KS - Sedgwick County to consider anti-illegal-immigration resolution on in-state tuit
Sedgwick County to consider anti-illegal-immigration resolution on in-state tuition, WIC
Highlights:
Commissioner Ranzau: ‘Why are we subsidizing people who are here illegally when they can’t even get a job?’
Commissioner Unruh says the commission should focus on local issues
Resolution is on the agenda for Wednesday morning’s commission meeting
June 20, 2016
BY DANIEL SALAZAR
Sedgwick County commissioners will vote on asking the Legislature to bar illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition.
They’re also set to ask the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, once again, to try to block illegal immigrants from participating in Women, Infants and Children, a nutritional program that provides checks to low-income mothers to buy nutritional foods and beverages.
Commissioners in the board’s more conservative majority say they’re standing up for Kansas taxpayers, citizens and legal immigrants.
“Our taxpayers subsidize state universities. And the question is, why are we subsidizing people who are here illegally when they can’t even get a job?” Commissioner Richard Ranzau asked. “It all goes back to, you know, forcing the taxpayer to subsidize illegal immigration through a variety of means, and these are a couple ways that the state could assist the taxpayer.”
But Commissioner Dave Unruh says it’s another example of the County Commission unnecessarily wading into state and national issues.
“I think the majority of our folks want us to just do good government locally,” Unruh said. “I don’t think they want us involved in state or national issues where we have no authority.”
“This discussion only sets us up for criticism and ill-will in the community,” he said.
The item is on the commission’s agenda for its Wednesday meeting, which starts at 9 a.m.
‘The drain on resources’
The resolution says the county “is dedicated to protecting the citizens and the legal immigrants who call Sedgwick County their home.”
The resolution blasts federal authorities for not effectively addressing illegal immigration, saying the federal government “condones the drain on resources they (illegal immigrants) create.”
“My point of view is the federal government is a problem regardless of who has been the president,” Ranzau said.
The resolution also says “Sedgwick County government believes that providing public money to support illegal aliens diverts valuable resources away from the sources of those funds, namely the citizens and legal immigrants who call Sedgwick County home.”
The resolution asks the Kansas Legislature to amend state law to “remove any provisions allowing persons without lawful immigration status to receive the benefit of in-state tuition.”
Kansas passed a law in 2004 to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities if they meet residency requirements that apply to U.S. citizens. Lawmakers in Topeka occasionally push for a repeal of the law.
Ranzau said the issue is connected to Sedgwick County through the funding it provides to Wichita State University and the Wichita Area Technical College.
If it passes Wednesday, the resolution would be sent to House Speaker Ray Merrick and Senate President Susan Wagle.
Facing a court order, Kansas legislators will return to Topeka on Thursday to try to address inequities in public school funding.
Ranzau says it’s “not our intent” to have the Legislature take up the issue during the special session. He said he wanted to keep legislative leaders “in the loop, basically.”
Revisiting battle over WIC
The resolution represents another effort by the county to block illegal immigrants from a federal nutritional program.
The Women, Infants and Children program, also known as WIC, sends checks that pay for foods like milk and cereal at supermarkets.
Only families that make certain income levels can participate.
When Ranzau was chairman last fall, he proposed a series of changes to WIC, including a requirement for legal citizenship or immigration status.
Ranzau says he doesn’t know if that requirement would apply to the mothers who receive the checks or their children.
“I don’t know how that would work,” Ranzau said. “Whatever federal law allows.”
Some commissioners vented at an April meeting that the state hadn’t been responsive to their request.
The renewed request would be sent to the offices of Gov. Sam Brownback and KDHE Secretary Susan Mosier. The state would then need to ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since WIC is a federal program.
If the state didn’t ask for a change in the guidelines, the county would want KDHE and the governor’s office to publicly say why they will not to do so.
“The reason I’m pushing this is I want to get a response,” Ranzau said. “The citizens, the taxpayers of the state deserve an answer from the bureaucrats in Topeka. It’s either yes or no.”
‘Not up to county commissioners’
Unruh, along with commissioner Tim Norton, voted against last fall’s changes to the WIC program. Chairman Jim Howell and commissioner Karl Peterjohn voted for them.
Norton won’t be at Wednesday’s meeting. And Unruh questioned the point of revisiting the issue again.
“It’s clear, I think, where each commissioner stands on the issue,” Unruh said. “It’s also clear that we do not have authority over that issue to make either national or state changes. That’s up to the Congress or the state Legislature, not up to county commissioners.”
Unruh said it’s unlikely he’d support the resolution on Wednesday.
“The majority of the people want us to provide county services to our health department that keep people safe, that keep people healthy,” Unruh said. “In general, our community wants us to have a well-educated community so that we can have a reason to attract industry here.”
“I think we just ought to do the best we can with the resources we have to make our community both healthy and educated.”
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