Did the Missouri AG approve the Secretary of State's summary statement for Patricia Thomas's 2020-020 initiative petition requiring municipalities to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)?

Plain-English summary

On February 7, 2019, AG Eric Schmitt approved the Secretary of State's proposed summary statement for Patricia Thomas's initiative petition 2020-020, a proposed amendment to Article VI of the Missouri Constitution (which governs local government). The summary, capped at 100 words by statute, reads:

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to provide that municipalities and their officials shall cooperate and comply with requests from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to detain, maintain custody of, or transfer any alien to ICE?

This petition would constitutionalize an anti-sanctuary-city rule by forbidding Missouri municipalities (and their officials) from declining ICE detainer and transfer requests. It is the kind of state-level immigration-enforcement policy that has been a recurring subject of state-versus-local-control political debate.

The AG's approval addresses only the summary statement's legal form and content. The AG took no position on whether the petition's text would survive federal preemption challenges, Fourth Amendment objections to ICE detainers, or other constitutional scrutiny if voters approved it.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2019. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

What is an "ICE detainer"?

A detainer is a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that a local jail hold a person (typically beyond their state-law release date) so that ICE can take custody for civil immigration enforcement purposes. Compliance with detainers is contested: some local governments treat detainers as voluntary requests, and there is litigation in multiple jurisdictions over Fourth Amendment limits.

Did the AG opine on whether Missouri can mandate detainer compliance?

No. The AG's review is statutory and limited to whether the summary is legally adequate. The opinion does not address whether the underlying petition, if enacted, would be preempted by federal law, conflict with the Fourth Amendment, or expose Missouri municipalities to civil liability under existing case law.

Where does it sit in the Missouri Constitution?

Article VI of the Missouri Constitution covers local government, including counties, cities, school districts, and other political subdivisions. By placing the rule there, the petition would constrain how municipalities exercise their local-government powers.

Why did the AG add the standard non-endorsement language?

§ 116.334, RSMo requires the AG to review summary statements. To prevent that mandatory review from being misread as a political endorsement, the AG routinely adds language clarifying that the review is statutory and "should [not] be construed as an endorsement of the petition, nor as the expression of any view regarding the objectives of its proponents."

Background and statutory framework

§ 116.334, RSMo, requires the Secretary of State to prepare a fair, accurate summary statement for each initiative petition that has been certified as to form, and to submit it to the AG for review of legal content and form.

The Missouri Constitution allows constitutional amendments to be proposed by initiative under art. III, §§ 49-53. The 2020-020 petition would amend Article VI, which governs local government.

ICE detainers are federal immigration-enforcement tools (8 C.F.R. § 287.7), governed by overlapping federal immigration statutes (8 U.S.C. § 1373; 8 U.S.C. § 1357). The opinion does not analyze any of those federal authorities.

Citations

• § 116.334, RSMo (AG review of initiative-petition summary statements)
• Mo. Const. art. III, §§ 49-53 (initiative process)
• Mo. Const. art. VI (local government, the article the petition would amend)
• Initiative petition 2020-020 (proposed amendment to Article VI, submitted by Patricia Thomas)

Source

• Landing page: https://ago.mo.gov/other-resources/ag-opinions/
• Original PDF: https://ago.mo.gov/wp-content/uploads/attachments/37-2019.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MISSOURI

Eric Schmitt
Attorney General
JEFFERSON CITY
P.O. Box 899
65102
(573) 751-3321

February 7, 2019

OPINION LETTER NO. 37-2019

The Honorable John R. Ashcroft
Missouri Secretary of State
James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center
600 West Main Street
Jefferson City, MO 65101

Dear Secretary Ashcroft:

This opinion letter responds to your request dated January 28, 2019, for our review under § 116.334, RSMo, of a proposed summary statement prepared for the petition submitted by Patricia Thomas regarding a proposed constitutional amendment to amend Article VI of the Missouri Constitution, (2020-020). The proposed summary statement is as follows:

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to provide that municipalities and their officials shall cooperate and comply with requests from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials to detain, maintain custody of, or transfer any alien to ICE?

Pursuant to § 116.334, RSMo, we approve the legal content and form of the proposed statement. Because our review of the statement is mandated by statute, no action that we take with respect to such review should be construed as an endorsement of the petition, nor as the expression of any view regarding the objectives of its proponents.

OP-2019-0027

Very truly yours,

ERIC S. SCHMITT
Attorney General