Protests break out at KU after ICE reportedly detains 2 people in Lawrence, Kansas

Jack Harvel, The Kansas City Star on Feb 27, 2026

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University of Kansas students protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence on campus on Friday morning.

Social media posts spread online of ICE agents outside the Ambler Recreation Center on the KU campus around 8 a.m. Local advocacy group Sanctuary Alliance said it confirmed one person was detained by ICE near that location.

ICEout.org also reported an ICE sighting Friday morning on Iowa Street in Lawrence in a parking lot by a Dick’s Sporting Goods store. Sanctuary Alliance said it had confirmed one detainment.

Another detention was reported on Interstate 70 toward Kansas City.

In a statement, the university said it is still inquiring about the nature of the detainments.

“KU Public Safety has been notified and is working to gather additional information. At this time, we do not have confirmed details about the nature of the activity or whether it involved any KU students or employees,” Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director for news and media relations for KU, said in an email. “We understand these reports are unsettling, and our priority is the well-being of our campus community.”

Colin McRoberts, a professor of marketing and business law and congressional candidate for the First District in Kansas, told The Kansas City Star he had heard that two students were detained, but that reports were unconfirmed.

“What I heard was two people, very likely students, but I haven’t confirmed that yet,” McRoberts said. “We don’t know where those students were taken, what happened to them. We’ve got no information, no knowledge.”

About 80 protesters gathered outside of Strong Hall on the KU campus after 1 p.m. Some students felt Lawrence and the university were being intentionally targeted.

“There’s a lot of international students. There’s a lot of people who come from a lot of different backgrounds, and I definitely think that the last place they should be is a college campus,” said Justin Brown, a senior at KU.

ICE has had an increased presence in Lawrence in recent weeks. On Feb. 17, ICE and other federal immigration agents detained five people in Lawrence, according to video and photos captured by bystanders and distributed by a local activist group.

Two were detained in a church parking lot and an apartment complex, Sanctuary Alliance reported. The others were taken into custody at 23rd and Iowa streets; in the parking lot for Hobby Lobby and El Potro Mexican Cafe at 34th and Iowa streets; and in the parking lot for Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Kwik Trip at 25th and Iowa streets.