A trip to a beer line at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo ended with 50-year-old Ricardo Montes in handcuffs, led away by plainclothes law enforcement officers while trying to get a 21-and-older bracelet on the rodeo's final night. Montes, a father of seven and grandfather of 11 who has been married to a U.S. citizen for 21 years, was one of four people detained by federal immigration agents that evening, according to the Sikeston Department of Public Safety.
The arrest happened on August 8, 2026, the closing night of the 74-year-old rodeo, as reported by the Kansas City Star. Family friend Steph Maddox, who launched a GoFundMe for the Montes family, described the arrest as a painful ordeal for Montes's wife and everyone who cares about him. The fundraiser had raised more than $3,000 within two days. In an emotional moment captured during the detention, Montes was heard telling his family, “I love you mama, I love you.”
How a Beer Checkpoint Led to a Federal Arrest
Attendees at the rodeo say the four detentions trace back to routine electronic age-verification checks required for alcohol sales. People detained at the event came to the attention of law enforcement through that same ID-verification process, the Star reported. Scott County Sheriff Derick Wheetley said ICE agents had been stationed at the rodeo for all four nights of the event, and that the four detentions followed alcohol checkpoints where international IDs or status questions prompted requests for law enforcement assistance, according to KFMO.
Sheriff Wheetley emphasized that Scott County Sheriff's Office task force officers did not make the actual detentions — ICE agents themselves carried them out. A rodeo worker told St. Louis Public Radio that Montes presented a Green Card at the checkpoint that scanned without any issue before ICE agents detained him anyway, though local officials have not confirmed that account. Family members and local friends have said attendees were racially profiled, a claim county officials dispute, maintaining they did not target Hispanic attendees at random.
A 2009 Departure Record and a Green Card in Limbo
Federal authorities cited a different piece of Montes's history to justify the arrest. The Department of Homeland Security reported that Montes had previously signed a voluntary departure agreement from the United States in 2009, which officials say factored into his immigration record, according to Noticias Telemundo. ICE has maintained that Montes was unlawfully present in the country. Family and friends, meanwhile, say financial barriers had kept Montes from completing his green card paperwork, leaving the exact legal status of that pending application unresolved. Montes was reportedly being held at the Scott County Jail, according to local TV stations.
The timing struck many in the crowd as pointed. That Mexican OT, a Mexican-American hip-hop artist, was scheduled to perform at the Bootheel Rodeo alongside country singer Braxton Keith that same night, drawing a large Hispanic audience to the grounds, per Welcome to Sikeston. Community members noted the irony of a heavy ICE presence on the night a prominent Latino artist headlined the stage.
Protest Outside the Jail, Anger Over the Checkpoint
Word of the detentions spread quickly, and on August 9, community members and family supporters gathered outside the Scott County Jail in Benton demanding Montes's release, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Protesters held signs reading “Justice for Ricardo” and “Families Belong Together,” condemning the use of age-verification checkpoints as a gateway to immigration enforcement.
The arrests were made possible by a formal legal arrangement between local and federal authorities. The Scott County Sheriff's Office has signed a Section 287(g) Task Force Model agreement with ICE, a partnership that allows designated deputies to assist the federal agency in immigration enforcement duties. That local agreement sits inside a much larger state push: Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 25-04 as his first official act in office on January 13, 2025, launching a “Safer Missouri” initiative that directed the Missouri State Highway Patrol to undergo federal immigration enforcement training and authorized state and local agencies to assist ICE.
Part of a Broader Statewide and National Push
Kehoe's administration has since expanded that cooperation further. The governor authorized 15 Missouri National Guard members to assist ICE with data entry, case management, and administrative logistics for deportation operations running from October 2025 through September 2026, a deployment that drew criticism from civil rights groups including the ACLU. The Missouri State Highway Patrol entered its own statewide 287(g) agreement in March 2025 and has trained more than 50 troopers for immigration enforcement duty, opting not to seek federal reimbursement for the program's costs.
Missouri is far from alone in this expansion. Nationwide, ICE reported entering into 1,427 Section 287(g) agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies across 40 states as of February 2026, even as several states have moved to restrict or ban such partnerships. The Sikeston arrests also landed amid a broader nationwide enforcement surge under President Trump's second administration — ICE arrested 46,000 people in July, the most in a single month of the administration, according to CBS News.
