Why a Jackson County detective was among HSI agents at KC food manufacturer
After a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office detective was spotted among federal Homeland Security agents in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast Thursday morning, the sheriff’s office has said that the detective’s role in the federal operation was limited to carrying out a pre-existing warrant.
At least six people were escorted out of La Fontanella Foods on Eighth Street around 11 a.m. Thursday by several law enforcement agents wearing jackets labeled HSI, or Homeland Security Investigations, which is a unit of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During the operation, a detective from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office was on scene. But Jackson County Sheriff Darryl Forté said that the office was not directly involved in carrying out any immigration-related enforcement.
Forté told The Star that the department became involved in the operation in a limited capacity and that sheriff’s deputies were strictly responsible for arresting an unregistered sex offender identified at the scene.
After federal agents arrived, the sheriff’s office detective came to the Northeast Kansas City food manufacturing facility at the request of the federal agents, to arrest the person in question and take them to the Jackson County detention center.
Though sheriff’s office personnel were called to the scene to arrest the alleged sex offender, the department was not involved in executing a search of the facility, Forté said.
Meanwhile, federal HSI agents detained several people — between six and eight individuals according to various reports from reporters and witnesses — at the food manufacturing plant Thursday morning.
It is still unclear whether the individuals arrested were employees, and agents responding to the scene did not answer any questions.
More agents arrived at the facility later in the morning with jackets that said HSTF, or Homeland Security Task Force, which is a partnership between HSI and the Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at addressing “criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.”
The agents appeared to remove documents and computers in bags from the facility.
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.”
Forté said that his office does not have information on how many people were detained in total and why. However, he was in touch directly with the agent in charge of HSI in Kansas City on Thursday morning, according to a statement released on social media Thursday.
“For months we have communicated regularly,” Forté wrote Thursday. “We have a great professional relationship and we both know we are always a phone call or text away if needed.”
Forté also wrote on social media that the presence of the sheriff’s office at La Fontanella was “not an immigration raid” and had to do with “a federal criminal search warrant.”
While it’s common for HSI or ICE to alert local law enforcement if enforcement is happening or if they need assistance, it’s not required by law or enforcement guidelines for them to do so.
Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, a local nonprofit supporting immigrants in Kansas City, said Thursday that a manager at La Fontanella was told that agents brought a search warrant but that no witnesses or employees saw a copy.
The Star’s Ben Wheeler contributed reporting.
