RELATED REPUBLICANS DODGING ILLEGAL ALIEN Issue News ..

Facing labor shortages, businesses urge aid for undocumented workers

In Kansas, businesses lined up behind the proposal backed by Mesa to insert the state into federal immigration proceedings. Under the measure, the state would set up a program for undocumented immigrants working in certain industries. The state would ask the federal government not to deport or jail immigrants in the program. To be eligible, immigrants would have to have a clean criminal record, have lived in the United States more than five years, would agree to learn English and would have to work in industries with severe labor shortages.

"It is all voluntary. It is up to them," said Allie Devine, a former Kansas agriculture secretary who crafted the proposal. "For (immigrants), it is a path to lawful presence and work authorization that they may not have today. So we're trying to bolster their case."