Founding Partner Wynne Kelly on last week's enforcement surge in southwest Kansas, what ICE can and cannot do, and the steps every employer should take now.
.svg)
.png)
Last week, federal immigration officers descended upon southwest Kansas to conduct extensive enforcement actions. Dodge City, Garden City, and Liberal form what the industry calls the “Golden Triangle” of beef packing, home to plants operated by Cargill, National Beef, and Tyson Foods that together employ more than 10,000 people, and the region holds roughly 22 percent of the nation’s grain-fed beef supply. Parts of Texas and Oklahoma also reported an uptick in federal immigration enforcement last week, too. Local governments and police in all three Kansas cities said they received no advance notice and learned of the operation only when agents became visible in their communities. Officials also said they have received no information about how many people were arrested or who the arrestees are.
The effects on these communities were felt immediately and are continuing. Workers stayed home, some plants stopped running for several days, and others operated on reduced schedules. According to USDA daily slaughter reports, packers processed about 8,000 fewer head on Wednesday and 17,000 fewer head on Thursday than a week earlier, declines of roughly 9 percent and 16 percent. Cattle industry groups in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas say shipments of thousands of cattle were delayed, costing their members millions of dollars, and that the disruption reached feedlots, dairy processors, grain companies, and transportation hubs.
Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin has said ICE is not conducting worksite enforcement in Kansas and is instead targeting people with serious criminal records and people with final orders of removal. He has since identified several people arrested in the operation who had convictions for violent and sexual offenses. The union representing plant workers has stated that employees of Cargill and National Beef have been detained, but noted that the arrests took place in the surrounding community rather than inside the plants. Local media reported agents stopping people on roads and near the plants and checking driver’s licenses. In response to these actions, both of Kansas’s U.S. senators have urged federal officials to coordinate with local law enforcement who know these communities. If the arrests conducted are consistent with recent national data, many of the workers arrested will not have criminal records. Indeed, according to the Associated Press, more than half of the people ICE arrested in July had no criminal conviction and faced no pending charges, and fewer than a quarter had been convicted of any crime. See also https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/ice-detention-and-deportation-by (presenting data showing many arrestees lack criminal convictions).
Midwesterners have seen this before. In December 2006, federal agents raided Swift & Company plants in six states, including Worthington, Minnesota, and Marshalltown, Iowa, and arrested roughly 1,300 workers in a single day. More recently, in June 2025, agents detained more than 70 workers at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, and in September 2025 agents executing a judicial search warrant at the Hyundai battery plant under construction in Georgia detained 475 people, many of whom turned out to be lawfully present. Last Fall, “Operation Midway Blitz” brought a 68-day surge of federal agents to the Chicago area; ICE records later obtained show roughly 3,800 people detained, about 85 percent of whom had no prior criminal conviction. Minnesota followed with “Operation Metro Surge,” which ran from December 2025 through February 2026 and put roughly 3,000 ICE and Border Patrol officers on the streets of the Twin Cities and beyond. ICE has since reported arresting 4,674 noncitizens during that operation, fewer than 40 percent of whom had any criminal history, along with 131 U.S. citizens accused of assaulting officers (with many charges dropped), all of which led to chaos and confusion. All of these operations left lasting marks on the communities involved, and highlight the importance of knowing your rights and preparation.
A good deal of misinformation circulates in moments like this, and some of it is dangerous. ICE officers are not limited to arrests solely for immigration violations. Federal law authorizes them to arrest anyone, citizen or noncitizen, for a federal offense committed in their presence or for a felony they have reasonable grounds to believe the person committed. 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(5). They may also make a warrantless immigration arrest when they have reason to believe a person is removable and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(2). And officers need only reasonable suspicion, a standard courts have read broadly, to briefly stop and question someone. Race or ethnicity alone is not enough, but officers may rely on a combination of factors including languages spoken, and they are increasingly using mobile facial recognition tools in the field.
So the answer to the question I hear most often, “Can I be arrested by ICE without a warrant?”, is YES. Knowing your rights and the rights of your employees is critically important particularly before any interactions with ICE.
ICE officers often carry administrative warrants, such as a Form I-200 (for a suspected immigration violation) or a Form I-205 (to carry out a removal order). These are signed by immigration officers, not by a judge. An administrative warrant generally does not authorize officers to enter a home, or the private areas of a business, without consent, though DHS has argued that even those limitations do not apply. A judicial warrant, signed by a federal district court judge or magistrate judge and naming a specific person or place, is a different document and does authorize entry.
The single most important rule is this: do not resist, but do not consent. Whatever the warrant says, consent from anyone with actual or apparent authority over the space waives the protection. If officers come to the door, you do not have to open it. Ask them to hold the warrant up to a window or slide it under the door. Check for a judge’s signature. If it is administrative, say clearly, “I do not consent to entry.” If it is judicial, read it carefully, confirm it names the right person and place, and ask to call a lawyer. If officers enter anyway, do not block them. State your objection and let a lawyer address it later.
Agricultural and meat processing employers are feeling the effects of these enforcement actions in an already difficult economic environment. Further, it’s important that employers ensure they have minimized any legal exposure to the company itself. Every employer should conduct a risk assessment now rather than wait for an enforcement action on their premises.
Get your Forms I-9 in order now. In many instances, worksite enforcement actions precede, are contemporaneous to, or follow in the wake of these spikes in immigration arrests. See https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-01-27/businesses-pressured-to-respond-to-immigration-enforcement-while-also-becoming-target-of-it. Pro-active audits and actions before ICE arrives can save any company thousands of dollars in potential fines and hundreds of thousands to millions if you have a large workforce. Once Homeland Security Investigations serves a Notice of Inspection on your company, you have only three business days to produce your Forms I-9 and you cannot correct any errors already present. Call counsel immediately, gather the forms, and do not alter, backdate, or “fix” anything after the fact, because tampering creates separate criminal exposure. Paperwork errors alone can create exposure in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, particularly because DHS is levying fines at the high end of the range even without evidence of a company’s knowing hire of unauthorized persons.
Do not treat E-Verify as a safe harbor. E-Verify matches names and Social Security numbers against government records; it does not guarantee that a worker is authorized. After the Omaha raid, DHS officials publicly warned employers against “reckless reliance” on the system. E-Verify employers also now receive Status Change Reports identifying workers whose parole-based employment authorization has been revoked, and DHS is likely to argue that receiving one gives the employer knowledge that triggers a duty to act.
Have a written response plan. Designate and train a point person to receive officers, verify any warrant, and call counsel. Keep 24/7 attorney contact information posted where managers can find it. Train supervisors on the difference between a judicial warrant, an administrative warrant, a subpoena, and a Notice of Inspection, and on the rule that they should not consent to entry into private areas without first speaking with a lawyer.
Know and mark your private spaces. Officers need a judicial warrant or consent to enter areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as offices, break rooms, locker rooms, and areas marked “Employees Only.” 8 C.F.R. § 287.8(f)(2). Parking lots, lobbies, sidewalks, and open loading docks generally receive no such protection. Clear signage and access controls make the line visible to everyone.
Be extremely careful about harboring. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly, or in reckless disregard of a person’s status, conceal, harbor, or shield a noncitizen from detection. 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii). Ordinary employment and sharing general information about constitutional rights are not harboring. But directly warning workers about a specific enforcement operation, transporting them to avoid detection, housing them in concealed locations, or publicly declaring the business a “sanctuary” can create substantial risk under aggressive prosecution theories. Suspected harboring is also increasingly the basis for the judicial search warrants ICE obtains for worksites, as was the case at the Hyundai plant. When in doubt, call counsel before acting.
Communicate with your workforce. Misinformation spreads quickly among frightened workers. Establish trusted channels for accurate information, provide Know Your Rights cards to every employee regardless of status, and identify legal aid resources workers can turn to if a family member is detained. If your workforce is unionized, coordinate with the union. And never retaliate against or discriminate against workers based on perceived national origin or citizenship status as that can create exposure to other types of enforcement actions.
Emeriti Law regularly advises and trains employers on enforcement response, harboring risk, and Form I-9 compliance. Contact us at www.emeriti.law to set up a consultation.
This post provides general information and is not legal advice. Every case is different. Please consult an attorney about your specific situation.
.png)
