Immigrants

Iowa lawmakers have passed a measure that makes it harder to qualify for nutrition assistance programs, and tightens residency requirements for immigrants who need help.

Immigrants rights advocates in Nebraska are using a tool developed by the American Immigration Council to measure how well migrants are fitting in to their communities, also determining whether they feel safe and valued.

Bluffs up to 120 feet tall once hugged the Missouri River by Kansas City, making it difficult to traverse the landscape and expand the growing town. So in the mid-1800s, a Catholic priest named Father Bernard Donnelly recruited hundreds of Irish immigrants for a dangerous but critical task: digging streets for the city from rocks and mud.

Immigration-related flights in and out of Missouri increased more than 200% in the first year of the Trump administration. Kansas City International Airport is central to these deportation efforts, but there's almost nothing KCI or the city can do.

Owen Ramsingh, the Columbia man who was detained by ICE late last year, has been banned from the United States. Despite efforts from the Columbia community, he was deported to the Netherlands in February.

In February, ICE agents detained three people in Milan, a town of about 1,800 people in north-central Missouri. The sudden disappearances of the community members has pushed several households to consider leaving town, which could spell doom for businesses that rely on Hispanic customers.