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SECOND REGULAR SESSION
HOUSE BILL NO. 3159
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBL Y
INTRODUCED BY REPRESENT A TIVE THOMAS.
6744H.01I JOSEPH ENGLER, Chief Clerk
AN ACT
T o amend chapter 660, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to legal services for
undocumented minors.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 660, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be
2 known as section 660.760, to read as follows:
660.760. 1. This section shall be known and may be cited as the "Childr en's Due
2 Pr ocess Pr otection Act".
3 2. Subject to appr opriation, the department of social services shall pr ovide legal
4 counsel to every immigrant child under the age of eighteen res iding in the state of
5 Missouri.
6 3. Children shall be appointed counsel as follows:
7 (1) Access to counsel shall begin at the time an immigrant child is designated as
8 unaccompanied by a federal or state agency or identified as such by an immigration
9 attorney;
10 (2) Access to counsel may apply in state court pr oceedings or to submitting an
11 affirmative filing for purposes of obtaining any order necessary for or rel evant to
12 immigration rem edies, federal immigration pr oceedings, any r elated appearances or
13 matters, and any appeals arising fr om those procee dings before the United States
14 Department of Homeland Security , the United States Department of Justice, or in
15 federal court;
16 (3) Access to counsel shall not be pr ovided if the immigrant child has
17 independent counsel; and
EXPLANA TION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is
intended to be omitted from the law . Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.
18 (4) Access to counsel shall apply to any child designated as an immigrant child at
19 any time thr oughout the pendency of any of the pr oceedings in subdivisions (1) and (2)
20 of this subsection. If the immigrant child reach es eighteen years of age, he or she shall
21 r emain eligible for access to counsel during the pendency of the pr oceedings initiated
22 befor e the immigrant child r eached eighteen years of age.
23 4. Contracts under this section shall follow the proced ures for state contracting
24 in chapter 34. The department shall contract to provi de the legal counsel r equir ed
25 under this subsection with the following entities:
26 (1) Nonpr ofit legal services organizations that have at least thr ee years handling
27 asylum, T -V isa, U-V isa, or special immigrant status cases and have repr esented at least
28 twenty-five individuals in these matters; and
29 (2) The office of the public defender , if the office has an immigration attorney
30 with at least thr ee years of experience handling asylum, T -V isa, U-V isa, or special
31 immigrant juvenile status cases and has repr esented at least twenty minors in these
32 matters.
33 5. For the purposes of this section, an "immigrant child" is defined as either:
34 (1) An undocumented minor as described in 6 U.S.C. Section 279; or
35 (2) A person under eighteen years of age, with no lawful immigration status, and
36 who arrived in the United States without a paren t or legal guardian or who has no
37 par ent or legal guardian available and able to assist in the child's immigration
38 pr oceedings.
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HB 3159 2