Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents launched a nationwide operation arresting hundreds of undocumented people around the country, including Missouri and Kansas. Mexican nationals in the Kansas City metro are concerned about their future.
On Monday, foreign nationals lined up at the Mexican consulate located downtown near 16th and Baltimore to get documentation.
Sharma Crawford is an immigration attorney. He and a handful of other immigration attorneys met with Head Consul Alfonso Navarro at the Mexican consulate.
"We protect folks from being removed from the United States," said Sharma-Crawford. "They're preparing and part of that preparation is power of attorneys and the other one is birth certificates. If the whole family departs to Mexico to live, that child needs a Mexican birth certificate to attend school." said Crawford.
Head consul Alfonso Navarro said they are seeing an increase in undocumented immigrants preparing for possible interactions with Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents.
"That's part of the message, to be cautious. People need to be prepared should they decide to return to Mexico voluntarily or because they will be removed because of their immigration status." said Navarro.
According to ICE, 235 foreign nationals were arrested this week in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas, Kentucky and Missouri.
* 163 had criminal records
* 60 were removed and reentered illegally
* 12 were fugitives with orders of removal
ICE says it does not randomly conduct sweeps or raids that target undocumented immigrants.
Sharma-Crawford and his clients remain concerned.
"We have ICE acting in a manner that they haven't acted in before. If the target is the husband they use to ignore the wife, the kids, the sister-in-law. Now, everybody around them who's undocumented is being arrested along with them. And that's a tactical change that we're seeing."
ICE also says during targeted enforcement operations they encounter additional suspects who may be in the United States illegally. Those individuals are evaluated on a case by case basis and could be arrested by ICE.
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Lisa Benson can be reached at lisa.benson@kshb.com.
