Arson at Kansas City warehouse once proposed as ICE detention center earns global headlines

A woman was caught on video Thursday setting fire to a Kansas City warehouse once meant to be an ICE detention center, making international news – and coming after local elected officials vilified the agency and passed ordinances to block such facilities.

Kansas City Police are investigating the arson at the Platform Ventures at 14901 Botts Road in south KC, which is said to have occurred just before 6 p.m. Thursday. No suspect was known to be in custody as of Friday afternoon.

The woman can be seen throwing what appears to be a spray can at the building before lighting the building on fire. She then returns with what appears to be a bottle of lighter fluid and sprays the substance on the building above the already dancing flames.

“Officers were dispatched to a KCFD Fire Incident,” reads a KCPD statement obtained by The Lion. “When officers arrived, they contacted KCFD at the dispatched location who advised the building appeared to have been intentionally burned.

“Witnesses reported an unknown female approached the building and appeared to spray … something on the building and lit it on fire. KCFD was able to put the fire out before it spread. The unknown suspect left the scene.

“Bomb and Arson detectives responded to the scene and are conducting an arson investigation at this time. The investigation remains ongoing and the suspect is not in custody at this time.”

The attack is ironic in two ways. First, the owners had withdrawn consideration for the warehouse to be a detention facility. Second, as journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon notes in another case, “ICE detention is voluntary. Every person in ICE detention can choose to leave immediately – indeed, the Trump administration will literally pay them thousands of dollars to do so …”

News of the attack spread across the globe more quickly than the fire itself.

“Who Is the Woman Wanted in South Kansas City ICE Facility Arson Case?” asks a headline in Times Now World, based in India.

“This is what unhinged activism looks like🤦‍♂️,” Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur Mario Nawfal posted.

“A far-left extremist who has not been apprehended tried to burn down a warehouse in Kansas City over a rumor it would be a future ICE detention center,” posted journalist Andy Ngo. “Democrat mayor @QuintonLucasKC staunchly opposes ICE and leftists are cheering on the attack.”

Closer to home, Missouri U.S. Rep. Mark Alford posted on X: “Unreal. The left has gone absolutely nuts.”

Amid anger and criticism directed at ICE by metro KC officials, the Kansas City Council last month approved a five-year moratorium on detention centers. On the Kansas side, the Wyandotte County/Kansas City Kansas Planning Commission voted 4-2 this week for a two-year moratorium there, which the Board of Commissioners is expected to take up Feb. 26.