Grace Hills, Kansas Reflector

PRAIRIE VILLAGE — After President Donald Trump took office, a small church in Kansas City retreated underground — abandoning their sanctuary for the basement.

Rick Behrens, senior pastor at Grandview Park Presbyterian Church, said he moved services to the locked basement in response to the administration’s decision to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to enter churches.

“It is ironic and shameful, is it not, that the safe spaces we call sanctuaries are no longer safe spaces,” Behrens said. “Because we are under attack from our own government.”

Behrens spoke alongside other faith leaders and immigrant activists Thursday at an interfaith prayer vigil in Prairie Village. Speakers encouraged churches — especially large congregations — to start fighting for immigrants.

“It’s easy to come to events like this and believe we’ve done something monumental,” Behrens said. “Don’t get me wrong, prayer can be and has been the start of many monumental movements, but by praying we can also feel that we somehow fulfilled our requirement to love our neighbors without doing anything.”

Behrens’ underground church has become an organizing hub in Kansas City. He has trained community members to rapidly respond when they spot immigration enforcement officers, accompany immigrants, and monitor the courts.

Speakers said those volunteer networks are especially needed with the FIFA World Cup approaching — they expect more immigration enforcement than usual.

Carolyne Muriu, a representative for Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, immigrated from Kenya when she was 12 years old.

“It should be a moment of celebration, but it is becoming a moment of fear for a lot of immigrants,” Muriu said. “So we have to make plans to protect ourselves.”

Jess Ferrell, executive director for the Center of Grace community center in Olathe, relied on a network of volunteers after she received an anonymous tip that ICE agents planned to raid parent pickup at the center. She said she will never be sure if it was a legitimate threat.

“We realized we do not have a way to safely get (the kids) off our property home with their parents, who are at work, because armed agents might show up and try to kidnap their parents in front of them, using children as bait,” Ferrell said.

Jess Ferrell, executive director for the Center of Grace community center, recounted the time she feared ICE agents planned to raid the center during parent pickup. She spoke April 30 in Prairie Village. (Photo by Grace Hills for Kansas Reflector)

The anonymous tip came in around 9 a.m. Ferrell said for the next nine hours, rapid response volunteers came to help. All 48 kids made it home safely.

Jacob Poindexter, senior minister at Wichita United Church of Christ asked a profound question bluntly.

“Which side are you going to be on? Which side are we going to take a risk for?” he asked. “Because you’re taking a risk, no matter which side you choose. If you do nothing, you are taking a risk. If you do something, at least it’s a worthwhile risk.”

Earlier Thursday, the pastor of the largest church in Kansas and largest United Methodist Church in the country, Adam Hamilton, announced his bid for the U.S. Senate to replace GOP incumbent and Trump loyalist Sen. Roger Marshall.

Hamilton’s campaign as an “independently minded Democrat” has drawn criticism from more progressive democrats, especially for his ambiguous stance on abortion.

None of the speakers would outright enforce Hamilton.

“If a pastor runs for political office it’s fantastic,” Poindexter said.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A federal jury convicted six leaders in a quasi-religious group in a scheme that convinced parents to send their children to Kansas City, Kansas, for schooling but instead forced them to work long hours without pay and subjected them to beatings and other abuse.

The six defendants held high-ranking positions of influence within the United Nation of Islam, which a federal judge deemed a “cult.” They pleaded not guilty but were convicted Monday in federal district court in Kansas City.

United Nation of Islam founder Royall Jenkins, who claimed to be Allah and had multiple wives, court documents show, died in 2021.

In 1996, Jenkins told local government in Kansas City that the group was moving there to create its headquarters and make it their new “heaven.” From 1998 to 2000, the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City and a public school board donated five buildings to the group for the purpose of revitalizing an area that was considered blighted and dangerous.

Instead, federal prosecutors said, the organization used fear to coerce children into working up to 16 hours a day in its storefronts, with names like, “Your Diner,” “Your Bakery” and “Your Gas Station.”

Although members could be of any age, court documents show the defendants primarily used the labor of minors, with the youngest only 8 years old. In return, they would get meager meals, sparse accommodations and crowded housing, according to court documents.

“The United Nation of Islam and these defendants held themselves out as a beacon of hope for the community, promising to educate and teach important life skills to members, particularly children,” said Kristen Clarke, of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement. “Instead, the defendants betrayed this trust, exploiting young children in the organization by callously compelling their labor.”

Attorneys for the defendants during the 26-day trial argued their clients used their positions in the organization to try and stop Jenkins and the abuse. The federal government wanted to prosecute Jenkins, they said, but he died.

The jury convicted each defendant of conspiracy to commit forced labor. Kabba Majeed — one of two defendants who testified during the trial — also was convicted of five counts of forced labor. Majeed and other defendants, except for Dana Peach, who was one of Jenkins’ wives, were part of an executive board that had planned to shut down the United Nation of Islam after they realized Jenkins was “a fraud.”

“We tried to do a stealth breakdown, remove everything, then have Royall find out,” Majeed testified. “Our attempt was to make sure this didn’t happen again. Period.”

Ultimately, Majeed said, there was nothing they could’ve done to stop him.

“Going to the police would’ve stopped him,” said Myryam Zhuravitsky, an attorney with the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, during cross-examination.

Multiple victims testified during the trial. One woman spoke of her time at the United Nation of Islam school, where children were taught an unregulated curriculum, including that “women were not needed.” Children were humiliated and beaten regularly, she said.

“I was scared,” she said. “Hearing a little boy scream, knowing he’s defenseless.”

Kansas Reflector doesn’t identify survivors of domestic and sexual violence without their consent.

Defendants are scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 18. Majeed faces up to 20 years in prison and restitution. The other defendants face up to five years in prison: Peach, Yunus Rassoul, James Staton, Randolph Rodney Hadley, and Daniel Aubrey Jenkins.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.