KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained dozens of people after they left an immigration court hearing on December 18, according to an advocacy group and family members.
Dozens of Kansas City families accompanied their loved ones to immigration court near Crown Center on Thursday.
They walked into court early, prepared, anxious and hopeful, looking forward to spending Christmas with their families after the hearing.
The court first concentrated on cases involving women and children, hearing their cases and moving them to other parts of the courthouse. Then they moved on to the men.
Eduardo Nuñez Troncoso was among those detained when he left the courtroom, said his nephew Richard Ortiz. When Troncoso’s name was called and his case heard, he departed the courtroom to return home but never made it.
Upon exiting the courtroom, he was immediately surrounded by unmarked ICE agents, detained and ushered into a room where he found himself surrounded by all the other men from the courtroom, according to KC Icebreakers.
“It all feels so far away. It’s just getting closer and closer. It was just a matter of time before it hit our backyards,” Ortiz said.
While Troncoso is listed online as being an inmate at Chase County Jail in Kansas, the jail reports that he is no longer there.
A group protested dozens of ICE arrests at a Kansas City immigration court hearing.(KCTV5/Ale Espinosa)
Days before Christmas, Troncoso and an unknown number of men, and possibly women and children, have been separated from their families, according to KC Icebreakers.
The advocacy group called for the immediate release of those detained and demanded the dismantling of what they called the mass deportation industrial complex.
Hartzell Gray, who is running for Congress in Missouri, said the detentions affect everyone.
“We have folks who are now being disappeared out of the blue. Folks who are U.S. citizens being disappeared,” Gray said.
Congressman Mark Alford posted on social media two days before the arrests, noting that 600,000 such arrests have been made since Trump took office. He stated, “This is what leadership looks like.”
Ortiz said seeing the community come together gives him hope despite the circumstances.
“It’s just disheartening. But seeing people like this come together and spreading that message, it’s not us against each other, it’s us together against everything,” he said.
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