A proposed bounty hunter program in Missouri would pay residents $1,000 per person to catch illegal immigrants in the state, according to reports.
Senate Bill 72, which was pre-filed in the Missouri Legislature this week, calls for creating a system where violations can be reported through a telephone hotline, email and online reporting portal, according to a summary of the bill.
“Any person who makes a report in which an illegal alien is arrested shall receive a reward of $1,000,” according to the bill, sponsored by state Republican Sen.-elect David Gregory. Gregory made border issues a central part of his campaign, St. Louis’ Fox 2 Now reported.
If approved, the bill would also create a “Missouri Illegal Alien Certified Bounty Hunter Program,” which would certify applicants to be bounty hunters “for the purpose of finding and detaining illegal aliens in this state,” the bill summary says.
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The proposed law, which would take effect in August, raised a few eyebrows, with some like St. Louis-based civil rights attorney Javad Khazaeli questioning how such a program would even work.
“I don’t know how you do something like this without just stopping every brown person and demanding to see their ‘papers,'” Khazaeli told Fox 2 Now. He added to the outlet that the bill was “un-American” and would likely result in “costly litigation” for the state.
“For someone like me who’s a civil rights attorney, this is going to be a boon,” he told the outlet. “You’re going to have a Puerto Rican walking down the street, gets tackled, and people are going to be like, ‘We caught one’, and they don’t know Puerto Ricans are Americans.”
