Topeka ? Hundreds of people rallied Tuesday in favor of a bill to permit illegal immigrants to obtain temporary driver’s licenses, but a man whose son died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks called the measure “indecent.”

The bill would create a new “temporary” residence license and eliminate a prohibition in Kansas law against issuing a license to anyone “not lawfully present in the United States.” The House narrowly approved the measure last year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee heard conflicting and sometimes passionate testimony Tuesday.

Supporters told the committee the bill would make the state’s roads and highways safer by regulating drivers who have gone unregulated previously. Backers of the bill included attorneys, law enforcement officials and members of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ administration.

“It is a safety issue,” said Sebelius spokeswoman Nicole Corcoran. “We would much rather have people driving with a driver’s license, registered in our state, than without.”

Also, Hispanic activists said the measure would recognize the growing number of immigrants in Kansas and their contributions to the state’s economy.

“Hispanics are doing the Lord’s work — we’re populating this earth, basically,” said Elias Garcia, executive director of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs. “Quite bluntly, let me say that we’re not going anywhere. This is our home.”

Heated debate

But critics said the bill would undermine homeland security and make it easier for terrorists to operate. One opponent was Peter Gadiel, of Kent, Conn., whose son, James, a 23-year-old assistant securities trader, died at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“To those of us whose sons, husbands, daughters, sisters and mothers were murdered on Sept. 11, the idea that any state would even think giving official, valid ID to a person who is not lawfully in this country is indecent,” he said.

As the committee met, more than 1,000 people, mostly Hispanic, rallied outside the Statehouse in support of the measure. They marched several blocks from Assumption Church, with the temperature below 5 degrees.

Elias Garcia, executive director of the Kansas Advisory Commission on Hispanic Affairs, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His testimony Tuesday regarded a bill that would permit illegal immigrants to obtain temporary driver's licenses.

One woman at the front of the march carried a cardboard cutout of the state’s famous John Brown mural, which hangs across from the governor’s office. The mural depicts the abolitionist Brown carrying a Bible in one hand and gun in the other. In the cutout, Brown was carrying a photo of the Statue of Liberty and a driver’s license.

Safety

Emira Palacios, an organizer with Sunflower Community Action, estimated there were more than 200,000 immigrants driving on Kansas roads to work and school without a license. She said the issue is important to all Kansans regardless of their status.

“What they need to understand is we want to make it safer for all Kansans,” Palacios said. “For national security reasons, we need to identify them.”

During the committee hearing, Overland Park police Lt. Col. Stephen Smith said undocumented immigrants come to Kansas for jobs.

“We are deceiving ourselves if we believe they are not driving, which is essential to their livelihoods,” he said.

But Gadiel, lobbying for a group that represents survivors and families of victims of the terrorist attacks, said the terrorists found it relatively easy to blend in with “an ocean of illegal immigrants.”

As for the bill, he said, “You could find no better way to tell the people who lost loved ones that those losses mean nothing — nothing.”

He added, “I’d like you to remember the dead when you consider this legislation.”

Topeka resident Paul Degener expressed frustration that the state provides an education to the children of illegal immigrants and medical care in hospital emergency rooms.

“It bothers me that I have to obey the law, but we are ignoring and in fact rewarding illegal aliens,” he said. “Why are we not requiring these folks to abide by the law?”

— Associated Press Writer John Milburn contributed to this story.