By EMILY BEHLMANN

Topeka HALO Rally Video

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ebehlmann@gctelegram.com

TOPEKA -- Jesus Diaz immigrated to the United States from Mexico about 25 years ago. He's a citizen, has a driver's license, can access public services and lives free from fear of deportation.

Yet he said he knows that some fellow immigrants are afraid that legislation currently under discussion by the Kansas Legislature would force them out of the state.

"I represent thousands of people from Garden City, Liberal, Dodge City," the Garden City man said in Topeka on Tuesday, as he waited for a Sunflower Community Action rally to start in the capital building.

The grassroots organization, of which Diaz is a member, crowded the building to, among other things, educate legislators on how immigration legislation might affect Kansas' diverse communities, said Armando Minjarez, a community organizer for the southwest Kansas chapter of Sunflower Community Action.

Also making up the 300-strong group were about a dozen members of Garden City Community College's chapter of Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO).

Minjarez, a GCCC graduate and former member of the student group, said HALO has been involved in Sunflower's advocacy efforts since, in 2005, both groups worked to maintain in-state tuition for undocumented students. The tuition law is being challenged by current legislation in the Kansas Senate.

In addition to attending the Sunflower Community Action rally, local HALO members spoke with southwest Kansas legislators, including Rep. Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, and Senate President Stephen Morris, R-Hugoton, about a few specific bills.

Among Diaz's concerns is a bill scheduled for discussion today in the House that would impose penalties on businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants, and would mandate they use the federal system E-Verify to check for legal status. A Senate committee removed the E-Verify provision from its version of the bill and lessened the severity of sanctions on employers.

Diaz said it would be detrimental for Kansas to go through with the measure, plus another aspect of the House version that would require law enforcement officers to ask about a person's citizenship when making an arrest.

The state would lose many people who work the jobs that native-born Americans don't want, he said.

"(Legislators) are proposing legislation to target a segment of the population that doesn't have a voice but is contributing" through property tax, sales tax and spending in local economies, Sunflower Community Action member Teresa Molina said during the rally.

Eron Lira, president of GCCC's chapter of HALO, said he thinks some of the legislation under discussion in Topeka would force immigrants out of the state, despite what he sees as a desire by leaders to make the immigrants "functioning members of society."

"This is making it impossible for them to stay," he said.

Lira said he expects Kansas would see the same result as Oklahoma, which recently imposed a crackdown on illegal immigration.

In November, legislation took effect there that bars illegal immigrants from obtaining jobs or state assistance and makes it a felony to harbor or transport illegal immigrants. Another portion of the law -- to go into effect in July -- would require companies to verify the employment eligibility of new hires.

The Greater Tulsa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has blamed the law for causing up to 25,000 Hispanics to leave northwestern Oklahoma for neighboring states.

Morris told HALO members Tuesday that he disagrees with the strict sanctions of Oklahoma's law, saying he hopes Kansas can come up with something better. The state needs to be careful to avoid punishing those who, for instance, unwittingly hire illegal immigrants, he said.

However, immigration ought to be handled at a federal level, Morris said, calling the hundreds of bills under discussion in the 50 states "a recipe for chaos."

Also on Tuesday, the Garden City group accompanied Sunflower Community Action members as they pushed other agenda items in Topeka.

Top on the list was an effort to make public the records and hearings of Kansas Social and Rehabilitation Services, especially involving cases in which children are taken into state custody.

About 200 Sunflower members crowded outside the office of SRS Secretary Don Jordan Tuesday until he opened his office for a brief conversation, then scheduled a longer meeting for next month to work through issues with the group.

The agency's Web site states that "SRS recognizes that certain records contain private or privileged information." Exemptions to the Kansas Open Records Act include medical treatment records, those containing personal information, notes and preliminary drafts, and criminal investigations, the Web site states.

SRS spokeswoman Michelle Ponce said the agency complies with state and federal laws that, for the most part, are in place to protect the privacy of the child.

Yet Sunflower Community Action member Carlene Eye said that without open records and hearings, the agency lacks accountability for its actions.

"Power plus secrecy equals corruption," she said. "The juvenile courts have absolute power and absolute secrecy."

Also on Tuesday, Sunflower Community Action members sought limits on what they described as "predatory lending," which could involve excessive fees or penalties on loans.