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“The pattern here is one of asking Kansans to disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes and experience and instead to trust the word of the officials pursuing this particular policy,” Micah Kubic, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, said in a phone interview. “Rather than acknowledging that people have legitimate concerns here, rather than acknowledging that legal and constitutional rights are being violated constantly, those in the positions of power on this, instead, just tell us all that we don’t know what we’re talking about, that we’re insufficiently grateful to them, and challenge us to simply take their word for it rather than believe our own eyes.”

The ACLU of Kansas raised a similar concern when lawmakers considered the amendment. In written testimony, policy director Rashane Hamby said changing the Constitution from affirmative voter language to restrictive language could pave the way for future voting restrictions, including another attempt at documentary proof of citizenship.

The Beacon’s local government reporter Josh Merchant moderated the discussion. They were joined by Micah Kubic of the ACLU of Kansas, Wyandotte County Chief Public Defender David Magariel and KCUR metro reporter Sam Zeff. Each participant brought a different expertise to the conversation from privacy and civil liberties to how license plate reader information may enter criminal cases and how the technology is being used across state lines.

In an interview with The Capital-Journal, Harper Seldin, staff attorney for the ACLU, said the posts were not relevant to the ongoing case. “I think the only relevance here is that the state is trying to use that to create pressure on anonymous Kansans who have been brave enough to show up in person and in court to tell their stories,” he said. “There’s no reason for this.”

But Micah Kubic, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, detailed the optics of ICE operations across the country. “Kansans are seeing through these transparent attempts to turn neighbors against one another, and even if the U.S. Attorney finds them inconvenient, the facts are clear: masked, unidentified men are recklessly storming our streets, surrounding cars, separating parents from children, then disappearing them into ICE's creeping network of deplorable jails and prisons,” he said in a written statement.

During an ACLU protest in Riverside Park, City Council members Mike Hoheisel, Maggie Ballard and Joseph Shepard spoke out against partnerships known as 287(g) agreements. The agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand ICE efforts.

The executive director of the ACLU, Micah Kubic, also released a statement responding to the U.S. attorney. He says he doesn’t believe the U.S. attorney’s statement matches what people saw and heard. “I believe that people should rely on what their own eyes, ears, and common sense tell them, rather than what the U.S. attorney who works for the same administration that deployed the raids is telling them,” Kubic said.

During an ACLU protest in Riverside Park, City Council members Mike Hoheisel, Maggie Ballard and Joseph Shepard spoke out against partnerships known as 287(g) agreements. The agreements allow local law enforcement agencies to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to expand ICE efforts.

“I think this is a textbook example of what is supposed to happen,” Kansas ACLU Executive Director Micah Kubic told KCUR. “When communities come out to say, ‘This is not what we want our city, our town, our state, our country to look like,’ folks in power respond to that.”