Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in southwestern Kansas meatpacking country sparked widespread anger and drove many voters to support Democrats in the midterm elections, helping elect a Democratic US senator from Kansas for the first time in nearly a century.
José Del Real, an army veteran who served two tours in Iraq, had not voted in a decade. But after immigration agents descended on his town and began rounding up friends and family, he urged hundreds of neighbors at a rally to vote, saying, “None of this matters if you do not vote. Let’s go vote.”
Raids ignite voter backlash
In late September, masked officers in tactical gear conducted raids, banging on doors before dawn, stopping cars at intersections, and causing businesses to shutter. Families feared leaving their homes, and children stopped going to school. Some people live-streamed their own detentions.
The county and two neighboring counties, traditionally Republican strongholds with a steady stream of immigrants working at feedlots and slaughterhouses, swung dramatically to the left. The shift helped elect a Democratic senator from Kansas for the first time in nearly a century, signaling limits to Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.
Local officials demand answers
Dodge City commissioner Rick Sowers said he and other city officials learned of the raids through social media or unmarked trucks on neighbors’ lawns. They never received answers from the federal government about who was being targeted or how long the operation would last.
The Trump administration issued statements naming five “heinous criminals” it said had been arrested. However, the Wichita Eagle reported that none of those people were actually apprehended during the surge: four had been deported months before, and the fifth was already in prison. The agency said it detained 104 people from southwestern Kansas.
Local Republican chairman Scott Fischer, who supports strong borders, was surprised by the operation’s intensity. “There was a little showmanship,” he said. “I don’t know why it was like that.”
Community response and voter mobilization
Amy Soberanes, a 25-year-old local organizer and daughter of Mexican immigrants, said she and others had tried for years to engage young Latino neighbors. The raids made the issue immediate. “If ICE hadn’t come, we would still be red, 100%,” she said. “And so I thank Donald Trump for sending immigration here.”
Oscar Soto, who works at a family-owned grocery store, began calling the period “the black week” after the black plague. He registered to vote for the first time at age 39 and stood in line, amazed by the number of young Latino voters waiting with him.
More than half of Kansas voters in the Senate race disapprove of how ICE is handling its job, according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters. That is consistent with the 61% of voters who say this nationally.
