News & Commentary

Esmie Tseng, communications director for the ACLU of Kansas, said the data confirms what is already known. “This is clearly a numbers game about quotas and percentages for ICE agents, divorced from the humanity of who is impacted and blurring the lines between the civil immigration matters and the cruel legacy of our criminal legal system,” she said. She argued each data point represents someone going through a traumatic experience that she said can involve being grabbed off the street by strangers in masks, put in chains, thrown in the back of an unmarked vehicle and driven to a facility with deplorable conditions. 

Although Easter said not much changes under the new agreement, the ACLU of Kansas warns that the issue can fall back on taxpayers. “It’s still a problem,” ACLU Kansas Executive Director Micah Kubic said. “If ICE asks… the county to detain someone and ICE was wrong about who it was… it will be the Sedgwick County Sheriff that does that, and it will be Sedgwick County taxpayers who pay the bill for those wrongful detentions.”

In 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas published a white paper about agreements between local law enforcement and ICE. “Being undocumented is not a crime,” the ACLU wrote, “and local law enforcement have no obligation to help the federal government enforce immigration law.” The ACLU contends that the agreements “have given rise to racial profiling, civil rights violations, and breakdowns in community relations” and “continue to disrupt communities and fuel racism and xenophobia in Kansas and around the country.”

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging a state law that allows judges to extend probation for years when an offender fails to pay restitution in their cases. The lawsuit alleges the practice punishes people for being poor.

Monica Bennett, ACLU of Kansas legal director, said protection from arbitrary and unequal treatment under the law was a fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution. “There is nothing about being poor that means you should be treated differently when serving a probation term, but it’s apparent that if our clients and many other Kansans were simply able to pay, their rights would be restored,” she said.

The lawsuit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas on behalf of four plaintiffs, was lodged against Attorney General Kris Kobach as well as six current and former Johnson County judges.

On October 10th, 2025, a coalition of advocate organizations including the ACLU of Kansas sent a letter to Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett concerning pretrial detention. This practice, which should be used only when neccessary, has become the default, subverting the presumption of innoncence at the heart of our criminal legal system and creating a two-tiered system where those who have money can buy their freedom, while those who cannot are left in jail—and often face life-altering consequences as a result. This letter asked DA Bennett to use his discretion to reduce the number of people detained pretrial to help reduce the harm of our broken bail system.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and several Wichita organizations are urging the Sedgwick County Court System to change its bail practices, saying the current system unfairly impacts people living in poverty.

In early July, the ACLU of Kansas called for the “immediate release” of the body camera footage from the June 22 shooting. The release, the nonprofit said, would allow for transparency and accountability.