The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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March 28, 2007

Kansas: House returns illegal-immigrant bill to committee

The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. — Legislation denying immigrants public assistance such as welfare and unemployment benefits and increasing penalties for employers hiring them was rejected twice Tuesday by the House, effectively ending debate for the year.

The bill also would have repealed a 2004 law that grants lower, in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who graduate from a Kansas high school and are seeking citizenship while attending a state community college or university. Numerous efforts to repeal that law failed in the House last year.

On a 65-56 vote Tuesday, the House sent the bill to the Judiciary Committee, but Chairman Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, said the panel wouldn’t consider it this year. The measure remains alive for the 2008 session.

Later in the day, Rep. Deena Horst, R-Salina, asked colleagues to revive debate on the bill with the promise to offer an amendment to keep the in-state tuition law on the books. But the vote was 63-57 against her request, keeping the bill in committee.

“Even when you take out in-state tuition, it’s still a bad bill,” said Rep. Delia Garcia, D-Wichita.

After the first vote, sponsoring Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, said the tuition section doomed the bill.

“The ones who voted to kill this will have to live with their vote. It’s contrary to the will of the people of Kansas,” he said.

But later, after the second vote, he was asked whether objections to the bill went beyond the tuition question, and he said, “It’s hard to say, but obviously a variety of issues were driving these concerns.”

Kansas is among many states this year dealing with legislation on illegal immigration. While some criticize such legislation as anti-immigrant or even anti-Hispanic, backers say they’re responding to demands from constituents to do something about illegal immigrants. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates there are up to 70,000 illegal immigrants in Kansas.

Rep. Louis Ruiz said he opposed the bill, just as he’s against legislation making English the state’s official language, which is in a House-Senate negotiating committee.

“What language are we trying to eliminate? I don’t hear Romanian. I don’t hear Russian. I hear Spanish,” said Ruiz, D-Kansas City.

Rep. Tom Hawk, D-Manhattan, said the tuition law was designed to make qualified illegal immigrants productive citizens. About 170 illegal immigrants are getting the tuition break this year.

“They will not leave and the question is whether they will be productive,” he said.

Aside from the tuition issue, some lawmakers worried about unintended consequences such as causing undue burden on U.S. citizens without the necessary documents. Kinzer said the bill was crafted to avoid that, but the concerns remained.

“Let’s make these bills sustainable. It’s time we pass good, solid laws,” said Rep. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park. “The bill does a lot of damage potentially unless we work out the legal issues first.”

The bill also prohibits state and local governments from awarding contracts to employers convicted of knowingly hiring illegal immigrants in the past five years and requires employers to repay what the state paid them in the past five years, up to $10,000.

Federal law limits states to denying contracts or revoking licenses of violators, but that didn’t stop the House from increasing criminal penalties for such employers. On a 105-14 vote, it increased the fine for knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant from $500 to $2,500 the first time, plus an additional $10,000 for subsequent offenses.

“The real perpetrators of crime isn’t the undocumented workers. It’s the employers who offer them jobs,” said Rep. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City.

Kinzer said the federal law pre-empting state penalties made the proposal unenforceable. But other lawmakers complained the federal government hasn’t done enough to stem illegal immigration.

“At some point, the Kansas people expect this body to do something. We need to send a message to those in the federal government to get off their duffs and do something,” said Rep. Bill Otto, R-Leroy.

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