ICE concerns dominate Jackson County forum with sheriff, legislative chair
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ordinance 6050 would require faces and badge numbers be visible for law enforcement.
- Forté seeks meeting with ICE's area special agent to discuss local coordination.
- The forum took place on the same day Platform Ventures announced it ceased negotiations.
Concerns over Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Jackson County dominated a nearly hourlong engagement forum Thursday night with Sheriff Darryl Forte and Legislative Chair Manny Abarca IV.
The discussion, held at Macedonia Baptist Church, focused on community members asking the pair about the presence of ICE officers, what residents’ rights are and whether those rights would be respected.
“We haven’t had the problem here yet, but it could be here tomorrow,” Forté said. “And that’s why I think time is of the essence for us to do something and not just talk about doing.”
Multiple people cited concerns over the possibility of masked officers in the community, particularly over whether they are truly law enforcement or ICE.
Ordinance 6050 would require any law enforcement working in Jackson County — whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or KCPD officers — to keep their faces and badge numbers visible while working. The ordinance is set to go up for a vote before the Jackson County Legislators in March.
Forté said he does not oppose the ordinance, but is concerned it could limit his agency’s discretion to use masks during intelligence operations. Forté said he’s not sure whether the ordinance would help with ICE officers, though.
“I’ve talked to some federal agents,” Forté said. “They don’t care about an ordinance. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t go with that, because the way their standards policy is written, they don’t have to identify themselves by name.”
Forté said he is trying to set up a meeting with the special agent in charge of ICE for the area to discuss how operations are handled locally, citing local law enforcement’s interactions with the agency in Minneapolis and its exclusion from investigations such as the death of Renee Good.
“Can we be a part of that investigation, at least be in the room to make our people feel a little safe and make it feel like it’s a fair investigation?” Forté said.
Abarca said that starting a series of forums to spread education to the community on knowing your rights was doable and something he would look into setting up.
The forum took place on the same day that Kansas City company Platform Ventures announced that it is no longer negotiating with federal officials for an ICE detention facility in the city.
Platform Ventures announced in a statement Thursday that it is no longer “actively engaged with the U.S. Government or any other prospective purchaser” of its 920,000-square-foot site at 14901 Botts Road. The company had previously announced that negotiations with the prospective buyer were complete.
“As negotiations concluded, we learned the purchasing party was the U.S. Government,” the statement from the company read. “Over the course of the building sale process, we determined that the terms no longer met our fiduciary requirements for a timely closing. Therefore, we chose not to move forward.”
