Date: January 27, 2025
To: Chairman Fitzwater and Members, Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety Committee
From: Mallory Rusch, Executive Director, Empower Missouri
Re: SB 72
As the largest and oldest anti-poverty non-profit in our state, Empower Missouri is committed to improving the quality of life for all Missouri residents through advocacy. Since our inception, Empower Missouri has focused on the criminal justice system and its impacts. Our Community Justice Coalition consists of community advocates and organizations from across the state who work with those who have been impacted by the criminal justice system. Many coalition members are formerly incarcerated or have currently incarcerated loved ones and all are connected by a vision for a future without mass incarceration.
SB 72 has multiple provisions aimed at undocumented Missourians. It would create the felony offense of trespass by an illegal alien, defined as when an undocumented individual who knowingly enters the state and remains here is physically present in the state at the time a licensed bounty hunter or peace officer apprehends the person. For this offense of being without documentation and in the presence of law enforcement, the punishment would be a life sentence without the possibility of parole. This is an egregiously outsized punishment for something that has never been treated as a state criminal offense before. SB 72 would also create the “Missouri Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program” and establish a hotline where tips leading to an arrest would be rewarded with $1000.
Adoption of state and local criminal laws against undocumented immigrants has often been driven by misleading rhetoric about “criminal aliens,” as well as by reliance on inaccurate statistics suggesting that all undocumented immigrants are criminals or a dangerous threat to communities. Local and state officials also often misunderstand the nature of the criminal provisions in federal immigration law. In fact, mere unlawful presence in the United States has never been a crime. When considering immigration reform legislation in 2005, Congress specifically rejected a provision that would have made unlawful presence in the United States a federal crime. Entering the United States without being inspected and admitted is a misdemeanor, but many undocumented immigrants do not enter the United States illegally. They enter legally but overstay, work without authorization, drop out of school, or violate the conditions of their visas in some other way. Mere undocumented presence in the United States alone, in the absence of a previous removal order and unauthorized reentry, is not a crime under federal law. Why are we treating it as such?
Immigration enforcement is the federal government’s job. What SB 72 is attempting to do is to step into the federal government’s shoes and determine whether a person is able to remain in the United States. The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution preempts state action where federal law expressly or impliedly precludes state action. Laws that conflict, or stand as an obstacle to the enforcement of federal immigration laws and policy, are invalid under the preemption doctrine. State and local governments cannot cite the failure of the federal government to pass comprehensive immigration reform as the rationale for adopting unconstitutional state immigration laws.
Use of law enforcement resources to target undocumented immigrants may have serious consequences for public safety. Given the evidence that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than other residents of the United States, law enforcement may find itself targeting a generally law-abiding population at the expense of investigating serious property and violent crimes. Additionally, state and county correctional facilities face severe understaffing, and any additional strain on the population of state prisons and county jails would be detrimental to the operation of these facilities. Public safety resources should not be diverted to enforce this law, which is in conflict with federal precedent. For these reasons, we urge the committee to oppose SB 72. Thank you for your time and consideration of this matter.
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