Harsher Punishments for Crimes by Undocumented Immigrants Will Be Reheard in Arkansas Committee

SB 426 would also deputize local law enforcement to work with ICE in a program encouraged by federal Republicans

by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate

An Arkansas Senate committee approved a bill Monday morning that would impose harsher penalties on undocumented migrants who commit “serious felony” crimes “involving violence” in the state.

But Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, primary sponsor of Senate Bill 426, or the Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act, will be considered a second time by the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Cave Springs Republican amended it later on Monday to change the schedule of penalties outlined in the bill.

Under the version of SB 426 that passed committee Monday, undocumented migrants with initial charges of Class Y felonies — the most serious — would have faced two to 10 extra years of prison time. Felony charges under the lower four classes would have been upgraded one class. Some felonies also are unclassified.

The amended bill would create the following penalties for people “illegally or unlawfully in the United States” at the time of an offense:

• A person convicted of a Class D felony, or an unclassified felony with no more than six years of prison time, would get up to four years added to the sentence
• A person convicted of a Class A, B or C felony, or an unclassified felony with a prison sentence between six and 30 years, would get up to 10 years added to the sentence
• A person convicted of a Class Y felony, or an unclassified felony with a prison sentence of longer than 30 years or life, would get up to 20 years added to the sentence.

SB 426 includes a list of violent felonies that would precipitate enhanced penalties, including first-degree and second-degree murder, rape, arson, terroristic acts and threatening, first-degree battery and aggravated assault, among other things.

The bill would also mandate that Arkansas law enforcement agencies participate in a federal program that deputizes them to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the apprehension and deportation of undocumented migrants held in local jails and state prisons.

The 287(g) program, specifically the Warrant Service Officer Program, authorizes participating agencies to serve administrative warrants under federal immigration law.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas opposes the bill because it “would divert local resources from public safety to federal law enforcement” and “prevents cities and counties from determining what is best” for their residents, policy director Sarah Everett told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“We don’t feel that bills like this really do anything to help public safety,” said Everett, one of two people to speak against the bill. “I don’t think most people are doing a whole lot of math when they’re thinking about committing a crime. What we really need to be focusing on is preventing crime in the first place.”

‘All these gangs’

The sheriff’s offices in Craighead and Benton counties already have 287(g) cooperation agreements, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements webpage. U.S. House Republicans have been vocally supportive of the program.

Local law enforcement officers would not be required to participate in the program until after they have someone arrested and in custody, Hester said in response to questions from the committee.

“We do not want to make this a place where violent criminals come,” Hester said. “We do not want to be a place where we’re seeing all these gangs start to move to.”

President Donald Trump’s administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court last week to allow the deportations of Venezuelans accused of gang ties to continue. Cracking down on illegal immigration, including with “mass deportations,” was a primary talking point of Trump’s reelection campaign last year.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was Trump’s press secretary during part of his first term, held a press conference earlier this month expressing support for the Defense Against Criminal Illegals Act, which she previously named as a policy priority during her State of the State address.

The bill would also expand the state’s ban on sanctuary cities, which signify a lack of cooperation with federal immigration authorities, and prohibit all local governments from adopting such policies, even in unincorporated areas. The state would withhold discretionary grants or other funds from any “local government that adopts or enacts a sanctuary policy” until the policy is repealed.

Similarly, Trump signed an executive order Jan. 20, his first day back in the White House, saying the federal government must withhold funds from sanctuary jurisdictions.

Sanctuary policies are largely symbolic and do not enable local officials to prevent ICE arrests, Stateline reported in February.

The Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 426 with no audible dissent. The committee’s sole Democrat, Sen. Clarke Tucker of Little Rock, was absent during the discussion and vote.

Taxpayer money and due process

Increasing the length of criminals’ incarceration does not prevent crime, Everett said, and she questioned how much SB 426 would cost taxpayers since incarceration itself costs money.

The Senate is set to vote Tuesday on a $750 million appropriation to begin construction of a new 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County that has generated frustration from lawmakers and Arkansans. The Sanders administration has said the prison is needed to address overcrowding in county jails.

Everett said SB 426 will have “unintended consequences.” Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, said “not controlling the border” between the U.S. and Mexico also has “unintended consequences.”

No members of the public spoke for the bill. Besides Everett, the other opponent of SB 426 was criminal defense attorney Jeff Rosenzweig, who said the bill lacks a strong enough definition of what makes an immigrant “illegal.”

The Trump administration has recently been canceling the visas and green cards of legal immigrants, Rosenzweig noted, and he said SB 426 could be improved by requiring authorities to provide notice to individuals whose legal status was revoked.

“You can be lawful one day and unlawful the next, depending on what some ICE agent or some Cabinet official or someone in between said,” Rosenzweig said.

He also noted that everyone on U.S. soil, not just U.S. citizens, is subject to due process and a jury trial if they face criminal charges.

Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, said he disagreed with Rosenzweig’s suggestion to add a notification requirement to SB 426.

“It’s their job [as immigrants] to know whether they’re here legally or not,” Johnson said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday.