Kansas AG Derek Schmidt is trying to gut Wyandotte County’s right to decide for itself

For the past 40 years, I have pastored in the Central Avenue neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. In the 1980s and early 1990s, our neighborhood, community and businesses were drying up and blowing away. Central Avenue was becoming a ghost town. But in the mid-1990s, people who wanted to be here began to arrive. In a short span of 10 years, our neighborhood and community became vibrant and full again. The vacant storefronts on Central Avenue began to fill up and families found homes.

But those families who built our community continue to live in the shadows, afraid to report crimes, afraid to participate in community groups, oftentimes afraid to go out. And with good reason. Reporting a crime or simply having a broken taillight could result in a broken family. The same families who created a vibrant place to be part of also live in fear. These families make up easily one-fourth of the population of Wyandotte County. The Safe and Welcoming Act that was recently passed by the Unified Government commission is a well thought out, local policy that addresses these challenges to building a beloved community.

However, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, in an unabashedly political move, believes he knows what’s best for our neighborhood. He is seeking to subvert our five-year, community-driven effort to bring more welcome and especially more safety to the place we live in. His claim is that he wants to avoid a patchwork of legislation across the state. In doing so, he violates the principle of home rule — a principle that resonates across political perspectives. Home rule allows local officials the flexibility to adapt to a constantly changing world. As the League of Kansas Municipalities puts it: “Uniform state laws don’t always serve the diverse needs of our communities, and home rule allows many of those decisions to be made by local officials elected by the people.”

House Bill 2717, which was introduced in the Legislature at Schmidt’s request, intends to prevent local communities from making life better for themselves. If Schmidt were serious about avoiding patchwork legislation, then, in the words of local immigration attorney Angela Ferguson, the bill should be flipped. Instead of a law to prevent good policy across Kansas, the bill should encourage more communities to enact safe and welcoming legislation. These types of laws have been proven to make communities safer and more economically vibrant.

We must continue our work to fix our country’s broken immigration system. But since Congress has been incapable of doing that for more than 30 years, Kansas City, Kansas, has chosen to be inclusive of those whom God has placed in our midst. To be a safe community, we must welcome those who make our neighborhoods vibrant and who are our neighbors, our fellow church members, our sons and daughters-in-law, our baristas and our entrepreneurs. HB 2717 calls for the exact opposite. It would hurt not only our neighbors. It would hurt all of us — making us less safe, making us less hospitable, and, worst of all, making us less human.

God is calling us to build beloved communities by loving God and loving our neighbors. I call on the Kansas Senate and Gov. Laura Kelly to say no to HB 2717.