Raids in southwest Kansas. Politicians caution ICE. Reeling from fraud.

By Anna Kaminski | reporter

By Eric Thomas

“Disgusting,” a voice on the Facebook video says.

Captured in Kansas City, Kansas, this summer, the footage shows a handful of law enforcement officers — most of them masked — detaining a man. Their black SUVs surround his white pickup at the intersection of 6th Street and Central Avenue. After two minutes and 16 seconds, the officers have the handcuffed man in a back seat and drive him away.

The most common face covering among the officers is a black elastic cloth pulled up to cover their chin, mouth, cheeks and nose. As they mill around the intersection and inspect the truck, the thin fabric keeps each of them anonymous.

“They can’t even show their faces,” the bystander’s voice continues, before using an expletive to describe the agents.

As unprecedented immigration enforcement continues this week in Kansas and nationwide, the masks worn by law enforcement create a looming, yet cowardly, specter: law-enforcement officers so morally compromised by their work that they can’t show their faces, whether in Liberal or Garden City.

TOPEKA — Kansas politicians urged federal immigration enforcement officials to coordinate with local law enforcement following reports of indiscriminate stops on southwest Kansas streets, causing business delays and warnings from schools.

Republican U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall said Wednesday they both were in contact with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin after southwest Kansas law enforcement agencies said they didn’t know about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity and residents reported people being stopped at random.

“When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement,” Marshall said in a post on X. “Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe.”

TOPEKA — Kansas regulators allege a business reeling from fraud convictions of the company founder violated 32 banking provisions and recommend repeal of the related state law designed to transform Kansas into a magnet of alternative-asset dealmaking.

Kansas Bank Commissioner David Herndon said Beneficient Fiduciary Financial, a subsidiary of Dallas-headquartered Beneficient, refused to sign a consent order compelling BFF to abide by certain state bank laws and regulations. The deadlock prompted Herndon to file a cease-and-desist order against BFF, which is scheduled to be considered by an administrative law judge in November.

WASHINGTON — U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly early Thursday issued an order that temporarily blocks President Donald Trump’s ban of three news organizations from the White House.

Kelly, in the eight-page order, said that the White House must “immediately return, reinstate, and restore the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked” Friday and over the weekend.

WASHINGTON — Government investigators Thursday released a report that found the Department of Homeland Security wasted more than $20 million in federal funding in its rapid expansion of immigration detention, including warehouse purchases strongly opposed in numerous U.S. communities.

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that millions were wasted because DHS began expanding detention operations without putting a plan in place to meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s goal of detaining up to 100,000 immigrants.

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