KC-area neighbors say alleged ICE facility near their homes & school is ‘not right’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Neighbors oppose proposed ICE detention center near Grandview homes and school.
- Platform Ventures confirms closed negotiations but declines to name buyer.
- Kansas City Council enacts five-year moratorium on nonmunicipal detention permits.
For Abel Flores, the thought of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention facility sitting less than three miles from his Grandview home isn’t something he likes.
“I don’t agree with what ICE is doing,” Flores said. “I go to California and sometimes I go to the border, there’s a white guy in front of me and they let him go, but I get stopped because I’m Hispanic. I was born in the United States just like they were.”
Others in the neighborhood on Friday said they were unhappy about the facility’s placement because they opposed ICE’s role in the separation of families, did not agree with how the agency has operated in other parts of the country and were concerned that the site would be close to their homes and to where their children walk to nearby Belvidere Elementary School.
That location of the facility, near Missouri 150 and Botts Road in south Kansas City, has not been independently confirmed by The Star, but several Kansas City-area officials said that ICE is considering opening a detention center at that site.
South Kansas City ICE facility?
News that an ICE detention facility could be located in Kansas City came earlier this week when U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security officials denouncing a possible site being located in his Congressional district.
That letter followed reporting by The Washington Post in December that Kansas City had been identified as a possible site for a facility.
Local officials reported that ICE agents were visiting the facility on Thursday, located in the industrial park that has replaced the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. The area sits in the southern portion of Kansas City, with Belton to its south and Grandview to the east.
Neighborhoods, golf courses and some businesses surround the area in which the industrial site is located.
Port KC said in a news release that the organization had entered into an agreement with Platform Ventures in 2022 to build multiple industrial buildings on the site, but the facility was solely owned and operated by Platform Ventures.
City Council member Johnathan Duncan told The Star on Thursday that to his knowledge Platform Ventures had not returned calls to Port KC over the last 48 hours.
In a statement released on Friday, Platform Ventures said that all negotiations have been completed for the facility.
The company said it does not question prospective buyers on their intent after a sale closes and that it will not engage in public conversations involving speculation on how the building will be used. The company did not say who made the unsolicited offer to buy the warehouse.
Rumors that ICE agents were visiting the facility on Thursday spurred the Kansas City Council to issue a moratorium for a five-year halt on permits, licensing or other approvals for non-municipal detention facilities.
“We consistently hear from residents that Kansas City’s focus should be on economic development and housing, not mass detention facilities holding thousands,” Lucas said in a statement. “Our priority is building businesses, homes, and schools that strengthen and grow our community.”
Lucas said that the city intends to “use all available legal tools to enforce the moratorium,” but there is some concern over whether that moratorium could hold up in court.
The day before the facility was visited, ICE agents arrested a man in Grandview, that was captured on video.
The brief video, posted on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of KC Discover, shows the unidentified man being wrestled to the ground by armed officers outside the Briarwood Gardens Apartments, located in the 6000 block of East 126th Street.
“While Grandview supports an orderly immigration system to arrest criminals, Grandview first (prioritizes) keeping families together, our community whole, our businesses open, and preserving community first,” Mayor Leonard Jones wrote in a statement on social media.
A spokesperson for Grandview said that their police department had been notified by ICE agents that they would be conducting operations in their city.
This story was originally published January 16, 2026 at 4:54 PM.
