Representatives from several local and national human rights organizations on Friday will deliver to Gov. Sam Brownback more than 50,000 signatures from an online petition calling for state Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, to resign for his comments about illegal immigration.

“Representative Peck’s words were dangerous,” said Lalo Muñoz from the Latino Informational Network of Kansas.

“There is no place in our Kansas State Legislature for someone who uses offensive words to endanger and create fear in our communities,” Muñoz said.

Last week Peck, during a committee discussion about a program that controls the feral hog problem by shooting them from helicopters, said, “It looks like to me, that if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem.”

The comment caused a national uproar. The next day, Peck issued a two-sentence apology, saying his statement was “regrettable.”

Many organizations said Peck’s apology didn’t go far enough and that he should resign. Peck has refused, and House Republican leaders have said they have accepted Peck’s apology and won’t discuss it further.

Presente.org, a national online advocacy group for Latinos, coordinated an online petition drive calling for Peck’s resignation. The drive had more than 50,000 signers.

On Friday, the group, along with representatives from Sunflower Community Action, Somos Republicanos, Latino Information Network of Kansas, the Kansas-Missouri DREAM Alliance, Topeka LULAC Council, National People’s Action, the Wichita Metro American GI Forum, and others will deliver the petitions to Brownback.