photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Lawrence Police Department Headquarters, 5100 Overland Drive

The Lawrence Police Department and Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are unaware of any ICE raids occurring in Lawrence on Friday, despite multiple social media posts that purported residents had been detained at their workplaces and elsewhere.

The Journal-World received several messages on Friday asking about the validity of reports that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had been detaining Lawrence residents on Friday, presumably as part of deportation efforts discussed by President Donald Trump and other federal officials.

The Journal-World reached out to both the Lawrence Police Department and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office about whether they were aware of any ICE enforcement actions in Lawrence on Friday.

“We are unaware of any ICE activities in Lawrence,” LPD spokeswoman Laura McCabe told the Journal-World via email on Friday evening.

A spokesman with the sheriff’s department said much the same.

“We have had no calls in the county regarding ICE, nor have we had any communication with ICE,” spokesman George Diepenbrock said via email on Friday evening.

One particular narrative on social media talked about how ICE agents had come into at least one restaurant kitchen in downtown Lawrence and detained an employee there. However, other social media posters noted that the original post appeared to come from a poster who has been tied to misinformation about politically conservative issues in the past.

Douglas County, however, has been a target of at least one national group that is advocating for increased enforcement of immigration laws. As the Journal-World has reported earlier this month, the Trump-aligned group America First Legal labeled Douglas County a “sanctuary jurisdiction” and said the county was setting itself up for “serious consequences” by not following federal law.

That letter was sent to the chair of the Douglas County Commission, but county officials have said the letter provided no specifics about why Douglas County would be considered a sanctuary jurisdiction. County officials have said they have no reason to believe that the county is violating any federal immigration laws.