Kansas’s Halo Act Lets ICE Officers Clear Witnesses
Kansas’s new Halo Act, which took effect July 1, 2026, makes it a crime to “unlawfully approach” a law enforcement officer or first responder within 25 feet under certain circumstances. ICE officers invoked the law within days of its effective date.
On the morning of July 12, Shana Leacox, a 36-year-old Lenexa resident, was sitting in her parked car in Olathe recording ICE activity when agents surrounded her vehicle. An officer shouted “25 feet, 25 feet” and ordered her to move back. She couldn’t. ICE officers had blocked her car in with their own vehicles.
“I’m stuck. I can’t move.”
Shana Leacox, Lenexa resident, to ICE officer, July 12, 2026
Leacox rolled up her windows and turned off her air conditioning after she saw an officer holding what appeared to be pepper spray. She was not arrested. But the encounter illustrated exactly how the law can be applied against stationary bystanders who pose no threat to ongoing operations.
ICE Has Shot People Filming From Cars
Leacox said she was thinking of Renee Good, the 37-year-old Minneapolis woman shot and killed in her car by an ICE officer in January 2026, while she kept her phone recording. Since Good’s death, ICE officers have shot at several other people during immigration operations. After two more men were killed in their cars during immigration stops, the Department of Homeland Security ordered ICE to stop conducting traffic stops. President Trump reversed that order the following day.
That context matters for understanding why ICE watchers exist. Mordecai Krehemker, a 28-year-old medical technician from Kansas City, Kansas, has filmed ICE officers three or four times since joining the network.
“We’re purely there to ensure the safety of our neighborhood, and to make sure that these agents are abiding by the law.”
Mordecai Krehemker, medical technician and ICE watcher, Kansas City, Kansas
Hundreds of people in the Kansas City metro area belong to encrypted group messaging channels that alert members to ICE activity in real time. Activist organizations run the network, requiring training before entry. Training covers safety, de-escalation, constitutional rights, and how to maintain the 25-foot buffer the Halo Act requires. The legal threat is real enough that one network member declined to speak to Kansas Reflector out of fear for her safety.
Who Controls Enforcement
The U.S. Attorney for Kansas, Ryan Kriegshauser, oversees federal prosecution decisions in the state. The Kansas Legislature passed the Halo Act, and Governor Laura Kelly signed it into law. ICE’s Kansas City field office directs local operations. All three offices have roles in how this law is applied going forward.
The First Amendment protects the right to record police activity in public spaces. Federal courts in multiple circuits have affirmed this right. Whether the Halo Act survives a legal challenge depends on how courts weigh the 25-foot buffer against established precedent on public recording.
What You Can Do Now
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Call your Kansas state legislators at (785) 296-2391 (state switchboard) and ask them to repeal the Halo Act or introduce amendments that explicitly exempt public recording of law enforcement from prosecution. The law is new and has no track record yet.
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Contact the ACLU of Kansas at (913) 490-4100 or aclukansas.org. Tell them you want them to challenge the Halo Act in court and ask about their current litigation plans related to ICE documentation.
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Call your U.S. senators at (202) 224-3121 and urge them to cosponsor the Camera Act or any legislation protecting the right to film federal law enforcement in public. Reference the Leacox incident in Olathe on July 12 by name.
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If you witness ICE activity, the ACLU’s “ICE Out of Kansas” resources at aclukansas.org outline your legal rights when recording from a public or private vehicle, including what the 25-foot rule does and does not require.
Sources
Kansas Reflector: New Kansas Law Limits Efforts to Document ICE Activity KFF Health News: ICE Shooting Deaths and Traffic Stop Policy Reversal Under Trump Brennan Center for Justice: First Amendment Rights to Record Police in Public ACLU of Kansas: Know Your Rights When Filming Law Enforcement
[Quote: “I’m stuck.
I can’t move.”, Shana Leacox, Lenexa resident, to ICE officer. Kansas Reflector]