Protest. Works.
Platform Ventures, the owners of a warehouse south of Kansas City, insist that they serve only the company’s stockholders. However, public concerns about the possible purchase of their building by ICE and its potential repurposing as a concentration camp facility have succeeded in preventing the sale.
After federal agents toured the facility in January, the Kansas City Council passed a ban on any permits or approvals for nonmunicipal detention facilities. The ban is operative until 2031. The possibility of an ICE facility in town also sparked fierce public protests.
"This decision wouldn’t have happened without several weeks of protest and collective action by low-wage workers with Missouri Workers Center and over 20 local immigrant and racial justice, faith, school, environmental, and civil rights groups," Terrence Wise said in the statement. "We will continue fighting to keep masked, unaccountable federal agents out of our communities and for the dignity, respect, and pathway to better citizenship that we all deserve."