Republican Sen. Roger Marshall publicly pressed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate with local police as federal agents carried out immigration operations across southwest Kansas, marking a rare break from an agency he has largely defended during his time in office.
Marshall’s statement
Marshall posted on X that ICE needs to work with local sheriffs and police when operating in Kansas because those officers know their communities better than anyone. He said he had been closely following developments in southwest Kansas and was in direct contact with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and local law enforcement while ICE executed its warrants, according to the post reported by IBTimes UK.
Kansas’ senior senator, Jerry Moran, issued a similar statement, saying he had also been in contact with Mullin, who assured him the warrants targeted individuals facing criminal charges, according to KWCH.
Local officials caught off guard
The senators’ statements followed reports of heightened ICE activity in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal. The New Republic reported that Scott City was also affected, leading to protests and business closures in the region.
Officials in the affected cities said in a joint statement that their governing bodies and law enforcement agencies were not notified in advance and only learned of the federal presence once agents became visible to the public. The cities said local officials had no operational information about the federal activity and no authority over it.
A shift in tone
The Kansas City Star‘s sister outlet coverage and other regional reports described Marshall’s post as a marked change from his prior posture, noting that he has spent months in the Senate resisting even modest reform proposals targeting ICE.
Online critics framed the reversal as politically motivated. Journalist Molly Jong-Fast wrote on X that Marshall appeared to be reconsidering his position only once ICE activity reached his own state, while Fox News contributor Jessica Tarlov remarked that Kansas is in play politically.
The political backdrop
Marshall is in a competitive reelection race against Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, a pastor making his first run for public office. The two candidates debated at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.
A subsequent Hill/Emerson College Polling survey found Hamilton leading Marshall 45 percent to 43 percent, with Libertarian candidate David Graham at 4 percent and 8 percent of respondents undecided. Emerson College Polling Executive Director Spencer Kimball said the survey represented Democrats’ best opportunity to win a Kansas Senate seat since 1932, driven in part by Hamilton’s 15-point lead among independent voters.
The Cook Political Report had already shifted its rating of the race from “solid” to “likely” Republican before moving it further to “Lean Republican,” citing Hamilton’s primary win as evidence of Democratic momentum in a state Republicans have long considered safe.
Who is Hamilton?
Hamilton founded Church of the Resurrection in Leawood in 1990, building it from a small group meeting in a funeral home chapel into a 25,000-member congregation with nine locations across the Kansas City area. It is now recognized as the nation’s largest United Methodist church, according to multiple outlets including Newsweek and the Johnson County Post.
Hamilton raised $3.6 million in the first two months of his campaign, a figure Democrats pointed to as evidence the race could be more competitive than initially forecast.
Broader GOP tensions on immigration
Marshall’s statement adds to a broader pattern of Republican lawmakers publicly distancing themselves from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement approach ahead of the midterm elections. Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, Texas Rep. Monica De La Cruz and former Maine Gov. Paul LePage have also voiced concerns about specific ICE actions affecting their states or families.
