For more than 20 years, Ubaldo Marquez Calderon was the guy on the bike in De Soto, Kansas — collecting aluminum cans along the roads, buying food for stray cats at a trailer park, feeding them every single morning. On September 13, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained the 67-year-old at Casey's gas station near De Soto's high school. Weeks later, he was in Mexico.
A Detention That Started at a Gas Station
Calderon's arrest was part of what a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson described as a targeted enforcement operation, according to The Kansas City Star. He was transferred to the Midwest Regional Reception Center in Leavenworth, a facility operated by CoreCivic, where he remained for almost two weeks. Calderon has multiple chronic health conditions, and the Star reports he developed a urinary tract infection while in ICE detention.
His attorney, Chad Sublet, who offered to represent Calderon pro bono, said his client was denied water while detained. The two had an unusual working relationship: Sublet told the Star that he and Calderon communicated through nods and waves for five years before Sublet took on his case.
A Document Signed Without Understanding It
While in Leavenworth, Calderon signed a voluntary departure document — unknowingly, according to Sublet. That filing required him to leave the United States by October 13. Because he signed the voluntary departure, the Star describes his situation as a removal rather than a deportation, while KMBC's report on the case characterized the outcome as a deportation after Calderon was detained while riding his bike. Federal guidance from the Executive Office for Immigration Review notes that not everyone qualifies for voluntary departure, with ineligibility tied to factors like prior voluntary-departure findings or an aggravated-felony conviction.
Sublet said Calderon did not have a criminal record. He arrived in Mexico on September 28, after more than 20 years living in the United States. Money from De Soto residents paid for his flight from Cancun to Jalisco, where he is now staying.
'Pretty Broken' Without Him
Neighbors described Calderon as a staple of the De Soto community, known for his daily bike rides, his can-collecting routine, and his habit of keeping the area clean. The Star reports the town feels pretty broken without him now. According to government data cited by the Star, Calderon was at least the second immigrant detained by ICE in De Soto in 2026.
His case lands amid a broader surge in immigration enforcement across the region. Government data reviewed by the University Daily Kansan found ICE arrests statewide roughly doubled since President Trump's inauguration, with half of those arrests involving people with no criminal conviction — up from one in four during the final 18 months of the Biden administration. The same reporting noted that 25-year-old Olathe resident Julio Rojas was detained by ICE in August and deported to El Salvador despite having built a life and family in Kansas.
Enforcement Spreading Across the Metro
The pattern has repeated across Johnson and Wyandotte counties. KCUR reported that the KC Community Defense Coalition confirmed 30 ICE arrests across the Kansas City metro between June 15 and July 3, concentrated in Wyandotte County, Olathe and Northeast Kansas City. Federal authorities detained at least six people at La Fontanella Foods in Northeast Kansas City on July 9, per that same reporting.
Residents in Olathe have raised similar alarms. The Johnson County Post reported that increased federal immigration enforcement activity in the city sparked concern among residents, and a local Boys & Girls Club previously reported seeing uniformed ICE agents outside its Olathe building around 7:15 a.m. on a Friday, according to the Star's earlier reporting. Just last week, a widespread ICE enforcement operation continued across southwest Kansas, hitting Dodge City, Garden City, Liberal and surrounding areas, KCUR reported.
Local advocates have also flagged a pattern of inadequate medical care at the Leavenworth facility where Calderon was held, according to the Star's reporting. For now, Calderon remains in Jalisco, far from the De Soto streets he cleaned and the stray cats he fed, while the community that once knew him on sight works to make sense of how quickly he was gone.
