Arrests at KC food plant follow weeks of ICE ‘terrorizing’ area, neighbors say
Diana Villafranca parked just outside of her husband’s work at a food manufacturing facility in Northeast Kansas City, watching the doors as federal immigration authorities were inside, with her husband’s documentation and identification in the passenger seat.
“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” she told The Star in Spanish. “My husband called me and told me that immigration authorities arrived, that they have them here … and that he may not be able to talk more.”
Several law enforcement agents from Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrived at La Fontanella Foods on Eighth Street around 10:30 a.m., entered the facility and detained at least people within an hour. Several community advocates had responded to the scene and were filming the HSI agents.
In a statement to The Star, a regional ICE spokesperson confirmed the operation and described it as executing “a federal criminal search warrant in Kansas City.”
“To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we cannot comment further. There is no threat to the public,” the spokesperson wrote.
The operation comes just one day after local organizers warned Kansas Citians of a heightened presence of immigration authorities in the area during the World Cup.
It was unclear whether the individuals arrested Thursday were employees, and agents responding to the scene did not answer any questions. The agents were in several unmarked vehicles with Kansas and Missouri license plates.
As Villafranca was talking with a Star reporter, her husband exited the building and walked toward the car as she said with relief, “He left, he left.”
Once he was in the car, the couple drove away from the distribution center.
Seized documents
After Villafranca and her husband left, more agents arrived in plain clothes and put on jackets that said HSTF, or Homeland Security Task Force — a partnership between HSI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at addressing “criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations operating in America’s heartland.”
Agents eventually exited the building with what appeared to be boxes of documents and computers in bags from the facility. An agent declined to answer a Star reporter’s question regarding what they seized.
A spokesperson for Kansas City’s FBI office did not immediately respond to requests for further information.
Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forte posted on Facebook Thursday evening that while federal immigration agents, “executed a federal criminal search warrant at a food manufacturing business,” the operation “was not an immigration raid.”
‘Terrorizing our neighborhood’
Benjamin Roesler said he’d been watching agents since 9 a.m. on Thursday and followed them to the distribution center. The Kansas City resident said he’s been a part of a response network to document immigration enforcement actions and provide support for affected families since last fall.
“What you are seeing here is a lot of concerned neighbors who are in fear for our community’s safety,” Roesler said about the crowd standing outside the fence that borders La Fontanella Foods.
“I live just a few blocks from here. They’ve been terrorizing our neighborhood, pulling over people in work trucks, anyone who’s brown, on Truman, on Ninth.”
Since the World Cup kicked off in June, Roesler said he’s noticed immigration enforcement activity “increase significantly.”
Local advocates issued a community advisory warning Kansas Citians of heightened immigration enforcement in the area in recent weeks. National organizations issued a separate advisory more than two months ago, cautioning fans, journalists and international visitors during their visit due to an uptick in enforcement.
Wick Thomas, a Missouri state representative whose district covers Kansas City’s Northeast and West Side neighborhoods, echoed Roesler’s observation of the uptick in enforcement activity.
“Our district is incredibly diverse and so of course we’ve been a target,” he said. “These are happening pretty frequently. They just tend to be smaller, I think, in Kansas City, which is why people don’t know about them happening as much. This was unique in that it was … larger.”
While the state isn’t directly involved with federal operations, Thomas said he’d like to see officials “dismantle this entire operation.”
“I think this is horrible. We just had mass federal agents go into our neighborhood and take our neighbors with no proof that they should be taken. In fact family members were here trying to show the papers that authorized them to be here,” he said. “These are our neighbors, they’re stealing our neighbors.”
The Star’s Ilana Arougheti contributed reporting.
