News & Commentary

The U.S. Department of Justice and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach's office intend to end in-state tuition benefits for undocumented immigrants.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas blasted the joint move by the Trump administration and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. “Kobach is so determined to collude with the Trump-Vance administration that he will misuse our courts to attack the laws of the very state he serves,” Micah Kubic, executive director of ACLU Kansas, said in a statement Wednesday. “He does not, in fact, get to single-handedly decide who is a Kansan.”

If they do have an arrest warrant, ICE officers can enter the home of the person on the warrant if they think that person is in the home. But removal/deportation warrants don’t allow officers to enter the home without permission, according to the ACLU.

In four Midwestern states, immigrants routinely won habeas corpus cases in federal courts. But the legal landscape is changing.

“These new provisions break down the boundaries that exist between local and federal operations. They expose agencies in our state to federal civil rights litigation and it’s all for the goal of targeting immigrants in our community,” Logan DeMond, the director of policy and research for ACLU Kansas, said. “This is a direct attack on due process. There are serious constitutional concerns with this legislation. It’s not just an attack on immigrants. It is an attack on all of our rights.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas in 2017 analyzed the legal liability of local law enforcement when they operate under the 287(g) contracts for ICE. Because they are free to disregard detainers, those agreements have not been found in court decisions to be a defense for unlawful detention, the ACLU said, listing lawsuits. “Jailers cannot evade responsibility for unlawful detention by claiming the federal government required them to hold the person on an immigration detainer,” ACLU’s report said.

The Kansas ACLU said it is disappointed in the situation. “We are disappointed in the situation we are in but will likely wait to comment when we know more. I am a little concerned that it does not appear the City has developed any detailed language about how the task force / oversight board will operate and who will be on it, but clearly CoreCivic has not wasted any time starting operations,” the Kansas ACLU said in a statement sent to KCTV5.

By the time you read this, those swept up in ICE raids may already be filling some of the 1,000 beds at a troubled for-profit prison in Leavenworth now turned federal detention facility.

Logan DeMond with the Kansas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found fault with the legislation in several areas: “This bill disregards civil rights, disregards due process, disregards necessary checks on law enforcement, and the likelihood of error exposes the state to what will be costly litigation.”