LETTERS

TO THE EDITOR

Illegal arrests

To the editor:

What if the Kansas Legislature would come up with a law that would allow law enforcement officials to write up and sign an illegal piece of paper, and then go bust down your door, arrest you as a citizen for no reason regardless of political affiliation, haul you off to jail, and hold you for 48 hours without being charged for any crime?

You would laugh your heads off, right? This is America. Nothing like that could ever happen here. Maybe in a fiction novel or the communist Soviet Union, but not here, right? Right? Right?

Welcome to Kansas in 2026. Welcome to Topeka. Welcome to reality. There, as we speak, our genius legislature is crafting bill HB 2771 that would allow the above.

Now, I’m sure it was intended to be targeted toward undocumented immigrants, but this could be anybody. It could mean you.

This magic piece of paper is often described as an “administrative warrant.” This is an illegal and unconstitutional form, signed by an ICE official (we don’t know who).

This is totally against the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

To follow the Constitution, law enforcement officers are supposed to go to a judge and present evidence of probable cause that a crime has been committed. Then, they’re supposed to specifically state what things or what person is to be found.

The warrant must be signed by a judge, who may deny it if there is flimsy or no evidence. That’s the way it’s supposed to work.

But wait, there’s more. Much of this bill describes “agreements” and cooperation of local police and sheriffs with ICE.

There is no federal law that requires that locals cooperate with federal law enforcement. But if the locals do enter into such an agreement, this law provides that if an officer tries to arrest a person, that officer “shall be entitled to immunity for any civil action.”

That means that if, during an arrest, the officer injures or kills someone, they can’t be sued.

Some other states already have this administrative warrant. The Department of Homeland Security is going state by state to try to skirt the Constitution and get states to give ICE powers that are not in the Constitution.

They did this in Minneapolis, and you can see what a disaster that was.

The Legislature and Congress are supposed to preserve our rights, not take them away. This unconstitutional bill would destroy one of our most basic rights as Americans.

Don’t take my word for this. Check with your local lawyer. Write your legislator now and tell them to stop HB 2771.

Brian D. Stucky
Goesse