department, and all requests must be directed to a supervisor, who may then contact ICE. Supervisors will assess if the situation calls for the department to be involved, the policy said.
If the department deems it necessary to respond to assist ICE, officers will assume “non-contact positions, such as securing the perimeter or observational positions, unless a public safety situation occurs.”
“Our concern during this time is that witnesses and victims of crimes unrelated to immigration issues may fear calling LKPD,” McCabe said. “If anyone witnesses a crime or is a victim of crime unrelated to immigration enforcement, please do not hesitate to call.”
The immigration policy said victims and witnesses of crimes “should not be the focus of immigration inquiries,” and they should “feel secure that contacting or being addressed by members of law enforcement will not automatically lead to immigration inquiry and/or deportation.”
According to ICE’s firearms and use of force policy, agents are only authorized to use force when “no reasonably effective, safe, and feasible alternative appears to exist,” and can only use “the level of force that is objectively reasonable” in the situation’s circumstances.
The policy’s general guidelines state that agents are not required to retreat from situations to avoid “the reasonable use of force,” and are not required to be attacked first before using force against a subject. They are required, however, to attempt to verbally deescalate a situation that may become “potentially violent,” but only “when feasible” to do so.
Agents are required to intervene when witnessing perceived use of excessive force from another agent, according to the policy. Excessive force from agents is “strictly prohibited.”
Additionally, the policy says ICE employees may be subject to disciplinary or “other appropriate” action if they don’t comply with the policy.
Erin Bultje, the north deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, did not immediately respond to The Star’s request for comment.
ICE did not immediately respond to an email from The Star Thursday sent to its media request email.
‘Why did they pick little Lawrence?’
Kinuwan is no stranger to “cop watching” in the Lawrence area. Local police officers are familiar with her, she said, because Tuesday’s interaction was not the first time she’s recorded a law enforcement situation.
It’s the first time, though, that she’s ever been injured while doing so.
“Out of one of maybe 200 times doing that, the one time I actually film ICE doing something, I get hurt by them,” Kinuwan said. “So I’m very surprised, taken aback. Normally I’m like, all about constitutional rights, and I feel like I don’t have any rights now.”
Early Thursday morning, Kinuwan posted on social media that she still had “pins and needles” in her right arm. She’s undergone an x-ray, and will get an electromyography nerve test. She’s “practicing being ambidextrous,” struggling to work using a mouse in her left hand.
Filming law enforcement officials in a public setting is legal in the United States, including in both Kansas and Missouri. The American Civil Liberties Union says the action is protected by the U.S. Constitution.
“I’m raised to always stand up for what’s right and try to be brave,” Kinuwan said. “This is like… I don’t know, it’s just a lot. Because I’m just… I’m just a mom, you know?”
A Lakota woman, Kinuwan referenced an alleged incident in Lawrence that happened over the weekend at a Lawrence WalMart, during which she said several Haskell Indian Nations University students were detained by ICE agents.
Sanctuary Alliance, a local Lawrence group, confirmed in a social media post that agents were in that area on Feb. 12.
On Feb. 20 at 2 p.m., students at Haskell are sponsoring a rally at South Park, on Massachusetts Street, to peacefully protest the actions of ICE agents in Lawrence, according to a social media post from the Douglas County Democratic Party.
“And these people, coming around, trying to decide who can and cannot be here, and also deciding who can and cannot fail and who can and cannot exist during their invisible crime scene that, you know, I didn’t even know was part of a crime scene,” Kinuwan said.
Kinuwan encouraged the Native American community to stay vigilant. She said individuals should keep tribal ID’s on their person at all times, and not put themselves in danger.
“But also, don’t be afraid to document,” Kinuwan said. “Because if anybody should have a say on what immigration looks like in this country, it should be us. And we would never do it like this. This is just beyond inhumane.”
Despite what she encountered Tuesday, Kinuwan has no intention of backing down.
“Even though my rights were violated all kinds of ways ... , I’m still going to film them if I see them, I’m still going to keep track...” Kinuwan said. “...This is a real thing, and why did they pick little Lawrence?”
This story was originally published February 20, 2026 at 12:13 PM.
