Kansas House Bill 2717 enacted in 2018 prohibits Wichita and other municipalities from adopting sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, requiring law enforcement to honor lawful ICE detainer requests.
Kansas HB 2717, signed in 2018, bars cities and counties from adopting policies that prohibit local law-enforcement officers from communicating with federal immigration authorities or that limit honoring ICE detainer requests issued under federal law. As a result Wichita Police Department and Sedgwick County Sheriff cannot operate as a sanctuary jurisdiction. Officers may still decline to enforce purely civil immigration matters during routine encounters, but jail intake processes must check immigration status when requested and honor properly issued detainers, subject to constitutional limits.
A municipality found to violate the act risks loss of certain state funding and civil liability; individual officers face departmental discipline rather than direct statutory penalties.
See how Wichita's sanctuary policy preemption rules stack up against other locations.
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