KCK rule limiting new jails, like ICE facilities, inches closer toward approval
A local rule that would try to temporarily keep anyone other than the local government, including federal immigration enforcement, from building a jail in Wyandotte County is a step closer to being made official.
Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas committee members approved an ordinance that limits applications to establish a non-municipal detention center within the county’s boundaries. Planning Commission members approved the ordinance by a 4-2 vote during their Monday evening meeting.
The move came in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expanding across the country, and as talks of a potential federal immigration detention center hummed in Kansas City, Missouri.
Should that item get final approval during the Unified Government Board of Commissioners meeting on Feb. 26, any entity outside the county government that wanted to build a jail in Wyandotte would not be able to apply for a special use permit to do so for the next two years.
And the rule may be extended later on if local officials believe that needs to happen, said Third District Commissioner Christian Ramirez, who proposed the rule last month. He said he was specifically concerned about what a detention center could do to the schema of local neighborhoods and how they would affect the local economy.
As of lately, no one has asked KCK to build an ICE facility, but officials want rules in place before outside agencies approach the local government.
And although local officials in both KCK and Kansas City, Missouri, are trying to block immigration detention centers from moving into town by establishing moratoriums — KCMO passed a similar, five-year moratorium — it’s not entirely clear whether these rules could unilaterally prevent the federal government or a private prison company from building a facility. But it could delay those efforts.
Kansas City established its moratorium after residents and officials learned the federal government had its eye on a large warehouse on the city’s south end that it wanted for an immigration detention center, according to reports from multiple local officials.
The Kansas City Port Authority recently cut ties with the owner of that warehouse, Platform Ventures, after learning the group had plans to sell the warehouse to the federal government for an ICE facility.
And up in Leavenworth, Kansas, private prison company Core Civic’s plans for an ICE facility advanced during a public meeting last week. Leavenworth’s Planning Commission voted to recommend granting the company a zoning application that would allow the facility to operate for about three years
Correctional facilities that want to build in Wyandotte County must first apply for a special use permit that would have to go up for approval by the Unified Government Board of Commissioners, according to board documents.
This ordinance would delay the government’s receipt of those applications for two years.
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 12:11 PM.
