The Kansas House of Representatives approved a resolution in support of the state of Texas’ border policies and urged Gov. Laura Kelly to support Texas, up to and including deploying members of the Kansas National Guard to the state.
Preceding the vote, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth, spoke to a rally of about 40 people on the south steps of the Statehouse who gathered in support of the resolution. A handful of Kansas legislators, former lawmakers and attendees took turns speaking at 10 a.m.
“This is clearly an invasion, two and a half million last year, 2.2 million the year before that, 100,000 people dead from fentanyl overdose in this country,” Proctor told the crowd.
The resolution, which more than half the house cosponsored, said the federal government “failed to protect the country from what has become an invasion.” Texas and the federal government have differed on approach to immigration enforcement, a power that states don’t typically engage in.
The resolution in the Statehouse doesn’t have any governing power but sends a message that members of the House side with Texas.