Sue Allen

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a new report this week, titled Attacking the Constitution: State Legislators for Legal Immigration & the Anti-Immigrant Movement.  The report profiles "12 leading members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI)," including our own Sen. Brian Nieves (R-Freedom Bunker).   According to the SPLC, SLLI has "about 65 members in 40 states" and "was founded by Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe in 2007. The group works closely with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the SPLC has designated as an anti-immigrant hate group because of its white nationalist agenda and ties to racist groups."

The Southern Poverty Law Center report is specifically concerned with the SLLI's work to end the constitutional promise of citizenship for everyone born in the United States.  The group "has announced a national campaign to end the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship for all children born in the United States," writes the SPLC, and "is also pushing a number of other harsh, anti-immigrant proposals in states across the country."    (As you may recall, Congressmen Sam Graves and Todd Akin are pursuing a similar unconstitutional agenda at the federal level.)

Reps. Sue Allen (R-Town and Country) and David Day (R-Dixon) are also members of the SLLI, as you can see here.   The three policy positions to which the three legislators subscribe are outlined on the SLLI website:

1. It is the responsibility of the federal government to secure our borders and we encourage them to do so with our full support:  Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states that our government “shall guarantee” to every state in this Union a Republican form of government and shall protect each of them against INVASION.”
2. When illegal aliens invade our individual states and communities all levels of government have a responsibility to protect their citizens.
3. State and local governments have an obligation to protect the lives, property and individual liberties of their citizens.

Emphasis in original. 

Here's what the SPLC had to say about Nieves:

Although he is of Puerto Rican descent, Brian Nieves, a newly elected state senator and the former majority whip of Missouri’s House of Representatives, reacted angrily in 2008 after President Obama suggested that American children learn Spanish in addition to English. The president, Nieves said, had “belittle[d] the feelings of the majority of Americans."

This January, Nieves threw what the Kansas City alternative newspaper The Pitch called “his first tantrum of the year” on the floor of the state Senate when he learned that Missouri’s Democratic attorney general had built a Spanish-language website for that office in 2009. Nieves claimed it broke the state’s “English-only” law.

A self-described “Patriot candidate,” Nieves says he is part of a “Patriot uprising” and even named his talk radio show The Patriot Enclave. Nieves also is a major star of the film, “Don’t Tread on Me—the Rise of the Republic,” which was produced by Patriot conspiracist Gary Franchi. In the film, Nieves says that “with the election of President Barack Hussein Obama … I think people finally realized, ‘Hey, this is our government; this is our nation, and we’re going to take it back.’ I think that’s what gave birth to the Patriot uprising.”

In 2006, 76 percent of Missouri voters supported a plan to increase the minimum wage to $6.50 and tie any future annual increases in the minimum wage to changes in the Consumer Price index. 

However, Rep. Jerry Nolte (R-Gladstone) and some of his fellow Republican colleagues think  that (as Roy Blunt would put it) "the Federal Gubmint" is a better authority for setting Missouri workers' wages than voters in the state.

According to the Associated Press, Nolte filed legislation prohibiting the Missouri minimum wage from rising above the federal one. The bill has the backing of several other Republicans, as well as a coalition of business groups.

I guess competitive wages might have been the only thing Nolte and his fellow Republicans weren't thinking about when they pushed legislation last year to enforce Missouri's "constitutional sovereignty and the sovereignty of its citizens under the Tenth Amendment." 

Rep. Sue Allen: "I don’t know how my name got on [Jetton's client] list. He wasn't consulting with my campaign."

Rep. Shane Shoeller: Last night, Schoeller said, "If the allegations are true, he will have no place in my campaign...The allegations are serious and I'm taking it seriously." This afternoon, Schoeller said he "severed all ties" with Jetton's firm and its employees.

Speaker Ron Richard: "The allegations against former Speaker Jetton are extremely serious. I feel very sad for each of the families that have been affected. Right now, it is important to let the prosecutors, judge and jury begin their work to determine whether the charges are accurate. If the allegations prove to be true, Jetton should be prepared to accept the full legal and other consequences of his actions."

Sen. Rob Mayer is "shocked and disappointed," and says he hasn't paid Jetton any money since early this year. 

A partial list:

• Senator Jason Crowell
• Senator Luann Ridgeway
• Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley
• Senator Rob Mayer
• Majority Whip Brian Nieves
• Rep. Sue Allen
• Rep. Tim Jones
• Rep. Shelley Keeney
• Rep. Rob Schaaf
• Rep. Shane Schoeller
• Rep. Rick Stream
• Rep. Dwight Scharnhors
• Rep. Don Ruzicka
• Mattie Ransom for Liberty School Board
• Jeff Moore for Liberty City Council