5 men arrested, detained in chains by federal agents in Johnson County, video shows
The video, shot by a pedestrian, shows a slice of the action as it unwound Tuesday morning in Lenexa:
At between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., on election day morning, a line of six unmarked cars carrying law enforcement — men, most wearing face coverings and body armor marked “Police,” “Police Federal Agent” or “DEA” — surrounded a white Subaru at the intersection of 87th Street and Acuff Lane.
Five Hispanic men were taken into custody, the video’s photographer says. In one image, a federal agent with a Mohawk, beard, and with his face uncovered, waved at the camera shortly before binding one detained man in shackles and a belly chain prior to leading him away.
The video shows other detained men sitting in various law enforcement vehicles.
“Do you need me to call anyone for you?” the videographer, at one point, called out to the man being placed in shackles. “You can give me your name and if you have a number, I can call someone to try to help you.”
“That’s very nice of you,” the officer responds. The detained man said nothing.
Arrests on anniversary of Trump election
The apparent immigration stop and detention comes nearly one year to the day of the election of Donald Trump to his second term as president and who, on the campaign trail, promised a crackdown on illegal immigration, including “the largest deportation operation in the history of our country.”
On Wednesday, the anniversary of his election, the White House published a lengthy dispatch online touting the promises the president had made on the campaign trail and promises the White House reports he has kept, including clamping down on illegal crossings at the U.S. southern border and suspending refugee resettlement and relocation.
The White House statement claims that since the beginning of Trump’s second term, more than 150,000 “illegal immigrants” have been arrested and more than 139,000 deported.
The figures, however, may be an underestimate, according to The Guardian newspaper which, tracking figures supplied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), estimates that, as of late September, some 228,000 arrests had been made, with 234,000 deportations.
Since June, the president has deployed federal agents and National Guard troops into major cities that include Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Memphis and Portland, to bolster his deportation effort and to quell what he has hyperbolically described as escalating and out-of-control crime, despite proof to the contrary.
“Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago called ‘madness’
In Chicago, in September, the administration launched the still ongoing “Operation Midway Blitz,” sending National Guard troops into the city in the face of strong condemnation. Chicago’s democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, called the move “illegal,” “unconstitutional,” “dangerous and unnecessary.”
Illinois’ democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, has called the Trump move “madness” and an “invasion.”
Lauded by the president’s supporters, the operations and the president’s overall immigration policy have sparked massive protests and opposition.
“The only coherent policy goal of this administration when it comes to immigration is its relentless pursuit of cruelty — no matter what the cost and no matter what else is impacted,” the National Immigration Law Center stated in October. The administration’s “mass deportation agenda,” it held, “is being carried out through indiscriminate and often violent raids and arrests.”
U.S. Supreme Court on immigration traffic stops
In September, the Department of Homeland Security declared what it called “a major victory,” following a 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo. The ruling essentially halted a lower court’s ruling that prevented federal agents from making traffic stops in Los Angeles of individuals suspected to be in the country illegally.
The ruling, with national consequences, thus allowed federal agents in Los Angeles to conducts stops based on a combination of factors that include race or ethnicity, language or accent, location, and the type of work a person does.
“To the mainstream media’s chagrin,” the DHS wrote in a release, there are no ‘indiscriminate stops’ being made. The Supreme Court simply applied longstanding precedent regarding what qualifies as ‘reasonable suspicion’ under the Fourth Amendment.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was one of the three judges who dissented, saying, “We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job. Rather than stand idly by while our Constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
Immigration arrests in KC area
The Kansas City area has not been immune from the effects of the administration’s immigration policy, with some arrests becoming public.
In July, federal immigration agents made 11 arrests at two Kansas City area restaurants that included seven workers at the El Toro Loco Mexican Bar and Grill in Kansas City, Kansas and five at the restaurant’s location in Lenexa.
In February, 11 other workers were arrested at El Potro, a Mexican restaurant in Liberty. In October, a federal judge ruled that those arrests had been made unlawfully in that ICE agents at that time did not meet the standards for a warrantless arrest.
“We probably don’t get as much as other cities,” Trinidad Raj Molina, a board member for Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation in Kansas City, said of ICE arrests. “But it is definitely a daily reality throughout the year.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 1:57 PM.
