DHS Denies Worksite Raids as Kansas ICE Operation Ends

Supreme Court Revives Citizenship Checks Required in Kansas

Flock Cameras Help Police Arrest Wichita Triple Homicide Suspect

Wichita Police Warn Flock Camera Vandals of Felony Charges

Science Group Urges FHSU to Preserve Sternberg Museum

DHS Denies Worksite Raids as Kansas ICE Operation Ends

DODGE CITY, Kan. — Dodge City and Garden City officials said Sept. 25 that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ended operations in their cities and agents were expected to leave, following enforcement that began Sept. 22 and expanded to reach Great Bend and Scott City. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin denied that ICE was conducting worksite operations in Kansas, saying agents targeted criminals and people with final removal orders, including two Hutchinson men with homicide convictions. His account differed from an advocacy group’s report that agents entered a Dodge City packing plant with a warrant, while ICE had not released an arrest count. Community organizers estimated more than 50 people were detained, citing a plane carrying detainees from Garden City’s airport; about 200 people rallied in Dodge City on Sept. 25, including relatives seeking information about detained family members. Federally inspected cattle slaughter ran about 31,000 head behind the previous week through Sept. 24, with fed-cattle slaughter down nearly 16% that day, according to DTN; the disruption affected a region whose four major plants in Dodge City, Garden City-Holcomb and Liberal can process 24,000 market-ready cattle daily, more than a fifth of national fed-cattle slaughter.

KSN · KWCH · KAKE · DTN · The Cattle Site

Supreme Court Revives Citizenship Checks Required in Kansas

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 Sept. 25 to let the Department of Homeland Security resume expanded SAVE citizenship checks on state voter rolls while Department of Homeland Security v. League of Women Voters continues, without a final ruling on the program’s legality. Congress created the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program in 1986 to verify immigration status for public benefits, and the Trump administration added Social Security Administration records in 2025 to allow bulk searches using Social Security numbers. The order pauses U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s June 22 ruling that the overhaul violated federal privacy protections and restrictions on sharing Social Security data. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined in dissent by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, disputed that immigration information-sharing law authorizes those disclosures and warned of harm to eligible voters, some of whom the system has mistakenly flagged as potential noncitizens. Kansas lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto April 9 to enact House Bill 2437, requiring twice-yearly SAVE checks and referral of possible noncitizens to county election officials for notice, review and citizenship confirmation, with removal of those confirmed ineligible. The order restores a tool required by Kansas law about five weeks before the Nov. 3 election, when voters will also consider a citizenship-related constitutional amendment.

NPR/KMUW · U.S. Supreme Court · Kansas Secretary of State · Kansas Legislature

Flock Cameras Help Police Arrest Wichita Triple Homicide Suspect

WICHITA, Kan. — Police arrested 21-year-old Juan Valenzuela-Silva on suspicion of capital murder after a 49-year-old man, a 40-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman were found shot to death Sept. 26 in a southeast Wichita home. Police said the shooting was reported about 11:30 a.m. at a home in the 5000 block of East Blake, where the three victims were the suspect’s relatives and three other people inside were unharmed. The search relied on Flock license-plate cameras, a technology debated across Kansas, and a Kansas Highway Patrol aircraft; officers arrested him unarmed and without incident just south of Augusta in Butler County within about two hours. Investigators believed Valenzuela-Silva lived at the home, preliminarily described the shooting as a domestic incident and said they knew of no prior criminal history for him. The victims’ names had not been released, and the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office was expected to file formal charges during the week of Sept. 28; Valenzuela-Silva has not been convicted in the case. Kansas law allows a capital murder charge for intentional, premeditated killings of multiple people in the same act or connected acts, placing such cases among the state’s most serious criminal offenses.

KWCH · KSN · KAKE · Great Bend Post · KCUR · Kansas Legislature

Wichita Police Warn Flock Camera Vandals of Felony Charges

WICHITA, Kan. — Wichita police warned that vandalizing Flock Safety cameras could bring felony charges as privacy concerns fuel opposition to automated license-plate readers nationwide. A camera pole at Central and Zoo Boulevard was cut down and replaced with a “DeFlock Sedgwick County” sign demanding a government surveillance-camera ban, following similar damage in Derby. Police spokesman Andrew Ford said the cameras capture still images of vehicles and plates, rather than video or livestreams, to help recover stolen vehicles and identify suspects. Residents Daniel Fisher and Eli Cruz opposed the vandalism, with Cruz also questioning potential surveillance uses. Another camera near the intersection remains operational, and police plan to replace the damaged unit. The dispute highlights questions about investigative benefits and privacy.

KWCH

Science Group Urges FHSU to Preserve Sternberg Museum

HAYS, Kan. — The American Institute of Biological Sciences urged Fort Hays State University leaders and the Kansas Board of Regents in a Sept. 25 letter to preserve the Sternberg Museum of Natural History, whose future remains undecided amid university budget cuts. The national organization joined a local campaign that began after a museum employee’s social media post predicted a year-end closure, with an online petition reaching 5,496 signatures by Sept. 25, according to Hays Post. FHSU President Tisa Mason said no formal decision had been made, and a university adviser said official information was forthcoming; as of the weekend, the university had not announced whether the museum would close, scale back or remain open. The university faces a $2.4 million state funding cut this year, while Mason put the museum’s annual budget at about $1.3 million and its deferred building maintenance at about $20 million. The museum holds more than 3 million paleontology, botany, zoology and geology specimens used by researchers nationwide, making its future consequential for scientific access as well as public education about Kansas’ ancient inland sea. Its best-known exhibit, the “fish-within-a-fish” fossil, was discovered in Gove County in 1952 by fossil hunter George F. Sternberg.

AIBS · KSN · Hays Post · Sternberg Museum · Wikipedia

Sources

1. KSN / KWCH / KWCH / KWCH / KAKE / DTN / The Cattle Site
2. NPR/KMUW / U.S. Supreme Court / Kansas Secretary of State / Kansas Legislature / Kansas Secretary of State
3. KWCH / KSN / KAKE / Great Bend Post / KCUR / Kansas Legislature
4. KWCH
5. AIBS / KSN / Hays Post / Sternberg Museum / Wikipedia

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