51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� Missouri is poised to become one of the first states to require police departments to track the immigration status of people involved in crimes.

The move, announced by Gov. Mike Kehoe as one of his first executive orders, is set to begin in coming days, state officials said.

Police officers, sheriff deputies and other law enforcement officials already often learn if people involved in crimes are in the country legally. Kehoe鈥檚 order will require them to submit that information to the state鈥檚 database of uniform crime reports.

鈥淐rime, illegal immigration, and drugs 鈥� these are the things that threaten the success of Missourians,鈥� Kehoe said in his State of the State address, about two weeks after he signed the orders.

The change comes against a backdrop of rising political rhetoric as President Donald J. Trump seeks to deport thousands of immigrants in the country illegally, and Missouri officials move bills and call hearings on finding and removing undocumented immigrants.

None of the state鈥檚 biggest local police departments 鈥� 51黑料, 51黑料 County, and Kansas City 鈥� currently track immigration status, spokespersons at each confirmed.

鈥淲e will need the State to provide us what needs to be collected and in what format before we can make any change,鈥� 51黑料 County police Sgt. Tracy Panus said in an email after Kehoe鈥檚 announcement.

51黑料 police chief Robert Tracy likewise said he didn鈥檛 know details of the order. 鈥淏ut if there鈥檚 something that I鈥檓 mandated to do by law, I do have to follow the law,鈥� Tracy told the Post-Dispatch.

Experts and officials say the impact is unclear.

On one hand, collecting such immigration data could help researchers better understand crime in the U.S.

But undocumented immigrants make up a tiny portion of the total population of Missouri, estimates show, and several studies have found they are less likely to be arrested for committing violent crimes than U.S. citizens.

Some worry such a move will increase tensions between residents and immigrants and, at the same time, dissuade immigrants from coming to police.

鈥淲e want people to report crimes,鈥� Tracy said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want them to be afraid to report crimes. We can鈥檛 help protect them if we don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going on.鈥�

The state wouldn鈥檛 say when it expects authorities to begin collecting the data, whether participation will be mandatory, or even whose immigration status it wants collected 鈥� will they gather victims鈥� as well as offenders鈥�?

Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O鈥機onnell said the department was 鈥渃urrently in discussions and positioned to proceed.鈥�

鈥淭he executive orders associated with the Safer Missouri plan will be implemented over the coming days, weeks and months,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd in coordination with federal-level procedures, where applicable.鈥�

Immigration in Missouri

Nationwide, the population of undocumented immigrants increased markedly in 2022 after remaining at or near zero growth from 2010 to 2021, according to a by demographer Robert Warren of the Center for Migration Studies of New York.

According to Warren鈥檚 estimates, the undocumented population grew 6% nationally, from 10.3鈥塵illion in 2021 to 10.9鈥塵illion that year, fueled by immigration from Mexico, Central America, South America 鈥� particularly Venezuela 鈥� and India.

鈥淭he population grew rapidly,鈥� Warren wrote.

Missouri followed the national trend, Warren said, though undocumented immigrants make up a much smaller share of the state鈥檚 total population, just under 1% in 2022, compared to 3% nationally.

Regardless, the issue has been front-and-center in Jefferson City.

Last summer, former state House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, created a new committee to develop 鈥渆vidence-based policies aimed at reducing illegal immigrant crime.鈥� Over two months, the committee held six 鈥渇ield meetings鈥� in cities around Missouri.

Plocher created the panel while he was in the midst of a race for statewide office. It highlighted an issue Trump鈥檚 campaign had focused on.

It also ruffled feathers: Some members of the panel said the idea of tying immigration to crime was a false narrative, and harmful. 鈥淥ur neighboring states recognize the significant contributions that the immigrant population makes to their communities,鈥� said Rep. Del Taylor, D-51黑料, who accused the committee of aiming to make 鈥渟ensational political headlines.鈥�

Plocher then lost his race for secretary of state in the August Republican primary.

Nevertheless, other lawmakers picked up the issue.

This year, several bills have been filed at the statehouse, aiming to force voters to prove their citizenship, fine sanctuary cities, create a statewide 鈥渋mproper entry鈥� charge, and even raise a bounty to report and detain undocumented immigrants.

Kehoe, too, had made crime and immigration a focal point of his campaign for governor.

On Jan. 13, just hours after his inauguration, Kehoe issued six emergency orders on crime and immigration. One pushed to send Missouri Highway Patrol troopers to .

directed the state鈥檚 Department of Public Safety and the Missouri Highway Patrol to 鈥渋nclude immigration status within the required fields of the state鈥檚 uniform crime reporting system and facilitate the collection of such information across the state.鈥�

States don鈥檛 track immigration

For decades, the FBI has tracked crime trends nationally through its , which collects voluntary submissions from police departments across the U.S. Many states, including Missouri, have passed in the program.

The National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, is the FBI鈥檚 latest format for recording the crime data. It provides standardized definitions of major offenses like murder or burglary and captures greater detail on incidents, victims and offenders than earlier formats.

More than 16,000 of 22,000 local law enforcement agencies around the country submitted crime data to NIBRS in 2023. Collectively those departments covered more than 80% of the U.S. population.

Dozens of federal agencies also participate, including the FBI itself, the State Department, the Army and dozens of inspector general offices.

But one facet NIBRS doesn鈥檛 record is citizenship or immigration status, officials said. And, so far, the FBI has not considered changing that.

FBI spokesperson Nicole Porter Stewart said the advisory panel responsible for uniform crime reporting has 鈥渘ever proposed, considered, studied, or rejected the addition of immigration/citizenship data elements to NIBRS.鈥�

But many states, including Missouri, capture additional state-specific data elements, often because of unique statutory requirements.

Because neither the FBI nor the Department of Justice keep track of these state-specific elements, the Post-Dispatch surveyed state public safety personnel and records management vendors nationwide. The newspaper found that more than half of U.S. states collect extra data elements beyond those required by NIBRS.

Missouri, for example, adds the geographic coordinates to locate where an incident took place; Iowa adds many farm-specific variables to use with property crimes; and Washington adds 鈥渦nknown鈥� as a choice for sex.

Out of the 36 states that had responded to the newspaper by Wednesday, only one 鈥� Oregon 鈥� said it had added fields for recording citizenship data.

But Oregon鈥檚 citizenship fields aren鈥檛 mandatory, and only about half of the state鈥檚 police departments report crime using Oregon鈥檚 custom format.

Delivering on crime reduction?

Experts have debated whether information on immigration status should be collected and reported by local police in crime data.

鈥淪ome fear that it will help aid immigrant enforcement efforts,鈥� Michael T. Light, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an email.

But immigration checks are becoming routine, he noted, and leaving that information out of uniform crime reporting 鈥渟imply obscures our ability to examine the legal treatment of immigrants.鈥�

Instead, Light and other researchers who study crime and immigration have turned to alternative datasets from states like Texas and California, where information on citizenship and place of birth is captured at other points in the criminal justice process, such as during jail bookings or when providing consular services to detained persons.

from the libertarian Cato Institute found that undocumented immigrants in Texas were 26% less likely than U.S.-born citizens to be convicted of homicide, while legal immigrants were 61% less likely.

In another, a published by the Department of Justice, Light and his coauthors examined arrest data from 2012 through 2018 from the Texas Department of Public Safety. They found that U.S.-born citizens were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than undocumented immigrants. They also found no evidence that the criminality of these immigrants had increased in recent years.

鈥淥ur findings help us understand why the most aggressive immigrant removal programs have not delivered on their crime reduction promises and are unlikely to do so in the future,鈥� they said.

Kurt Erickson and Dana Rieck of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.