JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri politicians are increasingly focused on the U.S. southern border amid rising public concern over illegal immigration, with Republicans doubling down on the situation as a central campaign issue.
Missouri House Republicans, along with two dozen Democrats, earlier this month voted to sign off on $2.2 million for Missouri National Guard and Highway Patrol troopers to aid with Texas’ illegal immigration enforcement efforts. But some Republicans want to go further, introducing their own deportation plans for Missouri.
Missouri Democrats, meanwhile, have acknowledged immigration as a legitimate issue, with Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, saying there is a “crisis†at the border.
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House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat running for governor, has called on Congress to approve bipartisan immigration legislation opposed by former President Donald Trump.
Last week, she also called “scary†and “divisive†rhetoric from another candidate in the governor’s race, state Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, who has filed one of the deportation plans.
Legislation by Eigel would also bar students in the country illegally from attending college in Missouri.
released in February found the number of Americans who consider immigration to be the country’s top problem rose from 20% to 28% in one month, an increase of 8 percentage points.
Helping fuel concerns are a number of high-profile incidents in the St. Louis area involving migrants.
Authorities last week charged a woman in the December car accident in Hazelwood that killed 12-year-old Travis Wolfe. The woman, Endrina Bracho, was in the country “illegally from Venezuela†and posed a “serious flight risk,†an arresting officer alleged.
A man charged this month with stabbing two people outside a laundromat in O’Fallon, Missouri, was also in the country illegally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told police.
In response to the laundromat incident, Eigel said: “I’ve said it a hundred times, and I’ll say it again now — when I’m governor, we’re detaining and deporting every illegal alien in the state of Missouri.â€
“Another tragic incident at the hands of an illegal immigrant,†Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, another candidate for governor, said on social media site X. “Thanks to the Biden administration’s failed open border policy, every state is now a border state. Missourians demand a secure border.â€
“Over the past few weeks, politicians and media outlets have increasingly and intentionally focused on specific crimes and accidents to demonize immigrant communities,†the St. Louis-based Migrant and Immigrant Community Action Project said in a Monday.
“We see this rhetoric and this sort of scapegoating of immigrant communities ratchet up during election years,†the statement said. “It incites racism and xenophobia.â€
Guillermo Villa Trueba, Hispanic outreach coordinator for the Missouri Catholic Conference, told the Post-Dispatch on Wednesday that “unfortunately, the current political situation is not favorable for immigrants because of the border crisis.â€
What is most worrisome to the Catholic Conference, the Roman Catholic Church’s advocacy arm in Missouri, is that some of the legislative proposals are “overly punitive and disproportionate,†he said.
Some of the measures introduced by state lawmakers this year would impose felony charges, jail time and deportation for undocumented immigrants living in Missouri.
Under some of the legislation, minor traffic or municipal ordinance violations by an undocumented immigrant could result in felony charges on par with those for second-degree manslaughter or first-degree stalking, Villa Trueba said. “It shows the absurdity of the situation,†he said.
“The Catholic Conference ultimately always wants to emphasize that immigrants are endowed with the same God-given inherent dignity that we all have,†he said. “Treating them as dangerous criminals for the most insignificant reasons is not in accordance with that dignity.â€
At the same time, the Catholic Conference acknowledges the existence of a border crisis.
Homeland Security data published last month by the Washington Post in illegal border crossings starting for fiscal year 2021, under President Joe Biden.
“Countries have the right to regulate their borders and to control immigration as long as they do so with justice and mercy,†Villa Trueba said.
Eigel’s legislation is Sena