Thread: KS - Sedgwick County’s effort to ask immigration status in limbo

April 6, 2016
BY DANIEL SALAZAR

Sedgwick County commissioners voiced frustration Wednesday that the state has not responded in six months to their proposal to ask about the immigration status of patients at health department clinics.

The County Commission and counselor’s office tried to get legal clarification from the state in October, December, February and March to no avail, said assistant county counselor Justin Waggoner.

County counselor Eric Yost said he received an e-mail in the past day from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment but had not reviewed it by the time of Wednesday’s commission meeting. He noted the lack of response before Wednesday.

"We’ve sent multiple letters and they’ve refused to respond," commissioner Richard Ranzau said.

Ranzau proposed a series of changes last fall to the county health department, including to the county’s Women, Infants and Children nutritional program that provides checks to low-income mothers for foods like milk, cheese and cereal.

Ranzau suggested the county health department begin using a questionnaire that would ask about the immigration status of all health department patients, including WIC recipients. Some commissioners said it would gather useful data and help the county understand who it serves.

Public health and immigrant advocacy groups blasted the proposal, saying it would have a chilling effect on people seeking services and put community health at risk.

E-mails obtained by The Eagle showed that U.S. Department of Agriculture authorities told state officials that asking for WIC clients’ immigration status would be out of compliance and endanger federal grant dollars.

In the months since, both Ranzau and current chairman Jim Howell have said they’ve been frustrated by the apparent lack of progress in the state responding to the request.

That frustration bubbled up on Wednesday.

"When they refuse to respond to our request, they’re refusing to respond to our constituents," Ranzau said.

"We’re just trying to collect a little bit of data and that seems to be a huge, huge problem and it shouldn’t be," commissioner Karl Peterjohn said.

Howell contended the federal response is an overreaction to the county’s proposal.

"This is a very minor thing and it comes with consequences of threats of stripping funding," Howell said.

A Kansas Department of Health and Environment public information officer said Tuesday afternoon that there was no update on the county’s request.

Ranzau also proposed the state redefine its eligibility requirements to block illegal immigrants from participating in WIC. The county commission, when Ranzau was chairman last fall, formally asked the state to review its policies in an October letter.

The WIC request became a key reason a group of residents in Ranzau’s district sought to recall him from office.

Ranzau was also frustrated over the lack of a state response to the eligibility question.

"Here we are six months after the written request and they’ve still not answered…our question," Ranzau said. "We just need an answer: are they willing to do this or not?"

"It’s distressing it’s taken so long to get to this point," Peterjohn added.

Commissioner Dave Unruh, who sent KDHE an October letter opposing the policy, asked Yost how much effort it would take for the county to review the federal regulations related to the county’s requests.

"It would take a fair amount of research… for us to dig in and figure out what we’re looking at," Yost said.

http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-...e70298042.html

They hide it all, They know and can check easy enough. The same with arrest records being hidden. If they don't care why do they ask Citizens so much information? Obviously they know how many whites, blacks were arrested and hospitalized but have no clues as status of illegals! They have the information just have been told not to release it. Because it would prove what we already know. Remember this is the same government that says we have between 10-11 million illegals her for the last 20 years never grows.