Manhattan is among the cities on a list for planned ICE offices, according to federal purchasing documents.
Federal officials are sending hundreds of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and staff across the country to increase immigration enforcement in big cities like New York and Houston and smaller towns.
The records, released last week, show ICE is deploying roughly 330 officers and staff to more than 40 states and Puerto Rico. The move follows a massive funding boost and staffing increase for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.
The records are for office space and workstations, not detention facilities. In Kansas, the list calls for an office with one employee in Manhattan and one in Kansas City, Kansas. The list includes an office with another two employees in Kansas City, Missouri.
In total, ICE plans to deploy about 330 people to cities in more than 40 states, along with Puerto Rico, according to records first reported by USA Today. Texas will receive the most, with 49 people deployed. Other cities targeted for increased ICE presence include Miami, Atlanta, Baltimore, Nashville and Seattle.
It was not immediately clear how many of the locations on the list already have ICE or Customs and Border Patrol presence, or if the officers are new hires or relocations. The records include the option to keep the offices through 2029.
The new assignments come several months after the Trump administration sharply curtailed its use of high-profile and controversial sweeps and raids in cities like Minneapolis, where two American citizens were fatally shot by federal agents in January.
White House officials now appear to be ramping up detention and deportation efforts under new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who told Newsmax on Saturday that “we haven’t missed a beat. We are still on track, pushing as hard as we can. We’re just doing it in a different way.”
As previously reported by The Mercury, Manhattan received a letter in December from Ryan Kriegshauser, U.S. attorney for the District of Kansas, saying he was investigating the city as a “sanctuary jurisdiction.”
This came two weeks after Manhattan municipal Judge Sarah Barr verbally confronted ICE agents attending courtroom proceedings while waiting to arrest a woman appearing for charges of driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident.
City manager Danielle Dulin replied the next month with a letter saying Manhattan was not a sanctuary city and that it complies with ICE.