Did fear of ICE keep KCK woman from seeking help before domestic violence death?
Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse or violence, you can call the Kansas City metro-wide hotline for help at 816-HOTLINE (816-468-5463) to get free information about housing, financial aid, medical aid, counseling services and shelters 24 hours a day.
When Police Chief Karl Oakman learned more about the person killed in a recent Kansas City, Kansas, double homicide, he said he worried fear may have kept her from getting help.
People need to know, he said, that they shouldn’t let their immigration status keep them from seeking local assistance when they need it. Whether that’s from police or other agencies, especially domestic violence shelters.
Ingris Carolina Damas Morales, 20, Oakman said, was shot and killed Saturday, Jan. 31 by her ex-boyfriend, Josue Avila-Carcamo. Just eight days before, officers had picked up Avila-Carcamo on an outstanding warrant, the chief said, stemming from a July 2024 domestic violence incident involving Morales, who did not have legal residency status in the United States.
In 2024, Oakman’s department supported Morales as she applied — and received — a temporary restraining order against Avila-Carcamo, the chief said. But when it came to going to court to obtain a full order, Morales didn’t show up for her court date, Oakman said. That temporary order expired sometime in 2024.
“What’s concerning is that she may have not gotten the resources that she needed and that are available to her, probably because of her immigration status,” Oakman said. “I think that fear really probably reduced her chances of getting resources that she actually needed.
“But what’s really concerning is that she didn’t have any need to be afraid.”
When she died, Morales had a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Oakman said. That means that ICE had put out an administrative order requesting that if local law enforcement took Morales into custody, that the local detention center hold her for up to 48 additional hours for ICE to come and pick her up.
But Oakman said that detainer would likely not have come up in this situation.
“Our normal protocol is not to check victims of crime for ICE detainers,” Oakman said. “The most important thing is to protect all victims regardless of their immigration status.”
Chilling fear
Morales’ death comes at a time when ICE is rapidly expanding its enforcement nationally, and as aggressive operations in cities like Minneapolis are spreading fear throughout neighborhoods and households across the country — including in the KC metro.
During 2025, the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE deported more than 675,000 people, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In that year, the number of people held in ICE custody on a given day has increased more than 75%, and as of last month, about 73,000 people were held daily in detention centers, according to the American Immigration Council.
But Oakman said in his 4 1/2 years as chief of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department the kinds of sweeping operations and arrests that ICE officers are conducting in some cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles haven’t mirrored his experience with ICE in KCK.
“They do targeted enforcement,” Oakman said. “ICE does do investigation in Wyandotte County, but they’re not doing those wide-open round ups and other things like that.”
And while ICE has been conducting some more visible arrests around KC lately, Oakman referenced what was going in other parts of the nation, and said “we haven’t had those issues in Kansas City.”
“ICE hasn’t once called me and said, ‘Hey, we need your help doing an immigration operation.’ Not once,” Oakman said. “ICE has not once been to one school in KCK. But there’s been social media posts about them being out at whatever or whatever.
Oakman said some in the “anti-ICE crowd” have created “a lot of this fear that’s not based on any evidence in Kansas City.”
“We try to really educate the community, not to create that fear.”
And he said he hopes others join in that education.
The shooting
On Jan. 31 at about 11:45 a.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting at the home in the 1000 block of Orville Ave. Morales and Avila-Carcamo were pronounced dead at the scene and the third person, who had also been shot, was treated and released from a local hospital, a police news release said.
Though the shooting is still under investigation, Oakman said preliminary information shows that Avila-Carcamo, 43, “forces his way into the house and shoots and kills her.”
Then, Oakman said, a friend staying at the house “shoots and kills” Avila-Carcamo.
“We believe they were fighting over the gun,” the police chief said. “There was a struggle between the friend and the ex-boyfriend and the friend shot and killed the ex-boyfriend.”
Morales’ 8-month-old child was in the home at the time of the shooting but not injured, Oakman said. Police believe Avila-Carcamo was the father of the child, he said. It’s not clear where in the home the child was during the shootings.
The victim’s friend that shot Avila-Carcamo, Oakman said, was “in the country illegally.” As for Avila-Carcamo, he wasn’t a U.S. citizen, but had “permanent resident status,” the chief said.
Though Avila-Carcamo was taken into custody on the outstanding warrant eight days before the shootings, it isn’t clear when he was released.
‘Our focus is safety’
In the days after the double homicide, advocates who help domestic violence victims and survivors in the KC area learned some details in the case, including that Morales had a temporary restraining order at one point and then it expired.
Desmond Lamb is the executive director of Friends of Yates, a comprehensive community agency in Wyandotte County that operates a domestic violence shelter. He said his staff “got wind” of details about the case from social media. And he said he and his staff want victims and survivors to know there is somewhere they can always go.
Regardless of immigration status.
“I realize the climate of our current country,” Lamb said. “But my question becomes, so even if you’re undocumented, so that means you don’t have a right to be safe? You don’t have a right to be protected?
“You’re undocumented so somebody can just do whatever they want to you? No, that’s unacceptable. It would never be acceptable.”
At Friends of Yates, Lamb said, “we open our arms and our doors are open to any families that find themselves involved in domestic violence.”
“Our focus is safety.”
Like Lamb, Oakman said he wants people in abusive environments to reach out and get all the help and resources they need. Regardless of any immigration status, he said he hopes they hear his plea:
“The situation is not going to get better just because the individual apologizes or says, ‘I’m sorry,’” Oakman said. “Or convinces the victim to drop the order of protection. It’s not. Use the available resources and get some help. You’re not the one with the problems.”
Added Lamb: “Here in Wyandotte County, KCK, I guarantee you that her freedom would not have been at risk if she had gotten help.”
The Star’s Sofi Zeman contributed reporting.
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 6:28 AM.
