Kansas Democrat Representative Carmichael calls out Attorney General's absence in commentary on human smuggling bill

Article/Politics - 3 minute read

A bill to create the crimes of human smuggling and aggravated human smuggling and providing penalties therefor in Kansas was voted on in the Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice on Tuesday, February 21, 2023.

The bill, HB 2350, defines human smuggling as “transporting, harboring or concealing an individual into or within Kansas who the person knows, or should have known, is entering into or remaining in the United States illegally”.

The bill further defines aggravated human smuggling as human smuggling that

“(A) Is committed using a deadly weapon;

(B) causes bodily harm, great bodily harm or disfigurement to the individual being smuggled; or

(C) causes the individual being smuggled to become a victim of a sex offense described in article 55 of chapter 21 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated, and amendments thereto”.

With Chair of the Committee Representative Stephen Owens (R) being “under the weather”, Vice Chair of the Committee Representative Eric Smith (R) filled in. During discussion, Representative Smith said he had an amendment to HB 2350 due to the bill being “broadly worded” and having “unintended consequences” for people they are not targeting such as church bus drivers, Uber drivers, and commercial transportation. After Representative Smith explained the amendment made, he opened the floor up to discussion.

Representative John Carmichael (D) commented, “I continue to be concerned about the absence of advice from our Attorney General on this point. I would think that the state’s chief law enforcement would be here to tell us more about this and the extent of the problem statewide and possible solutions to the problem. So, I’m disappointed that we have not heard from the Attorney General.”

We reached out to Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach via email late on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 to see if he would be willing to share where he was at during the voting of this bill. As of this publication, Kobach has not responded.

In a fiscal note for HB 2350 from February 15, 2023 by Director of the Budget Adam Proffitt to Chair person Owens, it states, “The Attorney General indicates enactment of the bill could add criminal cases to the workload of the agency in cases only involving smuggling and no other elements of human trafficking. However, a fiscal effect cannot be estimated. Any fiscal effect associated with HB 2350 is not reflected in The FY 2024 Governor’s Budget Report.”

The bill passed favorably in committee, which met for less than 15 minutes as it was the only bill to be discussed and voted on.