Kansas human trafficking law ‘causing a lot of fear’ in migrants. Can you blame them? | Opinion
The good news is that when a new human trafficking law goes into effect next month in Kansas, you probably shouldn’t be put in jail for giving an undocumented migrant a ride to the doctor’s office.
But that hasn’t stopped rumors from spreading on social media. Sarah Balderas, a Wichita immigration attorney, is working hard to quash them.
“When the law passed … I really didn’t think anything of it,” she told me this week. Human trafficking “is not really anything we’re involved in.”
Then her office started getting calls from folks worried they were about to get in trouble.
“It’s causing a lot of fear,” Balderas said.
Let’s explain the new human trafficking law real quickly. Starting July 1, you can be charged with human smuggling if you meet three criteria:
You intentionally transport, harbor or conceal a person you know is in the United States illegally.
You receive anything in exchange of value to do so.
And you know — or should know — that the smuggled person is being exploited for someone else’s financial gain.
Balderas said her understanding of the law is that an individual could be charged only if they meet all three criteria. “The law is threefold,” she said. “It’s not that you hit one point. You have to hit every single element to be convicted of it.” That should mean the law doesn’t target people “living their everyday lives”
Convictions are one thing. Arrests are another. And, Balderas acknowledged, the new law has raised fresh fears in the migrant community about racial profiling by police. Wichita Police Chief Joe Sullivan and Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter held a press conference Tuesday to try to allay those fears, saying their departments won’t be targeting individuals merely for their immigration status — officers will have to have a reasonable belief a crime really is being committed.
Their statements probably weren’t 100% comforting, however.
“Is there some broad context of this bill that could be confusing? Yes, there is,” Easter said. But, he added, “the fact of the matter is we have to prove elements of a crime.”
Balderas blamed social media for spreading fear about the new smuggling law. “A lot of people are getting half the story,” she said.
Those fears didn’t come from nowhere, though. They’re shared by Gov. Laura Kelly.
Kelly actually vetoed the trafficking bill in April, only to see the Kansas Legislature override that veto just a few days later.
“You just have to look at the basic examples,” she said in her veto message. “If a good Samaritan gives his or her fellow Kansan a ride to work and receives gas money in exchange — or if a paramedic, while on duty, transports someone to the emergency room — they could be subject” to felony prosecution.
“That overcriminalization is unnecessary and shows that lawmakers haven’t considered the full impact of this bill,” she wrote.
The Legislature obviously disagreed.
You can’t blame people for worrying. Unless Congress gets its act together with some sensible reforms to the country’s immigration laws, the life of a migrant in the United States is going to keep feeling precarious and under legal threat at every single moment. It probably doesn’t help that Kansas politicians are among those who like to rail against so-called “open borders” that really aren’t, even as big businesses back home rely on migrant labor.
And not for nothing: Kansas’ top law enforcement official — Attorney General Kris Kobach — built his career on trying to make life more difficult for undocumented migrants in America. He mostly failed. He hasn’t given any signal, as far as I know, that he plans to use the new law for pernicious purposes. (Kobach did give some cursory testimony in favor of the bill back in March.) Still: Would you feel comfortable?
Balderas, at least, is trying to allay fears.
“I think the biggest thing is everybody needs to calm down,” she said. Until the day comes that immigration is no longer a hot-button issue in America, though, that is probably a tall order.
