St. Charles County is the fastest-growing county in Missouri: home to 18,500 foreign-born residents who work, shop, and pay taxes here. A proposed 287(g) agreement would train local police to act as ICE agents.

You can read about what ICE says about these agreements here.

You can read about what the Immigration Legal Resource Center says about these agreements here.

1.  Your Neighborhood Becomes Less Safe

■ When local police enforce immigration law, immigrant residents stop calling 911 — meaning crimes go unreported and unsolved in your neighborhood.

Source: Penn State / University of Maryland, Criminology & Public Policy, 2023

■ Violent crime against Latino residents actually increased in 287(g) counties — because victims were too afraid to call police.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024

2.  Kids Miss School

■ School enrollment dropped 7.3% and elementary attendance fell 9.4% in counties with 287(g) programs — including among U.S.-born children.

Source: Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 2021

■ After immigration raids, student absences jumped 22% — in one North Carolina city, 30,000 kids stayed home in a single day.

Source: Stanford / Education Week, 2025

3.  Families Avoid Doctors and Hospitals

■ Healthcare visits dropped 16.9% among immigrant residents after enforcement programs began — out of fear, not lack of insurance.

Source: George Washington University / ScienceDirect, 2025

■ Babies born in 287(g) counties weighed an average of 58 grams less — a direct result of mothers skipping prenatal care.

Source: PMC / National Library of Medicine, 2021

4.  It Hurts St. Charles County's Economy

■ St. Charles County has 18,500 foreign-born residents who contribute spending, taxes, and labor to local businesses, construction, and healthcare — sectors already facing worker shortages in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS, 2024 / Missouri Dept. of Labor

■ Undocumented immigrants nationally pay $37.3 billion in state and local taxes annually — often at a higher effective rate than the wealthiest Americans.

Source: Americans for Tax Fairness, 2024

■ After Florida passed similar enforcement legislation in 2023, its agricultural economy was projected to lose $12.6 billion in the first year alone as workers left the state.

Source: Florida Policy Institute, 2023

5.  It Doesn't Target Serious Criminals

■ In one studied enforcement zone, 86% of those arrested were Latino — far beyond their share of the population, showing broad-net policing rather than targeted enforcement.

Source: Law & Policy journal / FOIA records, 2023

Abara

• Abara fosters connection, healing, and action at the U.S.-Mexico border by creating spaces where stories are honored, divisions are bridged, and people are equipped to pursue peace and justice across borders.

We Choose Welcome

• We Choose Welcome is a grassroots community seeking to mobilize and equip women of faith to build and cultivate a welcome movement from their tables at home to the halls of Congress. We hope to empower our community to take action for the vulnerable in both our personal lives and through advocating for just immigration policies.

Annunciation House

• In a Gospel spirit of service and solidarity, we accompany the migrant, refugee, and economically vulnerable peoples of the border region through hospitality, advocacy, and education. We place ourselves among these poor so as to live our faith and transform our understanding of what constitutes more just relationships between peoples, countries, and economies.

Hope Border Institute

• Rooted in the El Paso Borderlands, the Hope Border Institute organizes with faith and community leaders to build justice, defend immigrant rights, and shape a more compassionate home in the borderlands region.

Welcome Neighbors St. Louis

• The mission of Welcome Neighbors St Louis is to partner with refugee and immigrant families, connecting them with the people and opportunities that will empower them to build and live their best life in their new country.

MICA Project

• The MICA Project utilizes a combination of community outreach and legal services to promote the voice and dignity of immigrant communities. The MICA Project’s combined approach addresses the surplus need for immigration legal services in immigrant communities by taking a proactive approach, providing immigrants with the information and resources they need before legal issues arise.

Find your St Charles County Rep using this link.

Monica - Ecuador

“We left Ecuador on Sept 26, ready to fly to Panama. Unfortunately, we were sent back to Ecuador. So we decided to go through the Darien jungle. We passed through Colombia and then Medellin. We continued to Guatemala, where things got worse. Then we went to Mexico, facing the worst possible situation: we were kidnapped but managed to escape. Then we surrendered to immigration in the US. We arrived at the shelter afraid something might happen, but we are safe here.”

Sara - Venezuela

“I am 13 years old and have 4 siblings. I traveled with my mother, a single mother, who worked while we journeyed so we could keep moving forward. We walked through the jungle to reach Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and finally Mexico, until Juarez. The journey was very hard, but we continued with hope. My mother is my example of strength and courage.”

Rosario - Colombia

“I am traveling with my husband and our 3 children. We never thought we would leave our country, but because of the danger from drug trafficking and my husband’s social work, we had to flee.”

Antonio - Ecuador

“I am traveling with my wife and daughter... We have been traveling for 15 days through 4 countries. We have been hungry, thirsty, and cold traveling in truck trailers, suffering and crying when my daughter had nothing to eat.”

All of these stories are from “Between Borders and Hearts: Testimonies of Service and Gratitude,” a book by Father Jarek Wysoczanski of the OFM Conv.

We had the privilege of working with Father Jarek in El Paso, Texas, at the Holy Family Shelter for 1 year before the Trump administration took office in 2024.

We know that the stories presented in his book and these quotes are 100% accurate and were obtained ethically.