BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — State troopers are on standby in Kansas as demonstrations against federal immigration raids crop up around the country following an increased military presence in response to protests in Los Angeles.
The Kansas Highway Patrol is aware of Kansas City-area protests this week, said April McCollum, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Protests in LA began Friday, mostly in downtown and central parts of the city, in opposition to targeted, sweeping raids from federal immigration officials that result in the arrest and detention of immigrants lacking permanent legal status. The demonstrations escalated once President Donald Trump ordered thousands of members of the California National Guard to the city’s streets, against the wishes of state leaders. Protesters in dozens of other cities joined their LA counterparts Tuesday.
Col. Erik Smith, superintendent of the state highway patrol, told legislators Tuesday that a protest similar to those in LA was planned in the Johnson County area, but the agency did not disclose specifics when asked. The only report of a protest in the area Tuesday occurred in Kansas City, Missouri’s downtown and Westside, drawing hundreds of attendees, according to reporting from The Kansas City Star.
A slate of more than 1,800 protests are scheduled across the nation for Saturday. More than a dozen of them are set to occur in Kansas cities, from Garden City to Hiawatha to Arkansas City to the Kansas City area.
“We encourage those involved to maintain civility while exercising their First Amendment rights,” McCollum said.
The agency’s mobile field force is prepared to assist local law enforcement during all incidents of “civil unrest,” Smith said.
The force is “a specially trained and equipped unit composed of Troopers from across the state that can be deployed to support local law enforcement agencies in the event of civil disorder, natural disasters, and other public safety emergencies,” McCollum said.
Kansas Bureau of Investigation director Tony Mattivi told lawmakers Tuesday at a Senate Committee on Government Efficiency hearing that state agents are not currently trained to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials with raids and arrests in Kansas.
Sen. Mike Thompson, a Shawnee Republican, asked Mattivi during the hearing why federal agents aren’t responsive to one-off local arrests.
“ICE, right now, is just overwhelmed,” Mattivi said. “They’re focused on busloads at a time.”
State and local officials don’t have the authority to investigate federal immigration violations, but Kansas, was the second state in the country to agree with the Trump administration to exercise 287(g) authority, which refers to section 287(g) of the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act. Once agents are trained, they will be able to make those one-off arrests and fill the gaps federal immigration officials leave behind.
Eventually, Mattivi said, he would like to examine the 48,000 people who are listed as a sex offender, drug offender or violent offender in Kansas and determine whether any of those people are in the country without permanent legal status.
Politicians sound off
As chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Gov. Laura Kelly, along with most of the rest of the country’s Democratic governors, condemned Trump’s decision to deploy a state’s National Guard as “an alarming abuse of power” and “ineffective and dangerous.”
“Further, threatening to send the U.S. Marines into American neighborhoods undermines the mission of our service members, erodes public trust, and shows the Trump administration does not trust local law enforcement,” the governors said Sunday in a joint statement.
The Trump administration deployed around 700 active-duty U.S. Marines to L.A. from a nearby base to “restore order,” defense secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post.
Trump called for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s arrest after Newsom expressed his disapproval of Trump’s actions. Newsom sued the Trump administration, alleging the president’s takeover of the state’s National Guard was illegal. Governors typically hold the power to deploy the guard.
The Democratic governors said they stand with Newsom, “who has made it clear that violence is unacceptable and that local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation.”
Kansas Republicans rebutted Democrats’ remarks with condemnations of their own.
In a series of social media posts, Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, who is also a Republican candidate for state insurance commissioner, applauded Trump’s actions.
He said he was shocked by the Democratic governors’ statement.
“It’s indefensible that Governor Kelly and other Democrat Governors would seemingly side with the rioters over law and order. Their Trump Derangement Syndrome truly knows no bounds,” Hawkins wrote.
Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, who is widely expected to run for governor, criticized Kelly in a statement.
“Laura Kelly is slow to condemn attacks on law enforcement, but quick to side with Gavin Newsom and rioters waving foreign flags as they try to burn down an American community. It is shameful,” he said.
Conservatives in opposition to the protests have frequently used rhetoric that depicts L.A. in flames or in complete disarray. The protests have been confined to a few areas of the city, mostly around local and federal government buildings. Misinformation and doctored or fabricated photos have circulated.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who is a 2026 Republican candidate for governor, wrote on the social media platform X in response to the statement from the Democratic governors: “This is wrong.”
In a separate post, Schwab said protesters in California were “endangering” law enforcement “because they embrace disorder and crime over civility.”
He added: “Our founders are rolling in their graves.”
Saturday protests
Protests in 15 cities in Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri, fall under the banner of No Kings Day, a collection of anti-Trump protests. Saturday is also Flag Day.
Ahead of the protest in Topeka at the Statehouse, organizers with the Kansas chapter of 50501 emphasized in a statement its desire for a peaceful demonstration.
“We are committed to the safety of every protester and are exploring unforeseen and uncontrollable challenges and how to respond to them,” the statement said. “We are continuing to plan for a safe gathering.”
Activists are chartering buses and establishing carpools to Topeka from Abilene, Junction City, Manhattan, Franklin County, Lawrence and the Kansas City, Kansas, area.
Ahead of Wichita’s rally, organizers with Defend Democracy ICT said the protest date is symbolic, “aligning with Flag Day, President Trump’s birthday, and a controversial military parade in Washington, D.C.”
“This is a stand against authoritarianism and the growing disregard for democratic norms,” organizers said in a statement. “We are here to remind our leaders that power belongs with the people — not kings, not billionaires, not dictators.”
Protests are scheduled to take place in the following cities, according to the No Kings online tracker: Arkansas City, Emporia, Garden City, Great Bend, Hiawatha, Hutchinson, Lawrence, Lenexa, Manhattan, Ottawa, Overland Park, Pittsburg, Salina, Topeka, Wichita and Kansas City, Missouri.