Gov. Laura Kelly this afternoon signed a legislative bill that blocks the Kansas City, Kansas, Safe and Welcoming Act.
Local leaders including Mayor Tyrone Garner had urged the mayor to veto the bill.
The Unified Government Commission had passed the Safe and Welcoming ordinance in February. The ordinance welcomes diversity, allows identification cards to be issued so that residents can access UG services, and states that KCK resources cannot be used to enforce federal immigration law. The ordinance applied only to KCK, not to Wyandotte County, Bonner Springs or Edwardsville.
Besides undocumented workers, the ID cards would have been used for elderly residents, the homeless, the poor, youth in foster care and ex-offenders who are re-entering society, some who may not have ID cards, according to those backing the ordinance.
Local law enforcement leaders, including the KCK police chief and mayor, said that the Safe and Welcoming ordinance would build trust between local officers and the community, which was needed so that crime victims who are undocumented would feel encouraged to come forward and report crimes.
House Bill 2717 was passed by the Kansas Legislature to block the KCK ordinance. It also blocks a Safe and Welcoming ordinance in Roeland Park, plus some other ones in Kansas.
In a news release, Gov. Kelly, a Democrat, stated that Congress should pass comprehensive immigration legislation.
“The responsibility to address our broken immigration system rests with Congress and cannot be resolved at the municipal level,” Gov. Kelly stated. “Both Republicans and Democrats in Washington have failed to address immigration issues for decades. We need a national solution and we need it now.
“I encourage my colleagues who sent me this bill to persuade our federal delegation to pass comprehensive immigration legislation that allows us to continue growing our economy and meeting our workforce needs here in Kansas.
“Kansans who rely on local government IDs to vote, such as veterans, the elderly, and people with disabilities will be adversely affected by this law. The Legislature needs to send me a trailer bill that ensures these folks can continue participating in our democracy.”
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican, also issued a statement on House Bill 2717.
“The veto-proof bipartisan support for this bill in the Legislature demonstrated its importance, as the Biden administration continues its tragic failure to secure our southern border, jeopardizing public safety in our Kansas communities,” Schmidt stated in a news release. “Under this new law, Kansas law enforcement will be able to resume working professionally with federal immigration authorities as the needs of public safety require and not be silenced by a patchwork of local ‘sanctuary city’ gag orders.”
Both Kelly and Schmidt are running for governor this year.
A news conference was held online on Monday morning urging Gov. Laura Kelly to veto House Bill 2717, which would nullify a Safe and Welcoming ordinance that passed in Kansas City, Kansas. (Picture from Zoom news conference)
Kansas City, Kansas, Mayor Tyrone Garner and others today urged Gov. Laura Kelly to veto a legislative bill that would nullify the Safe and Welcoming ordinance in Kansas City, Kansas.
The ordinance, approved Feb. 10 by the Unified Government Commission, outlines a process for issuing identification cards for Kansas City, Kansas, residents and it also states that UG resources cannot be used to enforce federal immigration law. It also says that the UG is an inclusive and welcoming city for immigrant members of the community. The ordinance does not apply to Bonner Springs and Edwardsville.
Mayor Garner, a former deputy police chief of Kansas City, Kansas, said this morning that the ordinance represents that Wyandotte County is a very diverse community that values its immigrants, and realizes the diversity the immigrant community brings to the cultural fabric of the community, bringing the neighborhoods together on a foundation of respect, love and understanding.
The UG ordinance guarantees that all people, including immigrants, will be able to use all UG services regardless of where the immigrants are from, he said. It also upholds the guarantees of the federal constitution protecting residents against unreasonable search and seizure, he said.
Residents who have chosen Wyandotte County to be their home need to feel safe and protected by law enforcement, and receive services, and also feel secure they will not be exposed to unreasonable immigration enforcement, he said.
He added many residents, including elderly, are indigent and some are homeless, as well as youth in foster care, and ex-offenders, who lack photo IDs. The Safe and Welcoming Act also helps them.
To feel safe, residents need to have a level of comfort where they can reach out to law enforcement, Mayor Garner said, if they fear the perception of crime, or if they are victimized by crime, without repercussions that would prevent them from receiving the level of services they need.
“We want our law enforcement apparatus in Wyandotte County to feel empowered,” he said. This ordinance encourages trust with law enforcement, he added.
Home rule in Kansas means that local communities can decide for themselves on local issues.
“I feel the (state) legislation that has been passed,” Mayor Garner said, “is politically driven and I want to make sure these political driven initiatives do not take place in Wyandotte County.”
He said he would ask Gov. Kelly to veto House Bill 2717, asking her to put people over politics.
In the online news conference from the Safe and Welcoming Coalition, several advocates appeared to support the governor’s veto of the legislative bill.
There was more than five years of discussion at the UG before the Safe and Welcoming ordinance was passed, according to advocates. There were extensive committee meetings, public hearings nad work with the UG legal department on the wording of the ordinance.
A Roeland Park City Council member, Michael Rebne, said over 200 residents of Roeland Park signed a petition for its Safe and Welcoming ordinance.
Where people live in the shadows, it is not a healthy community, he said. More than two years of discussion was held, with much research and community input, before this ordinance was passed in Roeland Park, he said.
The Rev. Rick Behrens, pastor of Grandview Park Presbyterian Church in Kansas City, Kansas, and a founding member of the Safe and Welcoming Coalition in Kansas City, Kansas, said for five years the coalition knocked on doors, worked with residents and the community to build the coalition.
He said House Bill 2717 would damage the relationship between law enforcement and communities across Kansas.
He said the House bill should be flipped, and encourage more communities to enact Safe and Welcoming legislation, that would make communities safer and more economically vibrant.
The legislative bill “damages the fabric of our community,” he said, hurting everyone and making them all less safe and less human.
Since Congress has been incapable of solving the immigration situatin for 30 years, KCK has chosen to be inclusive of those whom God has placed in their midst, Behrens said.
The news conference also heard from an immigration lawyer, representing the Missouri-Kansas Immigration Lawyers Association, who said the House bill would harm noncitizens and citizens in Kansas alike.
Ginevra Alberti said enforcement of immigration laws falls strictly under the purview of the federal government. When left to the federal government and not local government, members of the community feel safer to come out of the shadows, she said, and trust local law enforcement officers.
The House bill would erode trust and have a serious chilling effect on undocumented persons and families, she said. Some crimes may not be reported out of fear of being p icked up by immigration, particularly domestic violence cases. Also, people would be less likely to leave their homes, less likely to go shopping and to show up at parent-teacher conferences, she said.
She said federal immigration law is complicated and local police do not usually receive training in it. She cited federal laws and regulations with more than 1,000 pages. She questioned how far the state bill goes, including intrusion into the business operations of any business.
Marcus Winn, director of voter engagement at the organization More2, said the coalition was optimistic that the governor would veto the state legislative bill.
If the governor vetoes it, the coalition will move ahead with all strength to sustain the veto, he said.
Winn said an unexpected development of the legislative targeting of the movement in Wyandotte County has been overwhelming support received from around the state. Previously it was a local effort without a lot of contact from other communities, but now they are communicating, he said. The conversations need to continue, he added.
“I think you may have woken a sleeping giant, and there may be consequences for that,” Winn said.
Also involved in the news conference were the Cross-Border Network for Justice and Solidarity and the Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation.
Rep. Luis Ruiz, D-31st Dist., said this bill would only instill fear in communities he represents in Wyandotte County and undermine local authority. (Photo by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector)
by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector
Topeka — The Kansas House is approving a measure that would prohibit “sanctuary cities,” areas where the municipal governments have rules blocking cooperation with federal authorities investigating undocumented immigrants.
The initiative, initiated by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, is a response to action taken by the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas – Wyandotte County to authorize municipal photo identification cards for undocumented people to improve access to public services. Dubbed the Safe and Welcoming City Act, the ID information collected would not be shared with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Opponents of the bill were an overwhelming majority during a hearing in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee last week, and Rep Luis Ruiz, who represents part of Wyandotte County, echoed many of the same critiques. He said the bill was short-sighted and would undermine local authority and instill fear in communities.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat noted that Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers are not arrest warrants and that holding an immigrant for an excessive period could be considered unconstitutional.
“We see the war-torn people in basements or across the world that happens but that happens to the south of us as well. So, what do we do?” Ruiz said. “I see a lot of lapel pins in here that people like to wear to tout their faith, and I applaud you for that, but does our behavior reflect our values?”
House Bill 2717, which representatives approved 84 to 38, would render local units of government unable to adopt any ordinance that would interfere with any law enforcement cooperation in immigration enforcement actions.
As of 2021, 12 states have enacted state-level laws prohibiting or restricting sanctuary jurisdictions. The Kansas Legislature has considered legislation to prohibit sanctuary cities across the state on several occasions, but none has passed.
Law enforcement officials in Wyandotte County said they hadn’t joined ICE agents on immigration raids in years. Still, Rep. Patrick Penn repeated claims by the attorney general and the secretary of state that the measure would help protect the rights given to legal Kansas residents and help protect election security.
“There can’t be a ban for local law enforcement officers to be made conscientious objectors, to doing their duties as prescribed by law when they disagree with political figures in their local counties,” Rep. Penn said.
But some representatives opposing the bill said this raised concerns not just for undocumented immigrants but for mixed-status families.
“Our broken immigration system keeps everyone in the family in this gray area where they are afraid to go to the police or to access municipal services lest one of their family members get arrested or deported,” said Rep. Pam Curtis, a Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat.
Rep. John Alcala, D-Topeka, asked representatives to consider what a vote in favor of this legislation says to their constituents.
“I voted to shut down production on meatpacking plants to feed our state,” Rep. Alcala said. “I voted to shut down lodging and restaurants for the lack of employees. I voted to cripple our agriculture community and farmers. I voted to increase the financial burden on municipalities and our taxpayers.”
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