LIBERTY, Mo. (KCTV) – A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the nearly dozen U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at a Liberty Mexican restaurant in February were unlawful.
February 2025
According to court documents, one of the alleged violations by ICE includes arrests made at El Potro Mexican Restaurant in Liberty, Missouri, on Feb. 7, 2025.
KCTV5 spoke with employees and customers after the encounter. 12 employees and multiple Homeland Security agents were seen in pictures and on video.
READ MORE: Immigration agents descend on Liberty restaurant: Sheriff, staff respond
Initially, the Clay County Sheriff said this was about a warrant for child sex crimes, but none of these court documents indicate that’s what this incident was about.
According to the court ruling, ICE targeted the restaurant because it was believed that a foreign national with a felony narcotics conviction was working there. ICE officers went there to arrest the person.
The restaurant owner, Francisco De La Torre, shared testimony that he arrived to open the restaurant and saw about 15 officers standing in the dining area and outside. He said the ICE officers told him they were from ICE and looking for a person.
The officers asked him to bring in his employees one at a time after he told them they could set up in one of the dining rooms. According to court documents, De La Torre felt he couldn’t refuse the officer’s request.
The document states, “The owner then brought in his employees and did not tell them that they had the option not to speak with the ICE agents.” Employees were brought into the room and had brief interactions with the agents.
The ICE officers spent about two hours inside the restaurant and eventually escorted 11 employees outside, handcuffed them, and placed them into vans because “ICE determined that the employees had no valid immigration status.”
The court documents refer to the employees detained as the ‘Liberty 12’. A total of 12 employees were detained at El Potro. Eleven of those arrests were ruled unlawful as there was a lack of probable cause for the individuals fleeing, and one was ruled lawful due to prior removal history.
The court ruling goes on to show that ICE prepared forms that are “Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien,” which is used to explain why a person should be removed from the United States.
“The I-213 forms prepared immediately following the arrests do not (with one exception) include any facts that would provide probable cause that the Liberty 12 were likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained for their arrest,” the ruling stated.
It continued: “Although these I-213s documented that all of the employees were foreign nationals who are within the United States illegally, that fact—standing alone—does not provide probable cause that the employees were likely to flee before a warrant could be obtained.”
The court document states that the employees cooperated with the officers by providing information about their immigration status.
The class members have been released on bond and are no longer in ICE custody. ICE is to reimburse all bond payments and lift any conditions of release per the agreement of the class action lawsuit.
How we got here
In 2018, a class action lawsuit was filed by five people and two organizations (The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and Organized Communities Against Deportations) in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.
This case is filed against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the ICE.
The case was filed to ensure that ICE complies with federal law when carrying out warrantless arrests of people who are not lawful immigrants or citizens of the United States.
The case was settled and terminated in February 2022.
There was a settlement agreement that put several obligations on ICE relating to arrests of people without a warrant for a civil violation of U.S. immigration laws within ICE’s Chicago Area of Responsibility, which includes the states of Missouri and Kansas.
A federal judge ruled that the nearly dozen U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests at a Liberty Mexican restaurant in February were unlawful.(KCTV)
That was set to expire on May 12, 2025, unless enforcement provisions within the agreement triggered an extension.
In January 2025, shortly after the Trump Administration took office, those who sued and their attorneys received multiple reports that ICE was violating the agreement.
In March 2025, the group that brought the initial case filed a motion to enforce the agreement, stating that ICE had engaged in multiple violations on behalf of 26 class members. They claimed those people were subject to unlawful warrantless arrests.
The Judge’s ruling
The court found that ICE arrested 22 out of the 26 class members without a warrant and in violation of the agreement.
The court ordered ICE to provide relief to those individuals under the terms of the agreement and pay their attorneys’ fees that they incurred when filing the motion earlier this year.
The judge extended the agreement until Feb. 2, 2026, and adjusted the reporting requirements on ICE, which will provide the plaintiff’s attorneys with how they are arresting and following the law.
The two sides head back to court Nov. 12 at 11 a.m. in Illinois.
KCTV5 has reached out to the attorneys involved in this case, those at the restaurant, and ICE, and is waiting to hear back.
“DHS complies with all lawful court orders and is addressing this matter with the court,” DHS told KCTV on Friday.
You can read the judge’s ruling that includes the parties’ settlement agreement below.
The Liberty location of El Potro Mexican Cafe closed at the end of August citing challenges with labor, rent and inflation.
For more stories from KCTV5 Investigates, click here.
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