Advocates condemn ICE raids at KC area restaurants: ‘tragic blow to our community’

When she got to work for her shift at El Toro Loco Mexican Bar & Grill in Lenexa on Wednesday afternoon, Corales saw the handwritten “closed” sign on the restaurant’s front door.

At first, she was confused. But Corales later learned that her co-workers had been detained by federal immigration agents only a few hours beforehand. The Star agreed to not publish her full name over concerns for her family’s safety.

Earlier Wednesday, agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had arrested at least 11 people — seven in Kansas City, Kansas, and at least four in Lenexa — who worked at two separate El Toro Loco locations.

In the Lenexa restaurant, the agents had left behind a warrant signed by a judge authorizing them to seize records and documents “relating to harboring, human smuggling, or labor exploitation.” The warrant did not name any individuals.

Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR), a local immigrant rights group that has been tracking recent ICE enforcement across the metro, held a news conference outside the restaurant, 10088 Woodland Road, Wednesday afternoon confirming the 11 arrests during the two raids.

Residents gathered holding signs protesting ICE and immigration enforcement in the community. Local religious leaders and elected leaders spoke, condemning the raids.

“Today’s raid at El Toro Loco in Lenexa is a tragic blow to our community,” Lenexa City Council member Melanie Arroyo said in a statement. “As an immigrant and mental health professional, I reject this senseless raid that does not improve the safety of our community but rather inflict fear and trauma to our immigrant residents.”

An AIRR representative told The Star that as of Wednesday afternoon, the organization has been in contact with two families affected by the raids — one from KCK and one from Lenexa.

AIRR is working to connect those families with immigration attorneys and trying to track down where the other workers were taken. No facilities or locations have been confirmed, nor did AIRR know anyone’s immigration status as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Representatives from the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City said that they’ve received no information from HSI on the workers’ whereabouts. HSI has also not returned calls and emails from The Star.

Corales, the Lenexa El Toro Loco employee, told The Star that she’s been working with her colleagues’ families to get them connected with immigration attorneys.

“When my colleague told me they were arrested, I was worried. I have a friend who is a father, another who’s a mother,” she said. “They aren’t stealing, they aren’t violent, they are working. I want to help because they have families with kids.”

Arrests at El Toro Loco

In Lenexa, staff members on shift were locked inside the building by agents before being escorted out in handcuffs, according to witnesses affiliated with AIRR.

Agents left a copy of the warrant at the host stand. On the page that read, “Inventory of the property taken and name(s) of any person(s) seized,” an agent had written “miscellaneous documents” and did not name any of the four people detained as seen in photos and videos reviewed by The Star.

When agents left, they left the restaurant unlocked and the burners on in the kitchen.

Trinidad Raj Molina, a board member for AIRR, told The Star after the news conference Wednesday that agents often arrest people “as collateral” during enforcement actions against businesses.

“Sometimes, they might be able to say technically they had a warrant, or sometimes not,” Raj Molina said. “But even so, why (do they) always come into restaurants like this and just get everyone else as collateral? That’s not a new pattern.”

Corales said the arrests have left her concerned for her own family, too. Her husband, who is an immigrant, works in construction, a profession that’s been targeted, she said. She doesn’t know what will happen with her job, either.

“There aren’t employees, there aren’t cooks … I’m not sure what we’ll do, but for now we don’t have work,” she said.

The Star’s Sofi Zeman and Eric Adler contributed reporting.

This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 7:43 PM.