Bounty Hunter Bill Targeting Illegal Immigrants Proposed in Missouri

Immigrants walk along the highway through Arriaga in Chiapas state, Southern Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2024. Edgar H. Clemente/AP Photo

A Missouri bill would create a program through which residents would receive $1,000 for reporting illegal immigrants who are arrested by trained bounty hunters or law enforcement.

Senate Bill 72, pre-filed by Senator-elect David Gregory on Dec. 1, is one state measure that would attempt to combat illegal immigration, an issue that helped propel President-elect Donald Trump to a second presidential term.

During the Biden administration, some 11 million people entered the country illegally, most through the United States’ border with Mexico.

The bill would allow trained bail bond agents to be certified to pursue those who cross the border illegally.

If the bill is enacted, illegal immigrants arrested would face felony charges and be detained “without eligibility for probation or parole.” The Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS) would develop an information system for people to report unlawful immigrants through a toll-free number, email, and online reporting portal.

“Any person who makes a report in which an illegal alien is arrested shall receive a reward of $1,000,” according to the bill.

The state DPS would also create a “Missouri Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program,” which would certify applicants as bounty hunters for finding and detaining illegal immigrants in the state.

Licensed bail bond agents, general bail bond agents, or surety recovery agents may apply to join the program.

In addition to establishing a bounty program, the bill would ban illegal immigrants from voting, obtaining driver’s licenses, receiving public benefits, or establishing legal residency in the state.

Echoing Trump’s border security agenda, Gregory campaigned on a “deportation plan,“ advocating a trespassing law allowing for the capture and incarceration of illegal immigrants until the federal government could deport them or the state parole board could vet them.

The bill attracted detractors and supporters.

Selene Rodriguez, a border and immigration policy researcher for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, told The Epoch Times that it’s encouraging to see states wanting to work with the federal government to curtail illegal immigration.

“It’s already against federal law to illegally enter the country and remain here unauthorized. Every state should maintain that law,” she said.

On social media platform X, Progressive Missouri posted that Gregory’s priorities were wrong for Missouri, saying that he should focus on funding local schools and that the bill is encouraging Missourians to “rat on their neighbors.”

Incoming United States border czar Tom Homan has said he plans to start a mass deportation operation to address illegal immigration during Trump’s second term.

Homan said illegal immigrants who have committed crimes since entering the United States and those with existing deportation orders should be deported first.

Other ideas floated by Homan and Trump include rolling back border policies from the Biden administration, issuing a national emergency declaration and using the military to assist in deportations, reinstating executive orders from Trump’s first term, activating the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, and defunding nongovernmental organizations supporting illegal immigration.

Several states, including Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, have passed laws that would give local and state law enforcement the power to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, but these laws remain tied up in court.

Arizona passed a similar ballot measure in November, but it would go into effect only once a similar state law, such as Texas’s Senate Bill 4, goes into effect in a different state for 60 consecutive days.

Texas’s SB 4 became law in March, but it remains in limbo after the U.S. Department of Justice and civil rights groups sued.

Gregory did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times.