Olathe arrest video, growing ICE presence raise fear in Johnson County
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ICE operations in Johnson County prompted arrests and visible enforcement in Olathe.
- Community centers and schools enacted safety protocols and communicated with parents.
- Local officials demand coordination as residents report fear and legal concerns.
A 19-year-old U.S. citizen pinned to the ground and handcuffed outside an Olathe Walmart.
Federal agents allegedly peering through the windows of a community center that houses the Boys & Girls Club there.
Five arrests in five different locations around Lawrence in the span of one day.
ICE is making its presence known in northeast Kansas.
Parts of Johnson County — Olathe in particular — are seeing increased immigration enforcement in recent days, following news that plans to transform a vacant south Kansas City warehouse into an ICE mega detention center had been scuttled.
The arrival of federal immigration agents in diverse communities across and beyond the Kansas City metro has heightened anxiety among residents.
“It is heartbreaking and horrific to know that we’ve got folks — I mean, we’ve seen it in other places, including Minneapolis and now here in Kansas — where people are scared to leave their homes,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids said Tuesday after an event in Overland Park.
“The way that these operations are being conducted is not making anyone more safe. In fact, it’s making people less safe,” she said. “It’s making people scared to take their kids to school, to go to work.”
In an email statement to The Star, ICE spokesperson Rob Hughes declined to answer specific questions about the agency’s operations in the metro area. He suggested that doing so could jeopardize officers’ safety.
“Due to operational security, privacy, and safety concerns, ICE will not disclose the specific number of ICE personnel currently assigned to Kansas City, or how many were deployed to Minneapolis,” Hughes said.
“Our brave law enforcement are grappling with a 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,200% increase in vehicle attacks, and a staggering 8,000% uptick in death threats as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and gang members,” Hughes said.
Local ICE operations
Workers at the Olathe Boys and Girls Club reported seeing uniformed ICE agents show up around 7:15 a.m. Friday outside the building on South Harrison Street.
Sharon Cleaver, a spokesperson for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City, told The Star that staff communicated “quickly and transparently” with parents about the agents’ presence and implemented a modified pick-up plan “to prioritize safety and secure dismissal procedures.”
“Following the initial sighting of ICE agents, our focus throughout the day was ensuring the safety of our staff and families. Thanks to the strong community response and the professionalism of our staff, all the young people at the Olathe Club on Friday were picked up without incident,” Cleaver said, adding that there have been no additional sightings of agents near the community center.
Video has circulated widely on social media showing another incident on Saturday outside an Olathe Walmart.
Teenagers Brian and Brandon Nataren told KMBC that they were stopping for food in the area around 9 a.m. when an ICE vehicle nearly struck them. The brothers said the agents followed them to Walmart and confronted them when they parked their own vehicle.
They told KMBC that they were removed from the vehicle at gunpoint. Brian Nateren, 19, can be seen in the video being pinned to the concrete in the parking lot. After being handcuffed, he said he was taken to municipal court and questioned before being released. The brothers could not be reached for comment.
Michael Sharma-Crawford, a Kansas City immigration attorney, said the incident in the Walmart parking lot exemplifies the lawless tactics that ICE agents have employed across the country against noncitizens and citizens.
“The person that was pinned to the ground was a citizen of the United States,” Sharma-Crawford said. “This is more of ICE acting in an illegal manner. If they don’t know who you are when they arrest you, then that arrest is illegal, literally. It’s contrary to statute, but ICE doesn’t care.”
He said citizens stopped by ICE agents should be patient, avoid touching officers and show their IDs while reiterating that they are citizens.
“Hopefully somebody can video that and prove that ICE is acting in an illegal manner . . . The only way we can show that to the courts that are still seeking to do justice is to have that evidence,” Sharma-Crawford said.
Is ICE coordinating with police?
A spokesperson for Gov. Laura Kelly said the governor has not been contacted by federal partners about immigration enforcement operations underway in Kansas.
“Governor Kelly strongly encourages federal immigration enforcement entities to notify and coordinate with local officials in the communities they are conducting activities,” Grace Hoge said in an email.
The Olathe Police Department has said it is not involved in any of ICE’s ongoing operations.
McKenzi Davis, a spokesperson for the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, said ICE did not notify the office prior to beginning enforcement actions in Johnson County. She said the sheriff’s office does not enforce federal immigration laws, but the agency will hold immigrant detainees for a limited period of time after unrelated charges are dropped if ICE requests it.
“When an individual is arrested on a local or state charge for which lodging is permitted, if an ICE detainer exists, once the individual is released on their local/state charges, we notify ICE. They then have 48 hours to assume custody,” Davis said in an email.
In a social media post Tuesday evening, Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister vented about federal agents’ approach to immigration enforcement in local jurisdictions.
“It is frustrating when they demand cooperation from local law enforcement on several fronts but offer less than zero in return,” Armbrister said. “They swoop in, cause chaos, alter lives and sneak out without so much as a word.”
In a statement to The Star, Wyandotte County Sheriff Daniel Soptic said ICE has not contacted his office in the past before conducting enforcement actions.
“In the event ICE requested help, we would evaluate the request at the time and then determine what assistance we would/could provide,” Soptic said. “Most likely, a call for assistance would be for traffic control or some other similar task and that is a type of assistance we would provide.”
In a letter sent to parents of Olathe Public Schools students, the school board president and vice president wrote that district policy prohibits educational records from being disclosed without a court order.
“In addition, no visitors are admitted to our buildings without presenting valid identification,” the letter says. “In the unlikely event that any enforcement agency comes to a building, office staff are directed to inform our district’s Safety Services department, who will arrive on site and work directly with the agency to minimize disruption to the school day.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Olathe arrest video, growing ICE presence raise fear in Johnson County."
