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The recently elected state senator, a Republican from Sunset Hills, has pre-filed a bill that would turn citizens into bounty hunters — earning $1,000 for turning in alleged undocumented immigrants. It’s a wildly bad idea, even in context of the silly “pre-filing� season before the legislative session begins in January.

Every year, lawmakers file summaries of their initial bills, the ones they want to get the most attention. It’s often a cry for attention, and so-called conservatives have resorted to demonizing immigrants and transgender people as they plant their flags in the culture wars.

There’s nothing particularly conservative about asking Missourians to rat out their neighbors for government handouts. But at a time when President-elect Donald Trump is promising mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, Gregory’s bill is in the sweet spot of Republican politics.

This is where I think Gregory whiffed on his bill: It needs a snappy name. I suggest “The Ed Martin Bunch of Mexicans� bill.

Regular readers will remember Martin as the one-time chief of staff for former Gov. Matt Blunt. In 2007, Martin found himself in hot water when, during a fiery speech at a Missouri Housing Development Commission meeting, he suggested “every frigging developer can figure out who is illegal� and that if on a construction site, some of them are probably illegal.

A Hispanic employee of the MHDC resigned after the comments, explaining to Blunt in a letter that he was the “proud grandson of Mexican immigrants who came to this country to provide a better life for their family.�

Indeed, that’s true of most immigrants to America, whether they came from Ireland, Italy and Germany in previous centuries, or from Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan and other countries today.

Back in 2007, various organizations pushed for Blunt to fire Martin, but the governor stood by his chief of staff. (Martin was later forced out for different reasons).

But the central problem hasn’t changed: Deputizing private citizens as immigration bounty hunters is a recipe for disaster.

“How do you determine that people are undocumented without seeing their documents?� asked St. Louis attorney Javad Khazaeli, who specializes in immigration issues and used to work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Khazaeli called Gregory’s bill “crazy� in part because it would incentivize “show-me-your-papers� arrests of actual U.S. citizens.

The bill is unlikely to become law, but Gregory already accomplished his main goal, which is to get people talking about him.

“He’s getting all the attention he wants,� Khazaeli says. “Even if it doesn’t pass, it gives cover for other really bad bills that just aren’t this bad.�

The issues today are the same as in 2007, when Martin wanted developers to help with roundups at construction sites of people who look like Mexicans. In many of the industries that employ large numbers of immigrants, there is often a mix of folks who are here with legal documentation and those who aren’t. Also, getting rid of massive amounts of undocumented immigrants, even if feasible, creates economic problems in industries that rely on foreign workers. And there’s the harsh reality of splitting up families that often include people with documentation and those without.

Take the case of Encarnacion Romero, who was rounded up in a raid at a chicken plant in southwest Missouri the same year as Martin’s rant. Romero was from Guatemala. She was undocumented. But her 1-year-old son was both a citizen of the United States and Guatemala. In an excruciating case that made its way to the Missouri Supreme Court, Romero’s son was taken from her. He was allowed to live with a couple who later adopted him while Romero was still detained.

“This is a tragedy,� said former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Richard Teitelman during arguments in the case.

Over the next year or so, versions of that tragedy will play out in rural and urban Missouri, and in states across the country, if Trump’s promised mass deportations happen.

Paying citizens to call a government phone line every time they see “a bunch of Mexicans,� with the hope that they’ll get $1,000 in taxpayer handouts, isn’t going to help.