ICE did not notify local law enforcement before detaining Liberty restaurant workers

Local law enforcement agencies confirmed that federal immigration officials did not notify them about any planned immigration enforcement prior to detaining at least 12 employees at El Potro Mexican restaurant in Liberty on Friday.

“It’s pretty important to know what is happening in your county, especially when it’s law enforcement-related,” Clay County Sheriff Will Akin told The Star.

Late Friday morning, multiple agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), showed up to El Potro at 116 Stewart Court and told staff they were searching for a child sex offender.

The agents proceeded to detain several employees and impound two boxes of employment documents, according to a group of Kansas City immigration attorneys.

While it’s common for HSI or ICE to alert local law enforcement if a raid is happening or if they need assistance, it’s not required by law or enforcement guidelines for them to do so.

Agents can enter public spaces and open businesses like El Potro, but they need either a warrant or consent from someone at the business to enter private areas not typically accessible to the public — like a manager’s office — according to the National Immigration Law Center.

Questions remain if the federal agents had a warrant to detain the employees and take documents from the restaurant, if anyone was charged with federal crimes, and where the 12 people are being held.

The Star reached out to the regional branches of ICE, HSI and the U.S. Marshals that serve Kansas City, but haven’t received any response as of 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Clay and Liberty kept in the dark

Neither the Clay County Sheriff’s Office or the Liberty Police Department were involved in the federal enforcement.

Akin told The Star that he heard about the ICE operation at the restaurant on Friday through a family friend, not through official channels. He then decided to go and see for himself what was happening.

On Friday evening, he said he wasn’t sure if he had missed a call from HSI ahead of the enforcement. On Monday, a spokesperson for the Clay County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that no one from HSI or any other federal agency had notified the office before its operation.

“We haven’t heard a whole lot from them since this happened,” Clay County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Sarah Boyd said. “There’s no additional activity that we’ve been made aware of, I assume people would have contacted us if there was but we have not been made aware of any.”

Federal officials had contacted the Liberty Police Department on Friday morning about being in the area that day, but they did not mention anything about ICE, HSI or immigration-related enforcement in their message.

Liberty Police Capt. Matt Kellogg said the department received a call from the U.S. Marshals Office at 10:50 a.m. Friday, indicating that the agency would be “in the area of El Potro, looking for a fugitive.” Kellogg described the notification as a “courtesy call” and said the federal officials did not request assistance from local police.

What happened at El Potro

Some details about exactly what happened when federal agents showed up to El Potro on Friday are still unclear, and reporting is ongoing.

When Clay County Sheriff Akin arrived at the restaurant, he said agents told him they were looking for a person charged with child sex crimes who was not a U.S. citizen, and that they were also conducting a “worksite enforcement operation,” to ensure the business had 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.

A group of local immigration 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, according to Kansas City immigration attorney Michael Sharma-Crawford. 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 detained workers were placed in ICE custody and “taken downtown,” Sharma-Crawford said.

Until the restaurant operation Friday, Sharma-Crawford said recent stops by ICE agents around Kansas City have been “targeted,” with agents seeking out specific people they allege committed sex crimes, 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.”

The Star’s Alecia Taylor and Ilana Arougheti contributed reporting.

This story was originally published February 12, 2025 at 6:00 AM.