Wichita City Council Rejects Community Call for Trust and Safety, Chooses to Stand With ICE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 10, 2026

CONTACT: Esmie Tseng. [email protected]

Wichita, Kan. – The Wichita City Council declined Tuesday night to place the Wichita Trust and Safety resolution on the agenda for a future vote and public comment period. The Council instead adjourned the meeting abruptly, following a tense discussion.

At least 150 residents packed the room to show support of the resolution, an unusually high turnout for a city meeting.

“The City Council has issued a tragic rejection of the community’s call for solidarity at a crucial moment in history, choosing instead to enable the ongoing actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said Logan DeMond, Policy Director of the ACLU of Kansas. “While Tuesday’s meeting may have ended, it will not end the conversation nor the responsibility Wichita has to step up for its immigrant residents.”

Councilmembers Joseph Shepard, Maggie Ballard, and Mike Hoheisel spoke in support of the resolution and noted hearing significant feedback from their constituents calling for an explicit refusal of a 287(g) agreement.

Mayor Wu, Councilmember Dalton Glasscock, Councilmember Becky Tuttle, and Councilmember JV Johnston’s comments were at first broadly supportive of immigrants they have encountered and pointed to the absence of a current agreement between Wichita and ICE, but all four ultimately declined to support the resolution, opting for a townhall instead. Johnston explicitly stated he would never support a 287(g) agreement, but opposed the resolution’s content, which includes a refusal to enter into a 287(g) agreement.

“There is a humanitarian cost to not having what I would define as the political courage to say ‘I’m willing to choose to be loud about where I stand on this issue, even if it costs me something—because to be silent costs me more,’” said Councilmember Shepard, urging the City to be proactive rather than reactive.

“Southwest Kansas is the litmus test,” said Councilmember Shepard, responding to Councilmember Johnston’s remarks. “They did nothing to deserve what happened to those residents. They did nothing. They modeled what we hear tonight: ‘Keep your head down and be quiet’ – which is no way to live, by the way. And it has major consequences on the quality of life on people who live in our community.”

“Telling people to keep their head down and to be quiet and to be a good boy or a good girl is not the way that we should expect citizens to roam the streets of Wichita,” said Shepard. “That is not healthy. It is not appropriate to even suggest that that is okay… And what a privilege it is for some of us to be directing people to live that way.”

Earlier this week, more than 30 organizations and civic, business, and faith leaders signed onto a letter calling on the Wichita City council and the mayor to adopt the Wichita Trust and Safety resolution.

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About the ACLU of Kansas: The ACLU of Kansas is the statewide affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU of Kansas is dedicated to preserving and advancing the civil rights and legal freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For more information, visit our website at www.aclukansas.org.