Rep. Ponka-We Victors, D-Wichita, usually sits quietly during House Federal and State Affairs Committee hearings, rarely offering so much as a question or comment during testimony.

That changed Thursday.

At the beginning of the committee's fourth straight day of immigration testimony, Victors, a young, first-term legislator of American Indian and Latino heritage, testified about being hassled and detained by border control agents while visiting her family in Arizona. She urged her colleagues to reject strict immigration enforcement laws recently enacted in that state and others.

"Every time I left Arizona, it was like a sigh of relief when I came back to Kansas," Victors said. "But now, with these laws, I don't know about that any more." 

Victors, the first female American Indian to serve in the Legislature, drew on that part of her background to deliver one of the few laugh lines in what have been emotional hearings.

"Personally, my people have been fighting immigration since 1492," she said. "It doesn't get any better."

The bills before the committee Thursday included several spearheaded by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, which would compel local police officers to check for proof of citizenship and make it a criminal offense to "harbor" illegal immigrants.

One day after Kobach testified that Kansas was on the verge of becoming the "number one destination for illegal aliens in the Midwest," Victors and other opponents of his bills told the committee the measures would cripple the state's agriculture industry and create an atmosphere of fear.

Eric Stafford, of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, said that when similar bills were passed in Georgia, that state's Department of Agriculture found itself with a shortage of 11,000 farm workers.

Stafford also told the committee about a German Mercedes-Benz executive who was detained at police headquarters after a traffic stop in Tuscaloosa, Ala., until an associate could retrieve his passport from a hotel.

Jill Jarvis, of the Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence, said her group's ministry could be harmed by the "harboring" bill.

"We are being asked to break the very foundational laws of the Judeo-Christian tradition and the laws of many faith traditions,” Jarvis said.

That concern, also voiced by a Methodist minister earlier in the week, was emphasized again Thursday in testimony by Allie Devine, the former secretary of agriculture.

“People of good nature and of good desires may find themselves in trouble (if the bill passes)," Devine said. "We hope that simple acts of charity do not become felonies.”

Thursday's hearing was scheduled for testimony by opponents of the bill, but Chairman Steve Brunk, R-Wichita, allowed proponent testimony from Dale Chaffee, of the Union of Patriots, at the end.

“We need to state that the police in the state of Kansas not only can but will enforce laws that are applicable here, whether they be federal or state,” Chaffee said.

After the hearing, Victors said she expected the enforcement bills will pass her committee, but she hopes she can work with her colleagues on other issues.

She said she felt compelled to speak up because of her constituents in north Wichita, who sent her more than 2,000 letters that she presented at the hearing.

"There has to be another, better way," Victors said. "I believe this is a federal issue, and they need to secure not only the Mexican border, but the Canadian border as well."