With high profile cases of illegal immigrant crime like the Rachel Morin murder in Maryland still peppering national news reports in the post-Biden border era, the lack of Kansas and metro Kansas City media acknowledgment of assault and attempted rape charges against Porfirio De La Cruz-Cantu in Anderson County has become curiously obvious.
In fact, if not for coverage by The Kansas Informer, a related local newspaper and an Ottawa radio station, there would have been no coverage at all of the illegal immigrant who a 64 year-old victim says knocked her from her bicycle on the Prairie Spirit Trail north of Garnett in October 2024 and attempted to forcibly rape her.
While that blackout on the Cruz-Cantu story continued, regional media reports covering the hardships and challenges faced by illegal immigrants since Trump’s stepped-up ICE enforcement began have been numerous:
• On July 30th KCTV 5 in Kansas City covered Homeland Security arrests of at least 11 people in immigration raids at KC area Mexican restaurants, with eyewitness video and follow up on detainees and community reaction.
• On July 28th national public radio affiliate KCUR headlined a story “President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown has many recent immigrants terrified,” detailing how recent rounds of enforcement have affected immigrant neighborhoods and small businesses in Kansas City, KS, along with economic and social consequences.
• In June and July, The Kansas City Star ran a multi-part series on the labor and industry impacts of local immigration enforcement, along with law enforcement cooperation with federal agents and trends in local arrests and detentions tied to the administration’s enforcement push.
• August 12, The Wichita Eagle defined as “Trumpism” a bogus tip from an anonymous member of the public to the FBI alleging Lenexa City Councilwoman Melanie Arroyo was undocumented – an allegation quickly determined to be unfounded by authorities. Instead of noting the system’s success in confirming Arroyo, the Eagle maligned the resurgent effort to enforce the law: “The purpose of the Trumpist immigration system? It’s to harass people like Melanie Arroyo,” the paper proclaimed.
Though there has been no shortage of immigration coverage by media serving Kansas, the story of the undocumented Garnett Mexican restaurant worker who worked alongside his wife at a now-closed Garnett eatery remained completely unearthed by those outlets. Public court records, including the probable cause affidavit revealing the specifics of his arrest and an officer’s narrative from the alleged victim, are easily available on the Kansas courts website along with dockets that follow Cantu’s courtroom journey from first appearance all the way through a scheduled three-day jury trial set to begin September 24. Anderson County Attorney Steve Wilson, who took the county prosecutor post in January of this year, said he’s never had a media inquiry on the case other than from the local newspaper.
It took editors and reporters no time to recently determine Shawn Harris, the alleged killer of Wyandotte County Deputy Elijah Ming, had been bounced by the Anderson County Court System previous to Ming’s fatal shooting at a WYCO domestic incident. Yet court records and local media stories available on the world wide web on the allegation of attempted rape in Anderson County never generated any interest. The same publications and television stations joined a frenzy of national reporting on a story from Garnett when The Anderson County Review published an anti-mask editorial cartoon on Facebook in July 2020 during the height of Covid cancel culture hysteria. A political cartoon on Facebook at a small town in Kansas got thunderous media attention, but an alleged attempted rape by an illegal immigrant, during the height of the firestorm over immigration enforcement, never got covered.
In fact, the Kansas Informer reached out by email to key editors at The Associated Press in Kansas and APs national office; to sister McClatchy-owned publications The Wichita Eagle and the Kansas City Star and two Kansas City television stations for comments on this apparent reporting blackout. We got no responses.
Rebecca Schmoe, a Republican representing the 59th District in the Kansas House, said the dearth of coverage indicates major neglect by those outlets. She said it shouldn’t take a social media outcry as in the case of Laken Riley to spotlight such crimes.
“Victims deserve justice,” Schmoe said. “Communities across the state and nation rely on clear, timely reporting to stay safe. Transparent reporting is vital to protect communities and prevent future violence.”
“Corporate media often chase sensationalism or political narratives, sidelining local tragedies such as this,” Schmoe said.
Cruz-Cantu is subject to a hold by ICE, which means the federal agency will be notified in the event he would be released from the Anderson County Jail for any reason, at which time he’ll be taken into federal custody. For now the Mexican national waits for his next day in court; a Kansas element in a historic national immigration story that’s been all but hidden from the media spotlight.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
