Kansas advances immigrant crackdown

March 22, 2011


By SAMANTHA FOSTER
The Kansas City Star

TOPEKA | The controversial Arizona-style immigration law could return to the legislative agenda Wednesday after almost dying in a Kansas House committee.

Rep. Greg Smith, an Overland Park Republican, made a motion to pull the bill out of committee, where supporters had been unable to get the measure moving.

The House approved and will vote today on whether to pull H.B. 2372 out of the House Judiciary Committee so the full House can take action on it. It takes 70 votes to force a bill out of committee.

Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, is sponsoring the bill. He was thwarted by his own committee when it recently tabled the measure, which would require Kansas police to check the legal status of people whom they suspect might be in the United States illegally.

The measure also would require state and local governments and their contractors to run citizenship checks on new hires and require proof of citizenship for anyone seeking public aid.

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