photo by: Sanctuary Alliance Facebook screenshot

Sanctuary Alliance posted on Facebook Tuesday that it had confirmed ICE detainments inLawrence.

A Lawrence organization called Sanctuary Alliance has alerted the community that agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, were detaining individuals in Lawrence.

Sanctuary Alliance posted on Facebook Tuesday that it had received multiple reports of ICE activity in Lawrence. The organization said it had confirmed five sightings and three detainments and it posted photos and videos. The Journal-World was not able to independently confirm that information but has reached out to local law enforcement authorities.

“We are working with the families of those detained,” the Sanctuary Alliance post said.

The first sighting occurred at 7 a.m. in the RevCity Church parking lot at Wakarusa Drive and Harvard Road, where the group said six to seven ICE agents in tactical vests with masks were moving things in and out of six to seven unmarked vehicles.

Between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m. in back of the CVS parking lot at 23rd and Iowa streets, five masked ICE agents in a black SUV detained one individual, Sanctuary Alliance said.

At 7:30 a.m. near Hillcrest Elementary an individual was reportedly pulled over by an ICE agent and asked for citizenship documentation but was not detained, the group said.

An hour later, at 34th and Iowa streets, three to four agents detained another individual, the group said, and at 9 a.m. near 25th and Iowa streets, six to seven agents in unmarked vehicles tackled and detained one person.

Sanctuary Alliance posted a hotline number for concerned residents: (785) 813-1098. The alliance is a collective that advocates for and provides resources and support to the local immigrant community.

Another support service in Lawrence, Somos Lawrence, posted on its Facebook page: “BE VERY CAREFUL. RIGHT NOW WE HAVE LOTS OF ICE MOVEMENT IN LAWRENCE. DON’T COME OUT IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO COME OUT.”

Multiple protests against ICE have occurred in Lawrence in the past month on the heels of federal agents killing two citizens in Minnesota, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and engaging in what many have described as state-sponsored violence toward immigrants and those who assist them.

The City of Lawrence attempted to adopt a set of immigrant protections a few years ago, only to walk them back out of concern that they might conflict with a 2022 state law banning sanctuary cities in Kansas.

Despite that, Lawrence and Douglas County landed on the Department of Homeland Security’s sanctuary jurisdiction list in 2025, though local officials denied that the city and county were sanctuary entities. That list was removed from DHS’s website after widespread criticism.

This is a developing story.