A bill pending in the Kansas Legislature renouncing President Barack Obama’s recent executive orders easing deportation policies against select groups of undocumented immigrants would affect hundreds of local families, Lawrence immigration attorney Blanca Marin de Stevanov said Friday.

Obama’s executive orders, halted last week by a federal judge in Texas in a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality, would allow undocumented children who moved to the United States when they were younger than 16 and before Jan. 1, 2010, to apply for deferred action — deportation — for three years. Parents of children who are lawfully living in the U.S. and pass a criminal background check would also be eligible to apply.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach

Kansas Senate Bill 166, referred to as the “Rule of Law Restoration Act” and introduced earlier this month at the request of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, says the executive orders were illegal because they violated the separation of powers described in Articles I and II of the U.S. Constitution.

The bill says they also violate federal law requiring immigration officers to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. Because of these unlawful actions, the bill states, Kansas does not have to follow the orders.

“Obama’s executive amnesty is in violation of federal law,” Kobach said. “Therefore it has no effect in the state of Kansas.”

Marin de Stevanov said there are hundreds of students in Lawrence who would benefit from the executive order, known as the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals,” many of whom have already benefitted from an earlier version enacted in 2012. The original DACA was identical to the latest version in legal limbo, except that the children had to have been in the U.S. prior to June 15, 2007, and the deferred action was for two years instead of three.

“A lot of kids showed up (in 2012) and said they came to the U.S. in 2008, but it didn’t apply to them,” Marin de Stevanov said. “The extended DACA doesn’t really change much besides the year by which they must have been in the country.”

The pending Kansas legislation says undocumented immigrants place a fiscal burden on Kansas taxpayers, which Kobach said is unfair to those lawfully residing in Kansas.

Marin de Stevanov said that the executive orders would not cause financial burdens because those who receive the deferred action will be required to file their own taxes.

The bill also states that illegal immigration causes economic hardships for unemployed, lawful residents because the orders give employment authorization to undocumented workers. Kobach said Friday that the bill would prevent those financial strains.

“There are thousands of Kansans who are unemployed, under-employed or have given up trying to find a job,” Kobach said. “This law protects Kansas workers from having to compete against that unlawful competition.”

Marin de Stevanov said she sees a different side of the story. She recalled one story of a Lawrence 17-year-old whom she helped gain DACA authorization.

The boy, now a junior at a local high school, came to her office after the first DACA order was issued. He’d been in America since he was little, Marin de Stevanov said, with his undocumented younger brother and mother, a single mom and a victim of abuse.

Neither he nor his mother could find legitimate employment without visas or Social Security numbers, so they worked odd jobs whenever possible to make ends meet, Marin de Stevanov said.

“He goes to school, but wanted to help his mother,” Stevanov said. “But without a driver’s license, it wasn’t possible.”

After the order in 2012, he underwent a criminal background check, gave his fingerprints, showed proof of his school enrollment and paid the $465 application fee, the attorney said. After the four-month process, the boy was granted deferred action.

“There’s nothing free about it,” Martin de Stevanov said. “You have to work for it.”

Now, the boy is legally eligible to work and has a driver’s license. He works part time, goes to high school and wants to attend college in a few years, Martin de Stevanov said.

“Being able to work for him — even if just for part time — you can see the difference,” Martin de Stevanov said. “He’s on cloud nine to be able to do something that might not seem so significant to someone else.”

But Kobach said it doesn’t matter the circumstance or how long an undocumented person has lived in the U.S. in the law’s eyes.

“If they are unlawfully in the country, they’re not supposed to be in the United States,” Kobach said. “If people think differently, they should take their case before Congress, which has struck down the DREAM Act time and again.”