In Missouri, defaming immigrants is an elected official’s privilege and duty

Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is seeking a full term in office after being appointed by Gov. Mike Parson, speaks on Feb. 29, 2024, at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).

Immigrant baiting is now official business for Missouri officeholders.

That’s the message from Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who says his office will represent three state senators who are being sued for defamation over social media posts they filed after the Feb. 14 shooting in Kansas City at a rally to celebrate the Chiefs Super Bowl win.

As a motion that Bailey’s office filed on behalf of one of the senators explains, Missouri lawmakers “should not be inhibited by judicial interference or distorted by the fear of personal liability when they publicly speak on issues of national importance.”

The issue of national importance the attorney general is talking about is the false message that immigrants, especially those who did not enter the U.S. legally, are dangerous people whom law-abiding Americans should fear.

Sens. Rick Brattin, Denny Hoskins and Nick Schroer chose to highlight that fallacy by joining in a right-wing fit of hysteria when images of a man temporarily detained at the scene of the Super Bowl parade shooting circulated in the media.

The murky depths of the internet, for reasons that are bizarre and not easily explained, decided the man was definitely an undocumented immigrant, possibly a notorious one, and undoubtedly responsible for the gunfire that erupted in a crowd of revelers, killing one person and injuring two dozen more

He is, in reality, a U.S. citizen and father of three from Kansas and a Chiefs fan who’d been slow to leave the scene when the mayhem started.

Sens. Brattin, Hoskins and Schroer didn’t wait for an official identification before they recirculated posts with the man’s image and the damning suggestions. 

The Chiefs fan sued, saying he was subjected to harassment and threats because of the public exposure, and the Missouri attorney general’s office took on three new clients.

Bailey’s decision to represent the three senators has been denounced by Republicans and Democrats alike. It is infuriating, I agree, to think about my tax dollars going to defend public officials who seem to have poorer impulse control than a class of preschoolers.

Just as bad, though, is the attorney general’s suggestion that defaming immigrants as a group is not only a lawmaker’s prerogative, but a responsibility.

This idea that newcomers to America are a threat to public safety has been roundly discredited in study after study. Immigrants, documented or otherwise, are less likely to commit crimes and wind up in jails than people born in the U.S. Having made their way here, they are mostly focused on making a living and fashioning a better life for their families.

But politicians like Bailey and the three senators have no use for research or realities. They need to invent a threat in order to promise people that they’re the ones who can keep us safe.

They aren’t the only ones.

A few weeks ago, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas kicked up a ruckus when he suggested in an interview with Bloomberg and later on social media that the Kansas City region, which needs workers, could make room for some of the migrants with work permits who have recently surged into New York, Denver and other cities.

In fact, Lucas disclosed, Kansas City is already making plans to welcome migrants and integrate them into the workforce.

I have spent some time pondering whether my mayor actually thought his revelations would be applauded, or whether he knew he was poking a bear and didn’t care. I called his office to ask, but his staff wasn’t eager to make him available.

No matter. I’m pretty sure he knew what he was stepping into. And sure enough, the bear roared. So many bears, so many roars.

“Good grief!”  Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft exclaimed on X. “The Mayor should be protecting the people of Kansas City, and instead is taking away protection to import lawlessness.”

Someone should tell Ashcroft that, with 182 homicides recorded last year, Kansas City is already quite lawless. And the problem isn’t caused by immigrants, but by U.S. citizens with easy access to firearms, thanks to Missouri’s loose gun laws.

The presiding commissioners of Clay and Platte counties in Kansas City’s Northland penned a joint statement calling on Lucas to withdraw his plans to welcome immigrants to Kansas City. 

“Forcing these reckless and likely illegal policies will only increase criminal activity and endanger Northland families,” said Jerry Nolte, a Republican from Clay County who is running for the Missouri Senate. 

Nothing about creating opportunities for people with legal work permits is illegal. And Nolte must have a short memory.

A little more than a year ago, he was lamenting the “tragic situation” after a high school student named Ralph Yarl knocked on the wrong door and was shot in the head. Yarl is the son of immigrants from Liberia and the 84-year-old man who shot him said he was “scared to death” of the teenager standing on his doorstep. 

Undoubtedly so. He was scared to death because right-wing media outlets and politicians like Nolte repeat the lie ad nauseam that he needs to be afraid of people who don’t look like him or talk like him. 

Their lies and distortions make Missouri a more hostile and unsafe state. But not to worry. Should any of these officeholders cross a legal line and damage an innocent person, Attorney General Bailey will have their back.

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