ICE raids Liberty restaurant and detains at least 12 workers, Clay County sheriff confirms
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entered a Mexican restaurant in Liberty on Friday, detaining at least 12 employees and impounding two boxes of employment documents, according to a network of Kansas City immigration nonprofits and attorneys as well as Clay County Sheriff Will Akin.
Multiple ICE agents showed up to El Potro Mexican restaurant at 116 Stewart Court and told managers that they were searching for a child sex offender, Kansas City immigration attorney Michael Sharma-Crawford told The Star.
“As far as we can tell, they didn’t find anyone that was a child sex offender,” Sharma-Crawford said. “But then they decided that they needed to check the fingerprints of at least 12 employees.”
Sharma-Crawford, through his role with advocacy organization Kansas Missouri Dream Alliance, is part of a local team responding to and sharing information about ICE activity, organized by the nonprofit Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR).
Akin told The Star he learned of the ICE enforcement in Liberty from a family friend and then went to the restaurant himself to see what was going on. He said the sheriff’s office was not part of the operation.
“I don’t even have the access to see one’s immigration status,” Akin said. “There’s no way that I can access, or you know, enforce, immigration any more than a local police department.”
Akin said he spoke with agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an arm of ICE, when he arrived at the restaurant as the operation was already underway.
Akin and Sharma-Crawford had largely similar accounts of the ICE enforcement at the restaurant, with one key discrepancy: whether the agents arrested an individual accused of sex crimes or not.
The sheriff said agents told him they arrested an individual with federal warrants out for child sex crimes who was not a U.S. citizen and then detained 12 additional employees. Sharma-Crawford said his team of advocates found no proof that someone accused of sex crimes was arrested, and that the only people detained were the 12 employees.
The Star reached out to the Kansas City divisions of ICE and HSI on Friday afternoon and did not receive a response. As of Monday morning, ICE has not published a news release of an arrest near Kansas City, as it has for similar operations in other cities in recent weeks.
Did local law enforcement know ahead of time?
HSI is typically supposed to alert local law enforcement agencies if a raid is happening or if they need assistance, Akin said.
It’s unclear if that communication happened before agents detained the workers Friday.
Akin said he is not sure if his department missed the call or if HSI did not reach out to them.
“It’s pretty important to know what is happening in your county, especially when it’s law enforcement-related,” Akin said.
The Liberty Police Department was aware of the ICE operation by late Friday afternoon, but department spokesperson Capt. Matt Kellogg was unable to confirm whether the federal agency had notified the local agency before or after the raid. Kellogg told The Star he was still confirming the exact timing.
A comment from the Liberty Police Department on a Facebook post suggested that the federal agency had contacted the department prior to the operation and that, “They did not request our assistance and only contacted us as a courtesy in case they did need emergency assistance.” Kellogg said he was not aware of the Facebook comment.
What happened at El Potro
When Akin arrived at the restaurant, he said agents told him they were there to locate a person who had federal warrants out for child sex crimes and that the person was not a U.S. citizen.
They told Akin that they were also conducting a “worksite enforcement operation,” which is an investigation to ensure businesses have the required legal documents for every employee.
Akin said agents detained the person accused of sex crimes and 12 other employees. He did not know the immigration status of the individuals detained.
The sheriff said he is not describing the operation as a raid, because he said he considers a raid to involve SWAT or other law enforcement securing the perimeter of a location.
The AIRR response team of local advocates and lawyers was not able to confirm that agents provided a search warrant or any documentation proving they were searching for a sex offender, Sharma-Crawford said. He said agents also confiscated two boxes of employment papers from the restaurant.
“They say they got consent from an owner,” Sharma-Crawford said. “But we’re not sure if the consent was predicated on the fact that there was a sex offender there, or if that person really had the ability to give consent.”
The Star reached out to El Potro several times Friday afternoon and was unable to reach management.
The rapid response team was told that at least half of the agents present reportedly covered their faces during the raid, Sharma-Crawford said.
“No one’s doing undercover work that would require all that many agents to cover their faces,” Sharma-Crawford said. “Why are we going in all cloak-and-dagger, with their faces covered up, in the United States? …There’s no reason for it, there’s no tactical reason. That wasn’t a tactical team.”
The detained workers were placed in ICE custody and “taken downtown,” Sharma-Crawford said. He said he still has several key questions about the agents’ behavior and the people detained on Friday.
“Who are they looking for?” Sharma-Crawford said. “What gave them the authority to just round up 12 people, other than they were brown and working at a Mexican restaurant? That’s not sufficient.”
Other reports of ICE in KC
ICE agents have shown a consistent presence in Missouri for several days, Sharma-Crawford said, most recently along Noland Road in Independence on Thursday. Until the restaurant operation Friday, he said most stops by ICE agents have been “targeted,” with agents seeking out specific people they allege committed sex crimes, Sharma-Crawford said.
Some community members told the AIRR response team that agents had attempted to enter a restaurant in Independence on Thursday, but the restaurant said this did not happen, Sharma-Crawford said.
According to AIRR’s social media, the response team confirmed ICE sightings on Jan. 21 in Olathe, Jan. 28 in the Midtown area of Kansas City and Feb. 1 in Olathe.
Heightened anxiety around ICE encounters have led to some false reporting and misinformation spreading through online communities in recent weeks, Sharma-Crawford said.
“The community is on tenterhooks,” Sharma-Crawford said. “They’re all nervous, so they see ghosts everywhere.”
Rights of businesses
The Kansas Missouri Dream Alliance advises business owners to remember that though ICE agents can enter any business with an open sign, staff have a right to ask agents to leave unless they have a search warrant signed by a judge.
“This is again an example of knowing what your rights are,” Sharma-Crawford said. “The right to remain silent…the right of a business owner to refuse entry to people, to demand documents. If someone shows up at your business and says, ‘I’m here to arrest a sex offender’ – who is that? Especially when you’re conducting your lunch business and people are still sitting there eating lunch while this all occurs.”
El Potro in Liberty was open for dinner and full of customers Friday evening. An employee told a Star reporter that she was too busy to talk because they were short-staffed.
The restaurant’s Lee’s Summit location was closed Friday for dinner, citing staffing shortages.
The Star is continuing to gather information about the federal operation in Liberty and those detained.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 5:44 PM.
