Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R) – The Law Offices of Angela L. Williams, LLC

Further Conversations with WIll Kraus about SB590

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in attrition through enforcement, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Constitution, Federal Power, Immigration, Immigration Myths, Missouri Senate, Other Appalling State Legislation, Perspective, Politicians making things worse, Self-Deportation, Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, State's Rights, Supremacy Clause, Wasting Money .

Earlier this week I posted a series of emails between Mr. Kraus and a Missouri Resident who also is an ESL teacher in Missouri. This teacher contacted me after reading one of my blogs about SB590 and how it would be awful for her as a teacher and for her students and their families. I encouraged her to email the committee members. She did and the series of emails that I posted was the result. Feeling as though I could not let Mr. Kraus’ intentional ignorance of how difficult it is to determine the immigration status of someone I emailed him in response to the email he had sent the ESL teacher. I wanted to list that exchange. I have not received any other response from him after my last email. The bill passed form Committee as did the English Only DL bill showing that they are perfectly willing to completely ignore testimony and do what they want. Plus, judging from both his testimony and his comments in the emails, he clearly has not even read the bill. As you will see it is confusing, poorly written, and contradictory.

My email to him:

From: Angie Williams [mailto:angie.williams@me.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2012 12:02 AM
To: Will Kraus
Subject: Your response to XXXXXXXXX regarding the simplicity of determining immigration status

I testified against your bill last Tuesday about the very things you address to XXXXXX in your recent email to her that she has been so kind as to forward to me. Since you either were not listening or Neither I nor the other attorney who testified about this issue were clear enough so I thought I would send you some concrete examples of why you are simply incorrect in your belief that one’s immigration status is easily determined, that it is not going to be a drain on resources to our schools and it is going to produce a meaningful number.

Here is your response to her:

> You are right. I do not understand why it is a burden to be asked your immigration status. It is a simple fact, nothing more. You are either a citizen or not. If not, you are either documented or not. If you are documented showing that documentation is not a burden. If you are not, it is a simple answer to a simple question. Since we all agree federal law requires any child an education and since this bill prohibits any use of the information gathered other than to collect numerical data for DESE, I don�ft understand why anyone would be afraid of that process.
>
> The area undisputed is that lack of federal enforcement of current law costs Missouri taxpayers money. I don�ft believe attempts to quantify that amount are at all misguided.
>
> My door is always open,
>
> Will Kraus

Here is my very serious response to you. Obviously I am morally opposed to this type of legislation and obviously we see the immigration problem very differently. I see is as a human problem where we are going to have to make compromises to fix. You see it as something black and white with no room for any discretion or recognition of individual circumstances. I am not going to try to persuade you to change your mind on the morality of the situation or that we are going to have to do more than just deport deport deport to fix this problem. Instead I want to try to illustrate some very real and practical problems with this bill that are going to be impossible to deal with. Also I am only going o focus right now on the school part but every thing I am saying would also apply to the local law enforcement officer trying to determine one’s immigration status while having someone pulled over for a traffic stop.

What you are asking for is not simple, as my examples will show, and it will cost money and time and resources and confusion. And ultimately it will not give you what you claim you want which is a real cost of education for …and I am a little unclear her as to exactly what you even are asking for..undocumented children, children of undocumented parents even if the kids are legal or maybe even all students involved in ESL programs, and then after these kids/parents/ESL students are counted up then the school has to 1. determine the cost of educating them and 2 the effect that having them there at all has on the quality of education for everyone else? Again it is very unclear simply by the wording even what you want. But assuming that what you do want is to count the undocumented people in Missouri, and make some sort of determination as to how much they are “costing the taxpayers” this will not give you a number that has anymore meaning that simply counting up all the foreigners and assuming that what 50% of them are illegal. Here is why. I ask you to try to be honest with yourself to see if you can answer these questions. In fact I would love to see you actually answer each example as to whether that person is legal or not, what document they need to present to prove it and how they would be calculated in your formula. Send it back to me. I would like to see what you come up with and I will tell you if you are correct.

Because you seem to know something that apparently all of us immigration lawyers, specialized immigration courts with judges who do nothing but hear these cases and trial attorneys who do nothing but these cases, the members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, all the Federal Appellate Judges across the country, the Supreme Court, all the USCIS agents and adjudicators, the service center workers, the CPB agents and ICE agents the Consular Officers all over the world, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Attorneys who work for the Justice Department working on Federal Appeals are totally missing. Because we all spend an extraordinary amount of time and money trying to determine the immigrate status of people all over the world and within the United States and according to you it is “a simple answer to a simple question.” We are all obviously wasting our time and everyone’s money and clearly are not as clever nor know nearly as much about our system as you who has a bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration and a Minor in Military Science from Central Missouri State University.

Let me propose several scenarios and lets lay legal or not legal, since it is so black and white.

1. Maria, age 9 and her mom come to the US on a B1/B2 visa with an I-94 authorizing a stay of 6 months to visit Maria’s Grandparents. While here during the 6 months the Grandmother, who is an LPR, gets sick and Maria’s mom decides she needs to stay in the US longer than 6 months. Prior to the expiration of the I-94 Maria’s Mom files a form I-539 application to extend or change non immigrant status. Since the trip is lasting longer than they expected Maria’s mom decides to enroll Maria in school so she does not fall behind since there is no one in Mexico to care for Maria and it is not possible to send Maria back alone. At the time she enrolls in school her I-94 is expired, but her vis is still valid and her I-539 is pending but she only has a receipt showing it was filed. Legal or Not legal…and if legal WHAT document should she slap down on the principal’s desk to show this?

2. Jana and Michael are 2 orphans from The Sudan who are in the United States in foster homes. In a fit of insanity inspired by the many children Brad and Angelina have adopted Mary and John brought Jana and Michael from The Sudan after going through the process of adopting them in The Sudan while on a Mission trip with their church last summer. They bring the kids, who were living in an orphanage sponsored by their church, on legal visa for adopted children. However once in the United States they fail to finish the process and finalize either the adoption or the Residency of the Children because they immediately begin having problems with the kids, who are completely traumatized and exhibit out of control and aggressive behavior after having to hide in a tree while their whole village was massacred by rebel forces with machetes. The hid there for days eating bugs listening to their family and friends bleed to death until they are spotted by forces several days later. The spend several year being forced to be Child Soldiers and participate in all sorts of heinous atrocities until they are rescued by some missionaries and placed in this home to rehabilitate child soldiers. Because their behavior is more than Mary and John bargained for they eventually give up their potential parental rights and turn the kids over to the state. Legal or Not Legal? And if legal what document would show this?

3. Jose and his family all sneak across the Mexican US border and make their way to Lee’s Summit where they live in an apartment, work, pay taxes and do not cause any problems. There are 2 kids born in Mexico and later have 1 child born in the United States. One day, 11 years after they arrive, they are all driving in their minivan, which is properly plated and has insurance, and they are rear ended. Because it is Lee’s Summit Jose and his wife are arrested and immigration is notified. They pick up Jose and his wife issue them NTA’s give them a signature and give them a court date for 10 months in the future. They are required to attend this court date and remain in the US until the removal proceedings are completed. Similarly, both Jose and his wife qualify to present against removal called cancellation of removal. The kids are not arrested because they are minor and essentially “let go.” Legal or not legal? What type of paper would they be able to produce to show this? What about the kids? The ones from Mexico? the USC kid? How does the status of the parents factor into this equation of how much is spent to educate the US Citizen, who can, in fact, just slap a birth certificate from Missouri down for the principal to see? What if dad wins his trial and mom doesn’t? how does that change the equation? What if they both win? now what about the children who were born in Mexico? What if the parents, after winning apply for the kids, but here is no visa available for 10 years? How does that change? What if they have to appeal? What if the only “document” they have is proof of their next court date? Will the school have to recheck the documents on that date? Do the parents have to initiate this or does the school? Does the school have to keep track of the dates all these visas expire and recheck to see if they get renewed on time?

4. Alek escapes her small village in africa that practices FGM and stows away on a ship bound for the US. She somehow manages to survive the journey and arrives in the US as a 16 year old with no parents. She is immediately caught by immigration, given status as a Special Juvenile Immigrant or Unaccompanied Minor, and put into one of the group homes for minors. She has a distant aunt who is finally located and takes custody of her. She is given a court date in Missouri that she attends and has her case administratively closed until she is 18. At this point…Legal or NOt legal? What document would prove it? What if she files of asylum immediately but has to wait the 120 days of processing before she has the ability to apply for a EAD, which takes 10 months to actually arrive because of mistakes by USCIS on the spelling of her name? What if she files nothing until she is notified at age 18 that she has to go back to court? What is her status?

5. Jaime is a LPR and has been since he was 2 years old. Both his parents are LPR’s and he has a USC little sister. When Jaime is 12 his parent’s house burns down and his immigration documents along with all of his parent’s immigration documents are destroyed. He is totally legal, but school enrollment is coming up. How is he going to prove his status or the status of his parents? What document is going to be sufficient? What if the family immediately scrapes together the $1350 it will cost to replace all the LPR Cards. The Processing time is 3-5 months. How are they to prove their status during that time? Does the school have to keep checking? Do they get some type of pro-rated number in this equation that is going o be extrapolated from this data because they can’t prove their status for part of the year? What if over a year later they still do not have their cards because uSCIS claims they sent the card to the address of the house that burnt down, despite the fact that a different address was written on the application? What if there is a mistake on the new cards?

6. Jeff is from England and is here with his family on the VWP, they decide to enroll the kids in school because Jeff is looking for a job. they have been here for 9 months. What document will be necessary for a child or their parents from a VWP country? Legal or Not Legal?

7. Kevin comes from Romania on a J visa cultural exchange bringing his son on a J3, His J requires 2 years of foreign residency after the termination of his program. At the time Kevin enrolls his son in a Missouri School his original J will expire in 1 week. Legal or not legal? How is Kevin and his son calculated in the equation that supposedly tells how much money Missouri taxpayers are spending? Does the school have to recheck in 1 week? What if it was going o expire in 2 months? Do they need to keep track of that date? What if Kevin meets a USC girl and they get married and she applied for AOS for both Kevin and his son as well as a waiver for the 2 year residency requirement? They will not find out the results for months and well after the expiration of the Js. Legal or Not? What document is necessary? What if they later get approved how will they be calculated in the equation? What if they get denied?

8. Marco was born in Germany on a Military base to a USC mom and Dad, he has a military BC and a birth abroad BC. Are the schools going to be able to recognize these forms? What if he was born in a German hospital rather than on the base? What if his parents were simply on vacation? What if Mom was German who met USC Dad while dad was stationed in Germany and Dad is killed in action before the citizenship/immigration process for mom and son are finished…is Son a USC? Son comes to the US on a VWP German Passport to live with Dad’s parents and go to school…What would prove son’s status?

9. USC man adopts a child from Cuba and officially adopts him and starts the immigration process. After the child is given a birth certificate from Missouri listing adopted dad as the father but place of birth in Havana a lawyer submits some paperwork to USCIS to get him residency. The lawyer then gets disbarred and actually goes to jail for massive fraud. The family gets an LPR card, but the lawyer, prior to him going to jail, told the family that the kid is actually a USC. What is the son’s status? What document is needed to prove it?

10. Harvey comes to the US on a TN visa and brings his family. The passport shows his visa is good for 5 years, but after a year of working at the company in Missouri he is fired. He does not get another job in the same industry and they continue to live in Missouri? Kids legal or no? What documents? What if he is in the process of getting a new job?

11. Jack is here on an H2B and his kids and wife have the derivative visas. The visas are good for a year but Jack gets fired. Kids, Legal or not? What would prove it?

12. Maria is caught trying to cross the border to be with her husband who is dying of kidney failure and needs help managing his daily dialysis. Maria is given a court date and attends all the courts. While she is here in proceedings she has a baby who is a USC. Her husband has TPS. Her court is administratively closed when she applies for derivative status and gets denied after 2 years of waiting. She is referred back to removal court while she appeals the TPS denial. By this time the kid is in School. What would the parents present to prove heir status? Is Dad legal or no? What about Maria? at some point Maria gets confused about the court date and misses it. Her and her husband receive a notice in the mail that she has been deported and needs to report to the nearest ICE office. Once she is there ICE finds out she has no passport and the closest consulate for Honduras is in Chicago and it will take weeks to get it. They give her instructions to report back monthly with progress reports. Maria Legal or no? What documents will prove this? How is she calculated into this equation? What if she hires an attorney and the attorney manages to get her deferred action based on her husband’s severe health condition? Legal or Not? What if that deferred action lasts several years? What document would she present?

13. Jennifer and her daughter are both US Citizens born in the United States but are living in hiding from a very violent and abusive husband/father and they have no proof of their citizenship, no birth certificates and no passports. Legal or no? How are they going to prove it? What if they are not USCs they entered illegally and Jennifer is married to a USC who is abusive. Jennifer has filed a VAWA application for her and her daughter but has not left her husband yet. Legal or no? What documents are they going to show? What if USC abusive husband shows up at school asking to see the proof Jennifer submitted regarding her and her daughter’s immigration status. Can he get this information? Who is going to protect these records?

14. Danielle is sexually assaulted by an uncle. She and her family are all undocumented, but they work with the police and the police agree to certify a U Visa. They apply but have not heard anything back. Legal or no? What do they need to show to prove it? Does the school have to see the application, including all the facts of the sexual assault? Does the school need to follow up every few months to see if the case has been approved or not?

15. Janet is an LPR. Her mom and dad are also LPRs and when Janet is 2 her mom gets job in Canada. They move to Canada where they live for 7 years, periodically returning of brief vacations but living in Canada. They do not file takes during these years in Canada. Eventually mom has a stroke and dies and dad and the kids move back to the US. They are allowed back in at customs without any questions. They begin to live in Missouri at that time and continue to live there. Kids…legal or no? What about dad?

16. Jose enters the US without authorization and lives here for 6 years. He meets and marries Susan a USC and resident of Lee’s Summit, they have a child. Susan applies for Jose for Residency, a process that takes almost 3 years. During that time Jose is put into removal proceedings. After over 2 yeas of going to court and processing papers with USCIS he finally has to leave for Mexico voluntarily. He later is approved for residency and returns to Lee’s Summit. During this time what is Jose’s Status? How would he prove it? What document would be necessary? How would his status figure into the equation when he has a USC spouse? How is the cost of educating the daughter going to be figured with one possibly not legal parent and one legal? What if Jose is semi legal? What if he is authorized to be present but does not have a status? How will the formula change when Jose returns as an LPR after consular processing?

These are not even examples I had to make up but are actually clients of mine or my colleagues. As you can see none of these situations have an easy answer and all of them are open to interpretation as to “legal” or “Not legal” and there are many situations where the person is “not legal” but authorized to stay here. There is not a one size fits all answer. As much as you might wish there were there just isn’t. This supposed formula also does not take into account how much the immigrant family is contributing to the local school system through taxes, person, property, income and sales. Yes undocumented people pay taxes. If you truly want some sort of meaningful number this is an extremely cumbersome and complicated process of presenting documents, determining status, monitoring things like expiration dates of visa, removal court dates, application statuses, current employment of parents and ever changing immigration policy and procedures. We are talking an army of administrative staff, lawyers and actuaries to figure out the real number of even what you would call “illegal.” Also to truly make this number meaningful you would have to assign different values to situations where there is one legal parent and one not, where the kids are legal but the parents are not and where someone changes status after the initial documents are submitted. Finally after this number is determined, to be truly accurate you would really need to take that per kid cost and subtract the amount contributed by the parents in taxes.

To do what you are proposing, to truly do it, and get a number that is in the same time zone as meaningful, this is what would have to happen. Anything less than that…well the law might as well say, just count up the Foreigners and their parents and divide by the per child cost of each district, legal or no it doesn’t really matter. If that is what you wants, then he really should stop trying to hide behind some lofty excuse of trying to prove to the Federal Congress that they need to do something about immigration because what you are proposing is at best an ill-conceived ridiculous waste of money and resources on our already over taxed public education system thrown together by someone who clearly has no understanding of either immigration, taxes, spending or education and at worst it is exactly what it was in Alabama, a thinly veiled scare tactic to force immigrants, legal or otherwise, out of Missouri…deportation by attrition.

So do me a favor, Mr. Kraus, if you are going to blatantly ignore the obvious problems, costs, confusion, resources and impossibility of what you are asking for after being presented with the facts, and you are going to refuse to change your opinion after you find out your original assumptions are not correct, don’t be so intellectually dishonest as to continue to claim that you just don’t understand what the problem is or that this is going to save money or come up with a real or meaningful number. Say what your true intention and sentiment is behind this law: To scare immigrants out of Missouri. Deportation by attrition and screw the costs both financially and socially.

Or do a very brave thing and change your mind…decide that passing an unfunded mandate that is so confusing, cumbersome and problematic on its face that it is going to cost more to implement that it will ever yield in real results, especially one that is guaranteed to get Missouri sued and embroiled in costly litigation that is currently being fought in several other states is not what is good for Missouri. Stop pushing this bill and withdraw it because there are too may problems with it at the moment. Besides the 15 example I gave you of how it is not a simple answer to a simple question, how on earth, when we are in a recession, when the state has budget shortfalls and everyone needs money, is it responsible for you as a leader to introduce a bill that has already had every single part of it struck down in other states by federal courts and is currently making its way through the courts on the dimes of the taxpayers of Arizona, Utah, Indiana, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and expose Missouri Taxpayers to the guaranteed lawsuits and federal challenges and the millions of dollars in legal fees. How is that responsible leadership. This is a comedy of errors. Please be brave enough to admit when you are wrong and fix it before we are all paying for your hubris for years.

I look forward to seeing if you can determine who is legal or not and telling me what documents are needed to prove it.

Angela L. Williams

Here is his response:

Angela,

It is simple.

First, you seem to want to insert upon myself and this legislation things that are just not true. I have no desire to fix the federal immigration issue. That is the federal government’s job. I have no desire to create a list of twenty eight categories and the legislation does not ask for such. I have no desire to enter the (all too) complicated field of immigration law. And I have no desire to harm a single person. If you were willing to grant me those things we could start this discussion on more common ground. However you seem to assume I have negative intent, and that won’t get us anywhere.

In your lists below, and I don’t have the time to answer each one, the answers are very simple. First we are only asking the current citizenship status of the CHILD. The parent’s status is not questioned or asked. If a child was born here they have a birth certificate and can be checked off as a citizen. If they are not citizens and have completed documents to be here legally they can be marked that way and show those documents, whatever they are. If they do not have completed documents, even if they are in the process, they are not here legally until those documents are completed.

Will the data collected be full proof? Of course not, no data is. Will it give us a better estimate of costs than guesses provide by partisan groups? Certainly. The argument I have not heard, from any opposition, is that there is NO cost to taxpayers. Since there is a cost, I believe taxpaying Missouri families have a right to know what that cost is. You bring up morals but seem to only care about morality when it comes to helping non-citizens. I applaud those efforts from a moral (if not legal) perspective. I’m not sure why you can’t understand the moral argument on the other side that tries to protect families already here, many of whom are on the edge economically and just can’t afford the taxes they pay now, much less more.

Angela, I’d prefer to not use guesses, but the closest guess I have heard is that illegal immigrants who live in Missouri cost the state over $300 million. That is $300 million that could go to education, social programs, and health care of OUR citizens. How is it moral to ignore that?

My door is always open,

Will Kraus

And here is mine to this email:

Mr. Kraus-
I actually do not think you have negative intent in that you are purposefully trying to pick on Hispanics, or Indians, or what ever other immigrant there is. What I am trying to point out is that your proposal is not a simple matter of looking at a utility bill. My point is that you are trying to come up with a number that does not exist and you are proposing that public schools, who are already very overburdened, be the ones to do it with no financial support to try to help. You first claimed that you are only trying to discover the citizenship status of the child and that the parent’s immigration status is not asked. but in the law it specifically says the school must determine if the child is born outside the jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully present. It says it twice in fact. I highlighted it below.

161.245. 1. At the time of enrollment of a student in a public
2 elementary or secondary school in this state, such school shall
3 determine whether the student enrolling was born outside the
4 jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully
5 present in the United States and qualifies for assignment to an English
6 as second language class or other remedial program.
7 2. When making the determination required by subsection 1 of
8 this section, the school shall rely upon presentation of the student’s
9 original birth certificate or a certified copy thereof.
10 3. If it is determined that the student was born outside the
11 jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully
12 present in the United States upon review of the student’s birth
13 certificate or where such certificate is not available for any reason, the
14 parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the student shall notify the
15 school of the actual citizenship or immigration status of the student
16 under federal law within thirty days of the date of the student’s
17 enrollment.

How else is it going to be determined if the child is a child of an alien not lawfully present unless the status of the parents is asked? In fact, what the statute asks is for the school to determine if the kid was born outside the jurisdiction of the US OR is the child of an alien unlawfully present in the US AND qualifies for ESL or other remedial services. So you are asking the school to determine if the child falls into one of 2 categories: 1. Born outside the Jurisdiction of the US or 2. Is the child of an alien unlawfully present and also qualifies for ESL or other remedial services.

The schools are suppose to do this by looking at a copy of the kid’s birth certificate. The problem with this is that looking at a birth certificate only shows the physical location of where someone was born. It does not give any indication if the child is a citizen (unless it is a BC from the US) or if the child is the child of a person unlawfully present and in need of ESL classes or Remedial classes. Finally, the law says that if it is determined that the kid was born outside of the US or is the child of an alien unlawfully present (now no qualification that they also have to qualify for ESL or other Remedial services like there is in the first paragraph) than it appears that section 3 asks the parents to provide the immigration status of the child under federal law within 30 days. This is where it is tricky because there are in fact situations where you are authorized to be here, yet have no official status nor any document to show you do.

Since the proposed law actually says under federal law than in order to comply there has to be a different method of counting those in between because they are in fact a class unto themselves. Your assertion that if they have completed paperwork but are not finished that they are not here legally is incorrect. Really there is not “legally” or “illegally.” There is in status and out of status, and having an application pending that gives you some immediate benefit while not conferring on you an actual visa classification is a status. Under immigration law if you have applied for extension of say you B1 tourist visa and that is being processed you are not considered out of status until the application is denied even if it is pending months after your original visa has expired. Similarly, a person who, for example, has applied for a VAWA application or a U visa or Asylum or Refugee status is in a protected status that is somewhere between. If they are denied their application they are for sure back to the out of status category, but while it is pending they are in a grey area that is really neither.

I say that because they are no longer at risk, baring a serious crime, of being put into removal proceedings. Once one of those application is filed for example there is a period of time that they continue to not be authorized to work but are not in danger of removal. After that period they will be allowed to apply for a work permit but are not in a category of immigrants yet because their application has not been approved or denied. With that work card they can get a social, driver’s license, work etc but they really do not have a status yet. So they will have documents showing they can stay here but no accompanying status designation. Maybe that doesn’t matter to you and you would count them as “illegal” anyways, but it is just not accurate and it is not what the proposed law seems to ask as it says that parents/guardians will provide the immigration status of the child according to federal law. Similarly, under federal law, unless an immigration judge has found an alien to be “unlawfully present” under a certain section of the Immigration and Nationality Act than he or she is not unlawfully present. Only an immigration judge is allowed to make that determination under federal law, so if the act requires that the school be notified of the immigration status under federal law the most the parent can do is say the child, entered without inspection, overstayed a visa or status pending. It is not the cut and dry answer you want but if you are going to use federal law as the basis then there is not going to be a cut and dry answer for many of the cases.

Secondly you also claim that the law does not ask for the creation of 28 categories but that a simple legal or no is all that it requires. However in this section below it specifically requires that the state board of education complete this annual report that provides data of lawfully present aliens by immigration classification, which means under what type of visa they have. That would mean that information would need to be provided by the schools. So all those Bs and Js and Ks would have to be determined.

. (1) The state board of education shall compile and submit an
42 annual public report to the general assembly. The report shall provide
43 data, aggregated by school, regarding the numbers of United States
44 citizens, of lawfully present aliens by immigration classification, and
45 of aliens believed to be unlawfully present in the United States enrolled
46 at all primary and secondary public schools in this state.
Similarly it goes farther and asks that these same categories be specifically applied to kids who qualify for ESL, so there will be a separate analysis for the ESL kids too.

The report
47 shall also provide the number of students in each category
48 participating in English as a second language programs enrolled at such schools

It also says that the State board’s report must analyze the effect on the quality of education for other students that may have occurred, not that did, or that might occur in the future. How is that going to be determined? What if the effects on the quality of education is that all children are positively effected by going to school with students from other countries, thus exposing them to new cultures, languages and customs earlier in life making them better prepared for life in our international society and multi national world? The way this is written assumes that these kid’s presence effects education for the worst. Similarly I do no understand how these analysis can be made without some data from the classroom teachers, behavior of the children, problems with other students, time spent with them rather than citizens…
(2) The report shall analyze and identify the effects upon the
51 standard or quality of education provided to students who are citizens
52 of the United States residing in Missouri that may have occurred, or
53 are expected to occur in the future, as a consequence of the enrollment
54 of students who are aliens not lawfully present in the United States.
It also says that the report shall analyze the financial costs of providing these undocumented children with instruction, computers, textbooks, supplies, free or discounted school meals and extra curricular activities, which means that someone has to keep track of which “alien children unlawfully present in the US” are using at he very least non reusable supplies from the school, free or discounted meals and extra curricular activities. Unless you want the School board to just make up these numbers that means administration costs and monitoring costs at the school level.

) The report shall analyze and itemize the fiscal costs to the
56 state and its political subdivisions of providing educational instruction,
57 computers, textbooks and other supplies, free or discounted school
58 meals, and extracurricular activities to students who are aliens not
59 lawfully present in the United States.
You also say that since there may be even a small cost, the tax payers of Missouri need to know how much and that this formula is going to provide a better number than those provided by “partisan” groups. This report will be no different than any numbers by any partisan groups because it 1. Does not take into account taxes paid by the family of the undocumented child (at some point the child of the alien unlawfully present as well as “child of alien unlawfully present and qualifies for assignment to ESL or other remedial program, incidentally, while ESL is mentioned again, the “other remedial programs is not is just dropped from the statute)2. It doesn’t take into account any personal funds paid to the school for textbooks, extracurricular activities, field trips, fund raisers etc. 3. It inaccurately counts and improperly defines unlawfully present aliens. It is written in a way that presupposes 1. a negative effect in the quality of education for citizens (doesn’t mention or seem to care about those immigrants who have a status with a card to match) 2. a $0 contribution on the part of the unlawfully present student’s family in taxes and money given directly to the school.

It also tells the state board to make up some criteria for determining how unlawfully present aliens impact education for citizens (again not all legal student). In both cases it directs them to contract with reputable scholars to make this stuff up or analyze the data and prepare reports. So it is going to cost money at the state level to compile all this data and present it to the assembly as well as cost the schools money, time and resources to get the first level of data to the state board. That is alot of money to be spent to create a report that does not state a number any more accurately than all of these partisan reports that you claim to have. So, even using your $300 million dollar number, which I have never heard, and I eat sleep and breath this subject, we are now using this amount to educate them and adding all the costs of each school district in compiling and the state board in hiring experts to create criteria to measure how one child negatively impacts another by virtue of a status your formula may not even have gotten right and then making guesses on how it may have already effected the quality of education, how it MIGHT effect it in the future, writing all that up and presenting it to the general assembly then instituting that criteria they have been mandated to develop in all the schools. Not to mention the fact that you are not calculating the cost to Missouri tax payers of litigating this issue in federal court because we will get sued, not only by pro immigration groups and civil liberty groups like the ACLU but also by the Justice Department.

Putting aside the wisdom of this kind of law and feelings about immigration, I cannot for the life of me understand why it is being proposed when it is still being litigated. Here is a scenario that might put it into more perspective, your neighbor ripped off the side of his house to build a huge edition, spent tons of money of plans, materials and did so because the local “expert” on land use and permits told him he could do it without a permit or variance because in his untested interpretation he didn’t need one. After your neighbor has spent all this money and time and resources and got half way done, the city comes in and issues an injunction saying he has to stop because the “expert” is wrong about his untested theory. Your neighbor now has to spend more money on legal fees to fight this. You see his addition and think you would like to build one just like it so you go to him to find out who did his work, drew the plans etc. He then tells you about all the legal problems he is having with it and tells you about his untested theory as to why he is right. Maybe you agree with his interpretation, maybe not, maybe you think he might have a point but it could go either way. Whatever you opinion is, I bet you don’t choose to start ripping walls off of your own house and spending a ton of money just like your neighbor knowing you too are going to get sued, and have to stop in the middle and then spend a bunch of money on lawyers. I bet you wait and see how his own litigation turns out. If you wouldn’t do that with your own money why are you willing to do it with the tax payers you are so sure you are protecting. If nothing else it is so fiscally irresponsible to propose something you are 100% sure is going to end in a law suit that will cost millions. That is a number you can accurately predict and is readily available because you can simply look at Arizona, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Let them fight it out and pay for it, when the dust clears if you are still so sure that money needs to be spent to study something that cannot be changed by the states then write a law that is in accordance with what the Supreme Court decides. Missouri is not going to be a trail blazer in anti-immigrant state laws with this bill because it has all, every word, already been tried and enjoined and is currently being litigated.

So far this plan only seems to spend more money and give nothing in return. Even if we assume it will give an accurate number…so. Federal law says that all children get to go to school no matter their status. It comes to nothing except spending more money. Since you also brought up morally, I am very interest in helping all people, immigrants and citizens. It is why I am writing another too long email to someone who probably isn’t going to be swayed at 1 am. Our current national discourse on immigration is not good for anyone. Not legal immigrants, “illegal” immigrants, citizens or any of those status’ in between. It is not good for our nation, for race relations, for our appearances to the rest of the world or for our economy. One of the reasons that this kind of law so angers me and so scares me is because it is going to produce a number (one I think is meaningless, but lets assume it can be given some legitimacy) that is going to be used to further polarize this discussion. If the number comes up with some astronomical amount that we as Missourians are allegedly spending to educate undocumented children and some made up criteria that shows immigrants have a negative impact on the education of citizens it is going to further anger people, make them more intolerant to immigrants or those perceived to be immigrants and more dug in about not discussing reform. If it produces a number that is very low because, say the person we contract with actually takes into account what each immigrant family pays, and makes and evaluation that shows having many cultures in a school is a positive impact on students and the undocumented children are class leaders, act no different than the other kids and are an asset to a school and a school district, that report will be disregarded out of hand as clearly biased and skewed in favor of liberals. It is a no win situation unless what you really want is to create an environment so hostile that no immigrant wants to come here. Then it will work wonders.

believe it or not I do not want amnesty for all undocumented people. I want a system that wasn’t designed in a time when it was a HUGE deal to make an international phone call much less travel internationally. The fact that I can get on a plane within a few hours and travel to the farthest point away from Kansas City in less than 2 days and for less than my monthly mortgage or that I could order a t-shirt from that same distant place right now on the internet and have it by Friday afternoon means we have a different world and a system that desperately needs to be updated to reflect that. I know you said that you have no interest in fixing federal law because it is their job, but the problem is that this exact kind of law is what is keeping them from doing anything. Every time there has been discussion of reform since GW Bush it has been shot down by the 100% secure borders and enforcement only crowd. That is just never going to happen. We are never going to have 100% secure borders, we are never going to deport all 11 million undocumented people. If we want to fix this problem we need to be discussing solutions not pipe dreams. This type of legislation just gets people all riled up about this issue and unable or unwilling to discuss compromise or an actual workable solution. Whatever the number is, its not going to do anything positive to help Missouri nor the larger issue of our immigration problem.

It will just keep people angry and unthinking. I want this problem to have a solution. I want there to be reform that 1. Protects our national security interests 2. Promotes and allows businesses to easily recruit the best and the brightest and most degreed and talented people from all over our world to come work for our companies in this country developing the next ipad or smart car 3. Promotes and Allows businesses that need unskilled labor that they cannot find in the US to easily recruit out of the US 4. Provides avenues for these businesses to make those workers that are contributing to our economic growth a way to become permanent residents in an reasonable amount of time. 5. Values and protects the sanctity of the family by not forcing families to wait for 10+years for visas or remain separated for 10+ years 6. Acknowledges that there are people in this country that have been here for years and years, that are not committing crimes, running businesses, raising good children, working contributing paying taxes and finding some way to allow them to obtain legal status. I want to be able to deport all the criminals and have ICE agents spending the majority of their time catching traffickers and the like. I want to have those who deserve it regulate their status and pay whatever to do so. But right now and for the past 5 years or more our only discussion has been no discussion until 100% enforcement. That is just never going to work.

If you really want to save the tax payers money the push for change not a law that is going to cost a ton and give us nothing. Again I have only discussed the school. Look at Chicago’s recent decision not to hold ICE prisoners anymore because of the millions of dollars it was costing the city.

Finally, and this is the last thing I promise, well for now, while there is a provision that it shall be unlawful to disclose this information, there is no penalty for doing so. This is a very emotional issue and this kind of information in the hands of someone who does in fact have evil intent could be very dangerous to the family, the child, the other students, other people of the same race or other immigrants in general. It would just take one slip of the tongue or misplaced statement and and we could have a disaster. The fact that Senators came in yesterday to find gun targets on their doors proves that there is violence just barely contained under the surface of many people, especially on this subject. Google news articles on immigration and read the comments. They are violent and hateful. This information will end up hurting someone and there is nothing in this law that remedies that.

I do understand wanting to protect people who are on the edge as you say, but this is not going to do that. It is going to cost money in collecting this information, putting together these reports, establishing all these criteria, housing all these people waiting for ICE, prosecuting people for not having documents (I didn’t discuss that section either, but there are some real technical problems in the wording), and in the law suits that will follow if it is passed. For what? What is actually achieved by this study? A number that is inaccurate? More resentment against immigrants? Violence as a result? Maybe they will keep the kids home then there will be the social cost of having all these uneducated kids, or unsupervised kids at home afraid to go to school. Maybe they will move out, causing business to close and jobs to be left vacant. It happened in Alabama and Georgia it will happen here. This is just not the answer.

I hope that further explains my position and maybe even opens a dialogue. I was assuming that the intent was, as I said deportation by attrition or self deportation because other states that have done the same thing have openly said as such. I did not mean to imply that it was because you hated immigrants.

I would welcome further thoughts. And, actually I am very impressed that you even answered. Thank you for taking the time to do so, even if it was an aid that answered, it is the only non canned “thank you for contacting my office” response I have gotten.

Angela L. Williams

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Tags: Alabama, Arizona, Ignoring voters, Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri Senate, Rogue Senators, SB590, wasting money, Will Kraus .

Bill to require English-only driver’s tests is back | The Columbia Daily Tribune – Columbia, Missouri

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Barney Fisher (R-MO House), Bart Karman (R-MO House), Chuck Gastenberger (R-MO House), Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Immigration, Jason Smith (R-MO House), List of Shame, Mike Kelley (R-MO House), Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri Senate, Other Appalling State Legislation, Politicians making things worse, Rep. Jerry Nolte (MO State Rep-R), Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, State's Rights, Supremacy Clause, Wanda Brown (R-Mo House), Wasting Money .

Bill to require English-only driver’s tests is back | The Columbia Daily Tribune – Columbia, Missouri.

More bad ideas based on bad assumptions from Jefferson City. This bill will not have any effect on undocumented people because those people cannot get driver’s license because they do not have the proper authorization from Immigration. This will only effect legal immigrants who are actually doing what these anti-immigrant people want, they are doing it legally. The fact is that you do not need to even know how to read to be able to be a safe driver because signs are internationally standardized for this very reason.

On that note, it is possible for someone who is illiterate to take the Missouri Driver’s exam and this would not change that provision, only that it be given exclusively in English. How does it, then, make sense that they are doing this as a matter of public safety? Being able to read and study and pass a test in French somehow makes you less safe than someone who cannot read at all? A foreign language speaker is a worse driver than someone who is illiterate?

Representatives from the Insurance industry testified against this idiotic bill as did many members of the community and heads of charitable organizations. No one testified in favor of it. The Insurance lobbyist said this would guarantee more uninsured drivers not more English Speaking Drivers. He is right because people will not stop driving. Why on earth are they wasting their time on these kind of stupid laws? Why is this even an issue? Because it is one more example of politicians using immigrants to confuse the issue of immigration reform. This time they are picking on the ones who have “done it legally, which is what they claim to want.

What is almost as disturbing to me as the blatant illogical and baseless rhetoric behind this law as well as SB590 requiring schools and cops to check immigration status is that the representatives are literally spitting in the face of a representative democracy. No one testified in favor and many against? Yes lets pass it. They do not care about their constituents nor the people of Missouri. They do not care if they cost you money or endanger your businesses or children or safety on the road. This is the 2nd vote this week that completely ignored the fact that the overwhelming majority of the comments were against the law.

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The New Text of SB590 as it will be introduced to the Senate…ANd he is still claiming that it won’t cost the schools any money?

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Bart Karman (R-MO House), Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Constitution, Immigration, Jason Smith (R-MO House), Kris Kobach (KS Secretary of State), List of Shame, Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri Senate, Other Appalling State Legislation, Politicians making things worse, Procedure, Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, State's Rights, Supremacy Clause, Wanda Brown (R-Mo House), Wasting Money .

Section A. Chapters 161 and 577, RSMo, are amended by adding thereto

2 three new sections, to be known as sections 161.245, 577.685, and 577.690, to
3 read as follows:
161.245. 1. At the time of enrollment of a student in a public

2 elementary or secondary school in this state, such school shall
3 determine whether the student enrolling was born outside the
4 jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully
5 present in the United States and qualifies for assignment to an English
6 as second language class or other remedial program.
7 2. When making the determination required by subsection 1 of
8 this section, the school shall rely upon presentation of the student’s
9 original birth certificate or a certified copy thereof.
10 3. If it is determined that the student was born outside the
11 jurisdiction of the United States or is the child of an alien not lawfully
12 present in the United States upon review of the student’s birth
13 certificate or where such certificate is not available for any reason, the
14 parent, guardian, or legal custodian of the student shall notify the
15 school of the actual citizenship or immigration status of the student
16 under federal law within thirty days of the date of the student’s
17 enrollment.
18 4. Proper notification under subsection 3 of this section shall
19 consist of the following:
20 (1) Presenting official documentation establishing the citizenship

21 and, in the case of an alien, the immigration status of the student, or
22 alternatively by submitting a notarized copy of such documentation to
23 a school official designated for such purpose by the school district in
24 which the child is enrolled; and
25 (2) Attestation by the parent, guardian, or legal custodian, under
26 penalty of perjury, that the document states the true identity of the
27 child. If the student or his or her parent, guardian, or legal
28 representative possesses no such documentation but nevertheless
29 maintains that the student is either a United States citizen or an alien
30 lawfully present in the United States, the parent, guardian, or legal
31 representative of the student may sign a declaration so stating, under
32 penalty of perjury.
33 5. If no such documentation or declaration is presented, the
34 school official shall presume for the purposes of reporting under this
35 section that the student is an alien unlawfully present in the United
36 States.
37 (1) Each school district in this state shall collect and compile
38 data as required by this section.
39 (2) Each school district shall submit an annual report listing all
40 data obtained pursuant to this section to the state board of education.
41 6. (1) The state board of education shall compile and submit an
42 annual public report to the general assembly. The report shall provide
43 data, aggregated by school, regarding the numbers of United States
44 citizens, of lawfully present aliens by immigration classification, and
45 of aliens believed to be unlawfully present in the United States enrolled
46 at all primary and secondary public schools in this state. The report
47 shall also provide the number of students in each category
48 participating in English as a second language programs enrolled at
49 such schools.
50 (2) The report shall analyze and identify the effects upon the
51 standard or quality of education provided to students who are citizens
52 of the United States residing in Missouri that may have occurred, or
53 are expected to occur in the future, as a consequence of the enrollment
54 of students who are aliens not lawfully present in the United States.
55 (3) The report shall analyze and itemize the fiscal costs to the
56 state and its political subdivisions of providing educational instruction,
57 computers, textbooks and other supplies, free or discounted school

58 meals, and extracurricular activities to students who are aliens not
59 lawfully present in the United States.
60 (4) The state board of education shall prepare and issue
61 objective baseline criteria for identifying and assessing the other
62 educational impacts on the quality of education provided to students
63 who are citizens of the United States, due to the enrollment of aliens
64 who are not lawfully present in the United States, in addition to the
65 statistical data on citizenship and immigration status and English as a
66 second language enrollment required by this section. The state board
67 of education may contract with reputable scholars and research
68 institutions to identify and validate such criteria. The state board of
69 education shall assess such educational impact and include such
70 assessments in its reports to the general assembly.
71 7. Public disclosure by any person of information obtained
72 pursuant to this section which personally identifies any student shall
73 be unlawful, except for purposes permitted pursuant to 8 U.S.C.
74 Sections 1373 and 1644. Any person intending to make a public
75 disclosure of information that is classified as confidential under this
76 section, on the ground that such disclosure constitutes a use permitted
77 by federal law, shall first apply to the attorney general and receive a
78 waiver of confidentiality from the requirements of this subsection.
79 8. A student whose personal identity has been negligently or
80 intentionally disclosed in violation of this section shall be deemed to
81 have suffered an invasion of the student’s right to privacy. The student
82 shall have a civil remedy for such violation against the agency or
83 person that has made the unauthorized disclosure.
84 9. The state board of education shall construe all provisions of
85 this section in conformity with federal law.
86 10. This section shall be enforced without regard to race,
87 religion, gender, ethnicity, or national origin.
577.685. 1. Upon any lawful stop, detention, or arrest made by a

2 state, county, or municipal law enforcement officer of this state in the
3 enforcement of any state law or ordinance of any political subdivision
4 thereof, where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien
5 who is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt
6 shall be made, when practicable, to determine the citizenship and
7 immigration status of the person, except if the determination may

8 hinder or obstruct an investigation. Such determination shall be made
9 by contacting the federal government pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section
10 1373(c) and relying upon any verification provided by the federal
11 government.
12 2. A law enforcement officer shall not attempt to independently
13 make a final determination of whether an alien is lawfully present in
14 the United States. A law enforcement officer may not consider race,
15 color, or national origin in implementing the requirements of this
16 section except to the extent permitted by the United States Constitution
17 or the Constitution of Missouri.
18 3. A person is presumed to not be an alien who is unlawfully
19 present in the United States if the person provides any of the following
20 to the law enforcement officer:
21 (1) A valid, unexpired Missouri driver’s license;
22 (2) A valid, unexpired Missouri nondriver’s license;
23 (3) A valid tribal enrollment card or other form of tribal
24 identification bearing a photograph or other biometric identifier;
25 (4) Any valid United States federal or state government issued
26 identification document bearing a photograph or other biometric
27 identifier, if issued by an entity that requires proof of lawful presence
28 in the United States before issuance;
29 (5) A foreign passport with an unexpired United States visa and
30 a corresponding stamp or notation by the United States Department of
31 Homeland Security indicating the bearer’s admission to the United
32 States;
33 (6) A foreign passport issued by a visa waiver country with the
34 corresponding entry stamp and unexpired duration of stay annotation
35 or an I-94W form by the United States Department of Homeland
36 Security indicating the bearer’s admission to the United States.
37 4. If an alien is determined by the federal government to be an
38 alien who is unlawfully present in the United States pursuant to 8
39 U.S.C. Section 1373(c), the law enforcement agency shall cooperate in
40 the transfer of the alien to the custody of the federal government, if the
41 federal government so requests.
577.690. 1. In addition to any violation of federal law, a person

2 is guilty of willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration
3 document if the person is in violation of 8 U.S.C. Section 1304(e) or 8

4 U.S.C. Section 1306(a), and the person is an alien unlawfully present in
5 the United States.
6 2. In the enforcement of this section, an alien’s immigration
7 status shall be determined by verification of the alien’s immigration
8 status with the federal government pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section 1373(c).
9 A law enforcement officer shall not attempt to independently make a
10 final determination of whether an alien is lawfully present in the
11 United States.
12 3. A law enforcement official or agency of this state or a county,
13 city, or other political subdivision of this state may not consider race,
14 color, or national origin in the enforcement of this section except to the
15 extent permitted by the United States Constitution and the Constitution
16 of Missouri.
17 4. This section does not apply to a person who maintains
18 authorization from the federal government to be present in the United
19 States.
20 5. Any record that relates to the immigration status of a person
21 is admissible in any court of this state without further foundation or
22 testimony from a custodian of records if the record is certified as
23 authentic by the federal government agency that is responsible for
24 maintaining the record. A verification of an alien’s immigration status
25 received from the federal government pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section
26 1373(c) shall constitute proof of that alien’s status. A court of this state
27 shall consider only the federal government’s verification in
28 determining whether an alien is lawfully present in the United States.
29 6. An alien unlawfully present in the United States who is in
30 violation of this section shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor.

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ALABAMA/ARIZONA Like Law Passes out of committee despite only 1 person testifying in favor of the law

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Immigration, Jason Smith (R-MO House), List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Other Appalling State Legislation, Politicians making things worse, Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, Supremacy Clause, Wasting Money .

SB590 – Modifies the law relating to unlawfully present aliens..

I sometimes don’t know why I bother because people like Will Kraus and Brian Nieves are going to do whatever they want anyways. It did not matter to the members that voted to pass this out of committee that only 1 person testified in favor of the law and 60 plus people against, with at least 15 testifying live and at least 40 more who did not get to testify live because of time but submitted written testimony.

People like Will Kraus do not represent the people; they represent themselves. They do not care that this is going to created a giant unfunded mandate on both the schools and the police that will cost untold number of dollars. They also don’t care that if it passes Missouri is guaranteed to be sued, just like all of the other states who have passed similar law. Missouri will have to spend millions of dollars defending a suit that is already being fought elsewhere.

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A disturbing chain of emails between a constituent and MO Sen Will Kraus shows he does not get it or does not want to

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Anchor Baby is a Hate Word, Consular Processing, Deportation, Immigration, List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Politicians making things worse, Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, State's Rights, Wasting Money .

I have been communicating with a lovely woman who is an ESL teacher in Missouri that was moved to action after reading about our strong showing in Jeff City last week to testify against SB590. While she could not take off of work to drive there she did prepare a heartfelt letter to send to Mr. Kraus from the very important point of view of a teacher working with English Language Learners (ELLs) and the chilling effect that this type of bill will have on her interaction with the students and her parents. I have gotten her permission to post the email exchange, to illustrate how Mr. Kraus, along with others that support his type of legislation are completely ignorant about our actual immigration system. Even confronted with the clear proof that the assumptions and facts that supposedly are the impetus for this law are actually wrong (not his opinion on immigration mind you but the “facts” he testified that led him to propose this law), Mr. Kraus refuses to even entertain the idea that what he has concocted in his head as the truth is in fact incorrect. What kind of leader is he that would stubbornly cling to his proposal even when it is proven that the underlying premies is as real as a unicorn. Speaking of unicorns, it would be easier to convince my 4 year old niece that they do not exist than to get a politician to admit that his research was faulty, his logic is ludicrous, his proposal was ill conceived or that after receiving new information and examining a problem based on that new information he has decided that his old idea is now not a good one.

As Mark Twain said, “you are entitled to your own opinion, not your own facts.” Mr. Kraus, just because you really really really want something to be true because it fits neatly into your paradigm does not mean it is. I am sorry. What I think bothers me the most is that he was sitting in that hearing room listing to all of those people testify. Community leaders, religious workers, heads of archdiocese, Presidents of School Boards, Former police men, Immigration Attorneys, Community Members, Teachers, Students, Principals, Heads of Organizations that deal with New Refugees, Crime Victims, Domestic Violence. He sat there and listened to some very emotional testimony and some very fact based and practical of the problems with his law. He sat there and still he responds like he does on his last email, obviously having done no further research to see if the points that the people who know way more about our immigration system than he does brought up. Not one inch has he cracked that closed mind in response to some very valid points that were presented in testimony. Of course he may not have been listening at all because he spent most of the time messing with his smart phone…plants vs. zombies can be so addictive.

It is so tired to hear this same line of “reasoning” from people like him, because it is clear that he has no interest in making a bill that is GOOD for Missouri, in light of the overwhelming number of people who are against the bill. He has chosen to remain purposeful and willfully ignorant despite all the evidence that was presented against his position. That is not the mark of an effective leader. It is not blindly proposing idiotic, costly unfunded mandates and then sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling “I’m not listening I’m not listening” when challenged. It is about researching an issue before wasting everyone’s time and money by proposing it and then listening to the pros and cons of both sides and revising your proposal according to the new information you have.

So here is the email exchange. I have left out the ESL teacher’s name at her request so she does not have problems with her district. Other than that I have not edited at all. After the exchange I will further explain why Mr. Kraus is wrong.

Original Letter from a Real Missouri ESL Teacher

Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 11:20 AM
To: Will Kraus
Subject: SB 590

January 23, 2012

State Senator Will Kraus
201 W. Capitol Avenue
Room 220
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Dear State Senator Kraus,

Imagine being a kindergartner who doesn’t speak English well. Now, imagine the school staff and ELL (English Language Learners) teacher interrogating you and your family about your immigration status. Instead of looking forward to school, now, you are scared of the people who are there to help you. Do you know the saddest part about this scenario? It is the fact that legislators like you are happy about it because you hope it will scare ELL families out of Missouri. Not only does this show that you don’t understand what this will do to our economy and schools, but it shows you don’t care. Shame on you!
Under Title VI, all of these children have a right to a free and appropriate education. It is my job to teach them English, not be an agent for the I.N.S. Many of these children are already United States citizens, and they want nothing more than to fit in. However, you aim to separate them and make them targets of harassment. The sad thing is that you will only make those who fit a racial profile the targets. No one will ever question the blond-haired, blue-eyed ELL student that I have now, so this is just a new form of discrimination.
SB 590 proposal is based on Alabama’s law, which was shown to affect school attendance and the economy of the state. The law has already been challenged in court, and the school provisions to check immigration status have not held up. Therefore, you are proposing a law that will waste Missouri taxpayer money when it goes to court. Why not use that money for education when we are not able to fund the school formula? Is politics worth more to you than the education of Missouri’s students?
Your law proposal states that you want to know how much it costs to educate illegals or children of illegals at the expense of United States citizens. This just proves that you don’t get it. Most of these children are United States citizens because they were born here. It doesn’t matter whether their parents are legal or not. Those that are not citizens or may be illegal deserve the right to an education without harassment. As a teacher, I give my best effort to educate all of my students and treat them all the same. No matter what you decide, I refuse to enforce your racist law at the expense of terrified kindergartners.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX XXXXXX
Missouri ELL Teacher

Senator’s Response

From: “Will Kraus” <Will.Kraus@senate.mo.gov>
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: SB 590
Date: Mon, Jan 23, 2012 8:55 pm

XXXXXXXXXX,

You must be referring to a different bill. No part of SB 590 asks school staff to “interrogate” children and their families. Currently parents are asked for proof of residency in the district. We are only asking for proof of citizenship of every child and then asking the school to document the number of non-citizen children that attend that school. No teacher, ELL or otherwise, will be at all involved in that process.

My door is always open,

Will Kraus

Response from Missouri ESL Teacher

Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 9:14 PM
To: Will Kraus
Subject: Re: SB 590

Mr. Kraus.

Once again, you show how little you understand about how public schools and ELL programs operate. Since many parents of ELL students do not speak English well, we often have to assist in enrollment. This means that we would be forced to ask questions about their immigration status. If you believe that this would not set an antagonistic relationship with these parents and kids, then you need to do further research and talk to ELL teachers.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXXXXX

Mr. Kraus’ Response (Now snippy)

From: Will Kraus

Sent: Jan 24, 2012 10:00 AM

TO: XXXXXXXXXX

Subject: RE: SB590

XXXXXXXX,

You are right. I do not understand why it is a burden to be asked your immigration status. It is a simple fact, nothing more. You are either a citizen or not. If not, you are either documented or not. If you are documented showing that documentation is not a burden. If you are not, it is a simple answer to a simple question. Since we all agree federal law requires any child an education and since this bill prohibits any use of the information gathered other than to collect numerical data for DESE, I don’t understand why anyone would be afraid of that process.

The area undisputed is that lack of federal enforcement of current law costs Missouri taxpayers money. I don’t believe attempts to quantify that amount are at all misguided.

My door is always open,

Will Kraus

Why Mr. Kraus is wrong.

By the way he listen to me and Immigration Attorney Stephen Blower testify about this exact thing exactly one week ago. And that testimony prompted a rather long Q & A between Mr. Blower and Sen. Brian Nieves. But then again, as I said he was messing with his smart phone most of the hearing and was, at best, mildly interested in what people were saying, so it is possible that although I was sitting less than 2 feet away from him he probably was too involved in his phone to really listen.

Mr Kraus testified and apparently still believes, despite our testimony, that proving someone’s immigration status is as easy as showing a utility bill to prove you physically live in the district. He claims that this won’t cost anyone any additional money to put into action and won’t take any resources and it is as simple as plopping down a utility bill.

Apparently all of us immigration lawyers, specialized immigration courts with judges who do nothing but hear these cases and trial attorneys who do nothing but these cases, the members of the Board of Immigration Appeals, all the Federal Appellate Judges across the country, the Supreme Court, all the USCIS agents and adjudicators, the service center workers, the CPB agents and ICE agents the Consular Officers all over the world, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Attorneys who work for the Justice Department working on Federal Appeals are totally missing something easy because we all spend an extraordinary amount of time and money trying to determine the immigrate status of people all over the world and within the United States and according to Will Kraus it is “a simple answer to a simple question.” We are all obviously wasting our time and everyone’s money and clearly are not as clever nor know nearly as much about our system as this state rep who has a bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration and a Minor in Military Science from Central Missouri State University.

Let me propose several scenarios and lets lay legal or not legal, since it is so black and white.

6. Jeff is from England and is here with his family on the VWP, they decide to enroll the kids in school because Jeff is looking for a job. What document will be necessary for a child or their parents from a VWP country? Legal or Not Legal?

11. Jack is here on an H2B and his kids and wife have the derivative visas. The visas are good for a year but Jack gets fired. Kids, Legal or not? What would prove it?

These are not even examples I had to make up but are actually clients of mine or my colleagues. As you can see non of these situations have an easy answer and all of them are open to interpretation as to “legal” or “Not legal” and there are many situations where the person is “not legal” but authorized to stay here. There is not a one size fits all answer. As much as Will wishes there were there just isn’t. This supposed formula also does not take into account how much the immigrant family is contributing to the local school system through taxes, person, property, income and sales. Yes undocumented people pay taxes. If Will truly wants some sort of meaningful number this is an extremely cumbersome and complicated process of presenting documents, determining status, monitoring things like expiration dates of visa, removal court dates, application statuses and ever changing immigration policy and procedures. We are talking an army of administrative staff, lawyers and actuaries to figure out the real number of even what Will Kraus would call “illegal.” Also to truly make this number meaningful you would have to assign different values to situations where there is one legal parent and one not, where the kids are legal but the parents are not and where someone changes status after the initial documents are submitted. Finally after this number is determined, to be truly accurate you would really need to take that per kid cost and subtract the amount contributed by the parents in taxes.

To do what Will Kraus is proposing, to truly do it and get a number that is in the same time zone as meaningful this is what would have to happen. Anything less than that…well they law might as well say, just count up the Foreigners and their parents and divide by the per child cost of each district, legal or no it doesn’t really matter. If that is what he wants, then he really should stop trying to hide behind some lofty excuse of trying to prove to the Federal Congress that they need to do something about immigration because what he is proposing is at best an ill-conceived ridiculous waste of money and resources on our already over taxed public education system thrown together by someone who clearly has no understanding of either immigration, taxes, spending or education and at worst it is exactly what it was in Alabama, a thinly veiled scare tactic to force immigrants, legal or otherwise, out of Missouri…deportation by attrition.

So do me a favor, Mr. Kraus and your supporters, if you are going to blatantly ignore the obvious problems, costs, confusion, resources and impossibility of what you are asking for after being presented with the facts, and you are going to refuse to change your opinion after you find out your original assumptions are not correct, don’t be so intellectually dishonest to continue to claim that you just don’t understand what the problem is or that this is going to save money or come up with a real or meaningful number. Say what your true intention and sentiment is behind this law: To scare immigrants out of Missouri. Deportation by attrition and screw the costs both financially and socially.

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SB473 – Requires the Attorney General to sue the federal government to enforce federal immigration laws

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Constitution, Federal Power, Immigration, Inspirational Thoughts, List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Other Appalling State Legislation, Politicians making things worse, Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, State's Rights, Supremacy Clause, Wasting Money .

SB473 – Requires the Attorney General to sue the federal government to enforce federal immigration laws.

More bad immigration Laws proposed by Kraus…He apparently wants to waste tax payor money being sued about laws that are already being litigated in other places…

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Hearing in Jefferson City against SB590 brings out activists from all over Missouri

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, Wasting Money .

I was so proud to have been a part of the group of activists today who gave up their days and traveled to Jefferson City and crammed themselves in the small, hot hearing room 1 and waited patiently for their turns to testify. The hearing started with Sen. Kraus giving his reasons for proposing this bill and saying that it was basically just a document check and would definitely not over burden the schools, because, hey he already has to provide an electricity bill to prove he is living in the school district, so this is just one more quick look at a document in that same vein. (Wow what a ridiculous over simplification of determining one’s immigration status). He also says that he thinks that requiring schools to then determine how educating these non-citizens (not even bothering to differentiate between non-citizens who are legally present and undocumented non-citizens) or the children of non-citizens (not bothering to mention the kids could be US Citizens while the parents are not) impacts the quality of education for all the tax payers. Wow. It was hard to contain myself. While I am not surprised when people on Facebook make comments like “illegals don’t pay taxes” it is hard for me to believe that a Senator would actually not only think that but base a whole bill around that. (Property tax, sales tax and income tax are all paid by undocumented people) Mr. Kraus goes on to explain that this proposal is only to get hard numbers together to show to the Federal Government to illustrate the problems their inaction is having. As if this is going to produce a magic number that will spur Congress into action. Then he moves on to the 2nd part of the bill that mandates that local law enforcement determine the immigration status by running an “immigration check” (This does not exist) whenever they have reasonable suspicion that someone is illegal (i.e. brown and speaks with an accent). One of Mr. Kraus’ cohorts pipe’s in with a question wanting him to clarify that this “reasonable suspicion” standard is not to be used to make the stop, but only after the person is stopped for some other reason (like the magical forcefield that causes the license plate lights to malfunction on all cars driven by Hispanics as soon as they enter the Lee’s Summit city limits). Mr. Kraus quickly confirmed that the person could not be stopped simply because they were D.W.B (driving while brown) but the officer could become reasonably suspicious after a traffic stop for other reasons ( see the magical forcefield) because the person was acting all illegal and undocumented.

I would like to personally thank Sen. Kiki Curls for jumping to the defense of potential victims of this law. She made excellent, passionate arguments against any law that racially profiles as this one clearly does, even pointing out that people who looked like Mr. Kraus would never be asked their immigration status, and arguing that any law that so burdens local law enforcement and local schools and that targets and alienates children is never good for our communities. She was marvelous and I am so glad that she spoke up and is on that committee. Thank you Ms. Curls!!

After this into one lone tea partier from St. Louis spoke about outdated terms regarding “INS” which does not exist anymore and hasn’t for years and the inability of local law enforcement to contact ICE officers for weeks. He obviously has not been a cop for a while because ICE officers are anything but inaccessible anymore. His comments were followed by testimony in opposition to the bill by over 15 people. They finally had to end the meeting because they ran out of time. At least 40 more people were present that did not get to testify but who were also in opposition. Individuals and organizations from around the state came together on pretty short notice and made a great showing. ACLU of Eastern Missouri, Immigration Attorneys Angela Ferguson, Stephen Blower, Vanessa Crawford of MIRA, Whitney Buchmann from CCO in Kansas City, Lynda Callon from the Westside CAN Center in Kansas City, community activist Florintino Camacho, Alaide Vilchis who sent in written testimony, 2 very brave DREAMers Roberto and Ricardo, who testified about making the country they love better even though they are, themselves undocumented, Laura Alvarez on behalf of SEIU Local 1 Missouri Division, and a very many others especially you folks from St. Louis who’s names I do not have, it was an amazing turn out and effort. Will it do any good? Maybe. Maybe not, but our voices are on the record. There was no vote today so please bombard the committee members with emails and phone calls discussing your opposition. Tell personal stories, use facts, talk about why it will hurt local communities and school. I think Dr. King might have been proud today. This fight is far from over. And woe unto us if the Supremes decide in favor of Arizona and let their law stand.

If I have forgotten your name or your organization’s name, please email me your info so I can post it.

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Missouri Senates Dishonors Dr. King’s memory by discussing SB590 at all much less the day after remembering his message of tolerance and equality.

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Immigration, Immigration Discrimination, Immigration Myths, List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Politicians making things worse, Rep. Jerry Nolte (MO State Rep-R), Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, Wasting Money .

What a disgraceful way to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr than to even be discussing such a hate-filled marginalizing bill directed toward children the day after spending the day remembering what Dr. King stood for, non-violence, inclusion, diversity, tolerance and equality. Using children as a pawn in what has become a political war against “illegal immigration” is despicable and disheartening. What legislation like this does is devalues people, disrupts families and creates a rift between “us” and “them” that is getting harder and harder to bridge. It is also exactly what Federal Politicians want. Why should they push for reform when they can sit back, risk nothing and watch while every one else has to bare the burden of their impotence and cowardice to act. Why should they have to do any real work when they can push their responsibilities off on the states who can push their responsibilities off on local communities, local law enforcement, local businesses and now local teachers, principals, schools and even children. People like Will Kraus, Kobach, Nolte, Nieves and the like do not care that they are ruining families, communities, forcing kids out of schools. They can put they are “tough on illegal immigration” and feel all self righteous in their efforts to combat this problem when the federal government won’t. The problem is that now they are picking on children. They want schools to report on the costs and effects having undocumented children in our classrooms has on education, but who is going to report on the societal costs of alienating children, degrading their self esteem and possibly scaring them away from attending school at all. No one, and truly the do not care. Do not let them lie to you they do not care about Missouri Children, our communities or you as a tax payer or voter. If they propose and support short sighted legislation like this, meant to use children as a batting ram in their zeal to push their own agendas they will turn on you and your cause next.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.- THomas Jefferson

I will be honoring Dr. King tomorrow as I travel to Jefferson City to speak out against this hateful bill. If you would like to join me please mail me for more information. It is at 3 pm. If you cannot consider emailing the reps not he General Laws committees and your own state rep to voice your dissent.

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HEARING SCHEDULED FOR SB590 Jan 17, 2012 at 3 pm. Contact me if you want to attend or send written testimony.

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Kris Kobach (KS Secretary of State), List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Office News, Rep. Jerry Nolte (MO State Rep-R), Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, Wasting Money .

Ok the heinous bill proposed by Will Kraus that would require schools to check immigration status among other things is coming up for hearing very soon. The hearing has been scheduled for SB 590, the Alabama copy-cat bill that would force schools to report the immigration status of their students and parents, require police to check for papers at all stops, and require the arrest of individuals “suspected” of being undocumented. This legislation has been a disaster in states where it has already passed, and we cannot allow it to become law in Missouri.

The hearing is scheduled for 3pm on Tuesday, January 17 in the Senate General Laws Committee. It is very important that we have as many people as possible testify against this bill. If you or someone from your organization can be in Jefferson City to testify, please let me know ASAP. We will help prepare you before hand, and if necessary, we may be able to line up some car pools. If you cannot make it, please consider sending written testimony that we may turn in on your behalf. You can email me directly your comments if you cannot appear personally. Please include your name and address and if you are speaking on behalf of an organization please include the name and address of the organization and your position, if any. i am planning on appearing to testify against this live. Also let me know if you are interested in appearing live, even if you do not want to testify, a full hearing room with people who are against the bill is important too.

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Missouri Sen. Will Kraus submits a disgraceful, child hating, family and community destroying Alabama type bill.

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Angie Williams Posted in Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Immigration, Immigration Myths, Kris Kobach (KS Secretary of State), List of Shame, Missouri Senate, Politicians making things worse, Rep. Jerry Nolte (MO State Rep-R), Sen. Brian Nieve (MO State Senate-R), Sen. Will Kraus (MO State-R), State Based Immigration Laws, Wasting Money .

The Newest Appalling Senate Bill from Missouri

This is the newest version of idiocy out of the Missouri Senate. “all public elementary and secondary schools shall determine if students are born outside the United States or are the children of an unlawfully present alien at the time of enrollment by checking the original birth certificate or certified copy thereof. If it is determined that te child is born outside of the u tied states or is the child of an unlawfully present alien the United States the parents shall notify the school of the actual citizenship or immigration status of the child with documentation.

This gem was introduced by Senator Will Kraus From Eastern Jackson County. I am outraged to see that he has apparently won the “A Better Missouri for Children Award” from the Missouri PTA. Apparently he only wants a better Missouri for English speaking children with 100% legal family members, those from mixed immigration status families or who don’t speak English are out of luck. The Missouri PTA (Here is a link to their email, send them a note telling them so) should revoke this award from someone who clearly cares noting about Missouri’s children.

This legislation is financially irresponsible seeing as though all similar legislation has been blocked by a variety of circuit judges across the country, and the Arizona bill, which doesn’t even go as far as targeting children, is suppose to be heard by the Supremes this term. It is also going to devastate the Missouri economy just like it has in Alabama and Georgia.

It is also inhumane, unchristian (if you believe in that), uncharitable and down right mean. It is exactly these types of toxic, hateful megalomaniacs that make politics so rancid. People like Will Kraus, Brian Nieves, Jerry Nolte, Kris Kobach, who would propose such a bill that is meant to destroy families and communities and vilify and marginalize children deserve a special place in hell. I can hardly see how they manage to look themselves in the mirror every morning knowing they are spending their lives destroying and tearing down rather than building up and healing. They are a disgrace to public servants, to Missouri and to whatever religion they likely self righteously claim to be.

Anyone who is a teacher or a parent or knows a child should be appalled and outraged. Below is the text of the bill and if you are not in the bathroom vomiting by the end see below for additional comments on other aspects that are disgraceful, unconstitutional, inhumane and poorly written.

“SB 590 – All public elementary and secondary schools shall determine whether enrolling students are born outside of the United States or are children of an unlawfully present alien at the time of enrollment by checking students’ original birth certificates or certified copies thereof. If it is determined that a student was born outside of the United States or is the child of an unlawfully present alien, the parent or guardian shall notify the school of the actual citizenship or immigration status of the child with accompanying documentation.

The State Board of Education shall compile and submit an annual report to the General Assembly containing information regarding immigration classifications of enrolled students, numbers of participants in English as a second language programs, and the effects of education quality as a result of enrollment of unlawfully present aliens and the costs associated. Public disclosure of information which personally identifies a student shall be unlawful.

Upon any lawful stop, detention, or arrest, law enforcement shall determine the citizenship and immigration status of the person if there is reasonable suspicion that the person is an unlawfully present alien. If an alien is determined by the federal government to be unlawfully present, the law enforcement agency shall cooperate in the transfer of the alien into federal custody.

The act creates a Class C misdemeanor crime of willful failure to complete or carry an alien registration document if the person is unlawfully present and in violation of 8 U.S.C. 1304 or 8 U.S.C. 1306 which requires certain persons to carry alien registration documents, apply for alien registration, and be fingerprinted.

CHRIS HOGERTY”

Ok now that you are done reading this heinous excuse for a law, here are some technical things that I see wrong with this.

The First Paragraph: Other than to strike fear in the hearts of parents, humiliate children and break the bonds of trust that exist between the school and the families they serve, this section serves no purpose. It does not even pro port to do anything. Just that the schools will now have to pry into the lives of the families. It doesn’t say what they are to do with this information just that they have to ask for it. The only point is to terrorize. This is designed to scare undocumented parents out of the district. It is designed to tell the children of these folks that they are less important and not worth educating. The school in a local school district is sometimes the only trusted place some people have to go. Number one, only an immigration judge can determine if someone is an “unlawfully present alien.” Period. Not the cops, not an ICE agent, Not a teacher or a principal. When someone is put into removal proceedings they are issued a “notice to Appear” that has allegations on it (it is alleged that (Insert person here) is: 1. Not a native or citizen of the United States, 2. Is a Native and Citizen of Mexico 3. Entered the country at an unknown time in an unknown place without being inspected or authorized to do so.) The hearing is meant to prove whether the allegations are true or false. Until an immigration judge has made that finding that those allegations are true a person’s status is not determined.

The Second Paragraph: The School Board now will have to report the immigration status of their students, the number of kids participating in ESL and apparently make assessments on how educating undocumented children degrades the quality of education. This paragraph is also confusing (aside from its awkward wording and grammar) because I cannot tell if Kraus is implying that having ESL kids degrades the education of other students, or if simply having an undocumented child listening to a lesson downgrades the educational experience for everyone. It is also written in a way that suggest that having these undocumented children in the class can only negatively impact the “education quality.” It assumes that these children hurt the educational experience of other children. What a great way to educate children, lets make them feel inferior (the undocumented children) or superior and resentful (the non undocumented children having their school experience “ruined”). Lets set up cliques by law. Brilliant.

The Third Paragraph: This same language has been found problematic time and again in other state immigration laws. The police must determine the immigrate status (see above as to how this is impossible) of anyone who they lawfully stop, detain or arrest when they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe the person is an “unlawfully present alien.” Despite all the righteous indignation of Kris Kobach that “reasonable suspicion” means something other than “brown and speaks with an accent” let’s not be dense. Reasonable suspicion means exactly that: brown, accent speech/non english speaking. I can assure you no one will ever have reasonable suspicion that I am an “unlawfully present alien” ever. No cop will ever ask me to prove I am here legally because I am white. (I could be Canadian, or from one of the many countries in Western Europe and be just as “unlawfully present” but I will never be asked.)

Finally, The last paragraph: It is entirely unclear what this paragraph even says. It appears to make it a class C misdemeanor for someone who is unlawfully present and in violation of 8 USC 1304 or 8 USC 1306. 1304 says you have to register and be fingerprinted and keep your address current by complying with the forms that USCIS has set up to do so, i.e. applying for either an immigrant visa or a non-immigrant visa. 1306 is the penalty section for these sections. So I really don’t think you can be in violation of a section that just proscribes penalties and I think the intent of 1304 is to make sure that people renew their visas and residents cards and always carry them. So if you are unlawfully present and don’t have your visa and/or resident card then you are guilty of a C misdemeanor? And if you are legal and don’t have this documentation and are suppose to (technically this is a crime in the federal law but according to tracker only 11 people were even charged with this in 2011 and only 2 convicted,) you are not guilty of this crime?

This mish-mash of bad grammar, poor sentence construction, ambiguous ideas and improperly used terminology is yet another reasons why state legislature should not be anywhere near immigration laws.

I beg you. Please call or email your state senator and rep and tell them this is disgraceful and will harm Missouri just like it has harmed Alabama and Georgia. Please express your outrage for these children, legal or no, born to documented or undocumented parents. Children should not be a battering ram in this fight. Shame on you Will Kraus, winner of “A Better Missouri for Children” award. You are a disgrace.

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