On April 28, 2010, Attorney Ken Schmitt of US Legal Solutions along with other leaders and community activists from the greater St. Louis region appeared in Jefferson City, MO before the House Committee on International Trade and Immigration of the Missouri Congress, to offer testimony in opposition to House Bill 2449. The Bill, which was introduced by Representative Mark Parkinson (R, 16), and co-sponsored by Representative Tim Jones (R, 89) and others (Grisamore, Gatschenberger, Nolte, Bivins, Koenig, Nieves, Munzlinger), proposes to repeal sections 566.200, 566.206 and 577,675 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri and enact three new sections “relating to illegal immigration, with penalty provisions.” In effect, the Bill has several flaws that Ken explained in his testimony, which you can read below.

The 2010 Legislative Session ended without a decision made with regards to HB 2449. For a copy of the proposed bill, please click here.

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO HB 2449

My name is Ken Schmitt.  I am licensed to practice law in the States of Missouri and Illinois and practice in the state and federal courts throughout Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois.  Approximately half of the work in our office is immigration-related, and our client base is approximately sixty percent Latino. As an immigration attorney, I am a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (“AILA”) and the Immigration Section of the Missouri Bar Association.  I am currently a member of the Executive Board and, on July 1, 2010 will become the Chair Elect of the Missouri/Kansas Chapter of AILA.  Additionally, I have served as the President for the last two years of the Advisory Board of Catholic Charities Community Services—Southside (“Southside”).  Southside is a direct social services program of Catholic Charities, St. Louis, which provides desperately needed family counseling and other culturally competent social services to the Latino and Vietnamese immigrant communities in the St. Louis Metropolitan region.

As a member of the Missouri Bar, an immigration attorney, and a life long Missourian, I am greatly disturbed by the House Bill 2449 and strongly urge that this committee and the Missouri Legislature reject it. I would like to give you five concrete reasons why you should reject HB 2449.

HB 2449 adds nothing to the protections of actual victims of human trafficking.  There already exists extensive federal legislation pertaining to human trafficking and extensive federal and private agency resources are spent on the Missouri Human Trafficking Task Force made up of representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Attorneys Office, and non-governmental federal grantees identified by the federal government as participating organizations.  While existing Missouri law is effective in complementing this federal effort, the proposed changes in Missouri law set out in HB 2449 would undermine current Federal efforts. 

HB 2449 attacks the victim of trafficking and does nothing to strengthen the law against traffickers.  In order for the existing federal and Missouri efforts to combat the crime of trafficking, it is critical that the legal framework protect and encourage trafficking victims to come forward.  In order for this to happen, these victims must be free to seek the services and protection of federal, state and non-governmental community partners as well as the legal community.  Federal, state and non-governmental community partners and the legal community must be equally free to lend their protection and services to these victims.  HB 2449 would devastate the existing network of governmental, legal and non-governmental organizations.

HB 2449 would potentially criminalize the efforts and perfectly legal work of non-governmental community organizations as well as members of the Missouri Bar who provide lawful services to the victims of human trafficking.  This would destroy the very purpose of Missouri’s existing human trafficking statutes.  It would further criminalize the provision of legal services to persons who are expressly entitled to such services under federal and even Missouri law.  The mere provision by an attorney of transportation to the very immigration court appointment to which the undocumented person is commanded by Federal law to appear would run afoul of Section 577.675 (2) R.S.Mo if HB 2449 were passed.  This Section 577.675 (2) R.S.Mo, if HB 2449 were passed would provide:

It shall be unlawful for any person to conceal, harbor, or shelter from detection any illegal alien in any place within the state of Missouri including any building or means of transportation, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that the illegal alien has come to, entered, or remained in the United States in violation of law.  It shall be unlawful for any illegal alien to transport himself or herself within the state of Missouri.

Individuals in removal or deportation proceedings before the Federal Immigration Court are absolutely required by federal law to appear before that court (whether currently in St. Louis or in Kansas City, Missouri) whether or not they are in fact removable or deportable. HB 2449 would make it illegal for their attorney or anyone else to drive them to court.  It would make it equally illegal for the individual in removal or deportation proceedings to “transport” themselves to court.  Additionally, persons in removal proceedings are often required to travel and report to ICE on a monthly basis while proceedings are in progress. Presumably one mark of sound law would be that a “good law” encourages individuals in court proceedings to appear for their court dates and other legal obligations.  Obviously, HB 2449 fails this test.

HB 2449, by criminalizing the purported transportation or sheltering of an undocumented person for any reason whatsoever further places the individual service provider (of transportation services, ie: Metro and other public and private transportation companies, medical services, hospitals, social welfare and benefit providers and other programs) in the position of having to be an expert qualified to determine the lawful status of each and every recipient to whom it provides services.  Alternatively, these innocent providers run the serious risk of being accused of “reckless disregard” and therefore a felon.  It further places the innocent provider in the position of having to become an immigration enforcement deputy in the course of providing services.  This can only result in entrenched racial profiling as a matter of Missouri public policy. It will further destroy the credibility and trust held by service providers across all immigrant communities, (regardless of status), and destroy their ability to render effective services.

I have provided five concrete, practical, and legal reasons that HB 2449 should be rejected: One, HB 2449 adds nothing to the protections of victims of human trafficking. Two, HB 2449 does nothing to strengthen the law against traffickers. Three, HB 2449 criminalizes the efforts and perfectly legal work of non-governmental community organizations and attorneys that provide lawful services to victims of human trafficking. Four, through the provisions regarding transportation, HB 2449 undermines federal law by discouraging and punishing persons who seek to abide by the law. Five, HB 2449 places service provides in a role of immigration enforcement deputies, which role they are completely unqualified to fulfill, and entrenches racial profiling as a matter of Missouri public policy. 

In conclusion, because of the overwhelmingly negative consequences of this bill; because it provides no benefit whatsoever to trafficking victims or the residents of Missouri; because, quite simply the great state of Missouri is, indeed, better than this, I strongly urge this committee and the Missouri Legislature to reject House Bill 2449.