In progressive Lawrence, ICE comes to town. These community members aren’t happy
Arthur Houchin stood on a sidewalk along Massachusetts Street in Lawrence, Kansas, Wednesday afternoon, offering up, as he put it, “the gift of foresight.”
“Would you like a free whistle, ma’am?” he said, holding a bin filled with $30 worth of whistles he bought online, offering one up to a passerby on Lawrence’s main downtown thoroughfare.
Whistles and their piercing calls have become one symbol of resistance to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action under President Donald Trump in recent months in cities like Chicago and Minneapolis, as activists have used them to signal the presence of federal immigration officers in their communities. After activists in Lawrence raised an alert about ICE activity in town this week, Houchin headed to Massachusetts Street to hand out whistles.
“The idea is kind of just letting people know that certain masked goons are running around snatching people up,” Houchin said. “I think if you put a spotlight on what they’re doing, it makes it a lot harder for them to do what they’re doing in the shadows.”
On Wednesday, Houchin and others in Lawrence mulled ICE’s presence in their progressive college town, known as one of the most liberal cities in Kansas, as activists said five people were detained by federal officers on Tuesday. Some attributed the federal attention to Lawrence’s liberal political leanings.
ICE didn’t respond to a request for information about activity in Lawrence Wednesday evening.
“The current administration’s been kind of targeting sanctuary cities, and I know Lawrence’s status as a sanctuary city,” Houchin said. “I figured it’d be a matter of time.”
Said Kelly Corcoran, one of the owners of Love Garden Sounds, a record shop on Massachusetts Street: “I certainly understand that it’s a political game, that it isn’t actually about deportation as much as it is about harassing places that are more progressive. That’s my perception, is that if you actually wanted to deal with this, you would be at meat packing plants in conservative places. You would find plenty of folks to deport there, but that’s not where this is happening.”
“The active harassment of people for no particular reason is so out of bounds,” he added. “I just don’t want any of it happening. I certainly don’t want it here.”
Several storefronts along Massachusetts Street bear signs warning federal officers to stay away: “Everyone is welcome here except ICE.”
“We have the right to deny ICE access to private areas without a judicial warrant,” they continue. “We will assert our Constitutional rights in this establishment.”
Nico Palacio, an employee at Rudy’s Pizzeria, which displays one of the signs, said his first customer of the day on Wednesday was a man who wore a “I Support ICE” hat into the shop, apparently looking for a fight.
“I denied him service,” Palacio said. “I said, ‘I’m not gonna help you.’ He told me that I had a simple mind.”
“It’s exceptionally disheartening,” he said of ICE’s presence locally. “I follow the news, and I keep up with it, and it all sucks. But whether or not you’re following it every day, it is so different seeing it happen in your town.”
Sitting on a bench along Massachusetts Street, Sue Young, a self-described “old 60s hippie,” recalled “vigorously” protesting the Vietnam War in town. But something about the current moment, she said, terrified her. She pointed to the account of one witness who alleged being aggressively confronted by a federal officer as she was observing ICE agents Tuesday.
“This breaks my heart,” Young said.
Carolyn O’Malley, who runs the Lucky Dog Pet Grocery and Bakery, lamented the presence of federal immigration officers, but said Lawrence “always comes together for each other.”
“It’s very disheartening to see it move this way,” she said. “It’s disheartening to see it anywhere, personally, anywhere in the country. When it moves into your community, I think it’s just that much more real than before.”
This story was originally published February 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM.
