DODGE CITY: Early last month, in a starkly lit meeting room in southwest Kansas, Amy Soberanes stood to address members of the Dodge City commission.
It had been two weeks since US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on the city, and she and other community organisers peppered the commissioners with questions: What had they known? Why had the area been targeted? How would the city respond if it happened again? Federal immigration agents swept into this rural corner of Kansas in late September and detained 104 people, according to the local US Attorney.
Hispanic communities in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal dominated by meatpacking plants staffed by a mostly immigrant workforce were hardest hit.Our community is looking for reassurance and direction, Soberanes, a 25-year-old Mexican American business owner, said to the five men on the dais.
There were few answers to be had that night. But on Nov 3, Election Day, voters made themselves heard.
Kansas elected a Democrat to the US Senate for the first time in nearly a century when Adam Hamilton ousted incumbent Republican Roger Marshall.
The three counties most affected by the ICE raids swung toward Hamilton by more than 20 points on average from Republican President Donald Trumps 2024 vote share, results compiled by Reuters and USA Today showed.
The shift represented a striking backlash to Trump’s immigration crackdown in one of the country’s most conservative states. The raidsdisrupted economic activity in the so-called Golden Triangle of Beef and left local officials complaining that they had been kept in the dark.
Trump, in the wake of his party’s midterm drubbing, has sent mixed signals on immigration policy.
He told ‘60 Minutes’ that his deportation campaign may have been ‘too tough.’ He then promoted Stephen Miller, architect of Trump’s immigration strategy, to be his next chief of staff.
Asked for comment on this story, ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement: ‘We will continue to enforce our nations laws and remove illegal aliens from American communities.’ Lauren Bis, a White House spokesperson, said in a statement that Trump’s commonsense immigration agendahas delivered the most secure border in history.
Officials in the dark Dodge City gained national prominence in the 1800s as a stop for pioneers heading to the American West. Cattle feedlots eventually sprouted up in the open plains.
In the 1980s, meatpacking companies began building massive plants first employing Vietnamese and Laotian refugees and, later, migrants from Mexico and Central America. Dodge City is now 67pc Hispanic, according to the US Census.
Carlos Rivera was working at the National Beef packing plant on Sept 22 when he heard from truck drivers that ICE agents had been spotted around town.
During the next shift change,some departing employees were detained by agents waiting on the street outside the plant, Rivera said.
As news spread, others fled back inside. Many spent hours in the cafeteria untilthe agents left.
Company switchboards were tied up over the following days with workers calling out, Rivera said.
Regional cattle and livestock groups reported workforce disruptions at feedyards, dairies and meat processors, resulting in millions of dollars lost.
City Commissioner Rick Sowers was on an early-morning walk when he noticed flashing lights on multiple vehicles outside a neighbors house and masked agents banging on the doors.
‘I just dont perceive that as an appropriate measure for a document case,’ Sowers said, referring to immigration documents.The lack of communication from the federal government had put him in a difficult position, he told people at the Oct 5 commission meeting.
The DHS said in its statement that ICE ‘advised cooperative local agencies’ ahead of its operation in southwest Kansas but did not specify which agencies.
But as angry residents criticized officials for not making a public statement about the sweeps sooner, Nick Hernandez, the first Hispanic city manager of Dodge City, said city officials learned about the operation from social media.
They began calling state and federal legislators for information.
Forty-eight hours later, Republican US Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall of Kansas passed along information from DHS that the agents were leaving.-Reuters