Hundreds of Johnson Countians upset by the opening weeks of President Trump’s second term gathered this week at an event organized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas in the first significant show of local opposition to the new administration.
The town hall on Monday afternoon drew an estimated 320 people to the Merriam Community Center. Dozens more were turned away because the space had reached its maximum capacity.
Speakers at the “Protect People, Not Power” event from organizations like Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains and Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation warned that President Trump’s cascade of executive orders could have lasting impacts across Johnson County.
“We need to make sure that our elected officials all over this country know that we are not on board with this power grab, we are not on board with this overreach,” Micah Kubic, the executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, told the crowd.
In an attempt to get Trump supporters’ perspective on Monday’s event, the Post reached out multiple times to the Johnson County Republican Party but had not received a comment as of this story’s publication.
Impacts of Trump’s orders on JoCo remain unclear
The actual impacts of a second Trump term on various aspects of life in Johnson County are still unclear, as the administration faces dozens of lawsuits and judges halt some executive orders.
Monday’s gathering came as Johnson County officials, school districts and local nonprofits wait to see how Trump’s executive order calling for a freeze of billions of dollars in federal funds could impact various projects across Johnson County.
The event’s speakers said that in addition to the chaos happening in Washington, D.C., uncertainty hangs over key issues in Topeka, as well, particularly the rights of immigrants and women as well as public school funding.
Kubic singled out the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the effort to drastically reduce government spending being led by Elon Musk, as “a violation of the Constitution.”
Trimming of the federal workforce, one of Musk’s most prominent initiatives, could soon have real impacts in the metro region, after reports this week that some 1,000 recently hired workers at the IRS office in Kansas City, Mo., were set to be fired.
On immigration
Karla Juarez, executive director of Kansas City-based Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, told the crowd that she grew up undocumented, and immigrants are currently scared and anxious.
Juarez said the fear and worry are a result of rumored and actual sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the area on enforcement operations.
She said the agency typically uses targeted enforcement strategies based on deportation orders that allow them to observe immigrants before detaining them.
She also highlighted two bills in the Kansas Legislature — SB 254 and Senate Bill 178 — that she believes will impact immigrants.
SB 254 aims to prohibit undocumented immigrants “from receiving any state or local public benefit,” according to the short title of the bill. SB 178 aims to require “certain law enforcement agencies” to work with U.S. immigration and customs enforcement on federal immigration laws.
Juarez encouraged the crowd to call their state and federal representatives and have conversations with them.
“They need to hear from you because it’s not just us (immigrants) who they’re coming for, it’s you next,” Juarez said. “I don’t want to be the one to create fear, but it’s a reality. If we’re not safe, nobody’s safe.”
On abortion and reproductive rights
Next, Emily Wales, president of Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains, said women’s ability to access abortions and other reproductive health care in Kansas remains under threat, even though voters in 2022 soundly rejected an amendment that aimed to strike abortion rights from the state constitution.
Wales said she thinks the Trump administration could use the Comstock Laws of the 1870s to attempt to curtail abortion access even in states like Kansas that currently allow it.
Those laws banned the mailing of “obscene” materials, including the means for carrying out abortions, through the U.S. Postal Service. Reproductive rights advocates say the laws could be revived to try and thwart the mailing of drugs used for medication abortions.
“So, even in states where we have a constitutional right, providers of abortion services like Planned Parenthood would not be able to use the mail service,” Wales said.
Among other concerns, Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains worries about the potential of additional defunding and the safety of providers and patients, Wales said.
Wales encouraged the crowd to attend a lobby day on March 11 at the Kansas Legislature. She also asked the crowd to seek medical care at Planned Parenthood or sign up to become a patient ally.
On education funding
Angie Powers, a board member with the Kansas National Education Association, which represents teachers unions across the state, said threats to special education in Johnson County as well as renewed efforts for school vouchers were her top concerns.
Powers said special education teachers in Johnson County became worried about job security because of executive orders, including a potential loss of Title I funding that goes to schools and promises by President Trump to close the U.S. Department of Education.
“They’re scared, and it’s a hard job,” Powers said. “We are not going to be able to keep our educators in our Kansas classrooms if we continue this chaos.”
Additionally, Powers named four separate bills in the Kansas Statehouse that all seek to divert public school dollars away from public schools and into private voucher or scholarship programs. Those bills are companion HB 2136 and SB 87, and companion HB 2156 and SB 75.
Gathering a reflection of JoCo’s voting patterns
Though the United States shifted decidedly more conservative in November, handing President Trump clear victories in the Electoral College and the popular vote, Johnson County bucked that trend.
Kamala Harris won Johnson County by a similar margin to Joe Biden in 2020, and Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids easily secured her reelection to Congress.
Monday’s crowd waved ACLU-branded signs that said “No power grabs” and “Don’t defund our communities,” but it’s unclear how far beyond the relatively blue pocket of northeastern Kansas the organizers’ messages will resonate.
Recent national polls suggest majorities of Americans favor some of Trump’s most prominent policy positions. Results from a Marquette Law School poll last week, for instance, found that majorities of respondents favored the federal government deporting immigrants here illegally and also “recognizing only two sexes, male and female.”
A recent CBS News poll also found that most Americans surveyed are so far approving of the job President Trump is doing, with clear majorities of respondents describing him as “tough,” “energetic” and “focused.”
Lawrence man arrested during event
The event, though peaceful throughout, was not without incident.
Justin Spiehs, a Lawrence man who frequently posts provocative videos on YouTube expressing his opposition to everything from abortion to mask mandates during COVID-19 to transgender rights, showed up to Monday’s event.
He arrived at the town hall after it had already begun and was turned away at the door, as were dozens of others.
In a video of the incident Spiehs posted to his YouTube channel, he can be heard saying he had registered to attend, while event organizers responded that they were already at capacity and he couldn’t be let in.
An ACLU representative can also be seen in the video telling Spiehs he was “not allowed” to protest at the event with a sign he was holding. It is unclear what the sign said because it was only partially visible in the video.
Merriam police officers were eventually called over. A police sergeant can be seen repeatedly telling Spiehs he is trespassing and needs to leave the building. The sergeant also suggested that Spiehs go to a designated area to protest.
After a back-and-forth that included Spiehs saying his First Amendment rights were being violated and that the police sergeant would be sued, Merriam Police arrested Spiehs.
In 2023, Spiehs filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Lawrence and the city’s public library for allegedly violating his freedom of speech.
Keep reading federal government news: Federal funding freeze on hold for now, but what could it mean for JoCo?
