Representative Ron Estes

.Dear Friend,

After an eventful Monday with the inauguration of President Donald Trump last week, Congress went right to work to deliver for the American people.

The first bill to pass both the House and the Senate in this 119th Congress was the Laken Riley Act. It is now headed to the president’s desk for his signature. The bill is named for Georgia nursing student Laken Riley who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2024. The legislation is common sense – if an illegal alien assaults a law enforcement officer, commits a crime that results in death, or commits a burglary offense, their arrest and detainment by ICE will be mandatory. The bill received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, with about 60 Democrats joining every Republican in support of the bill between the two chambers.

The bill really isn’t controversial – if someone enters the country illegally and commits a crime, they should be immediately detained and prosecuted. Laken Riley’s murderer had already been arrested in New York City for driving an uninsured and unregistered vehicle and endangering the welfare of a child, and he was also arrested for stealing $200 in goods in Georgia.

This is also why President Trump has signed executive orders to detain and deport dangerous criminals from our country. The Laken Riley Act is important, but the president has the authority to use laws already in place to make our country safer, and more than 1,000 criminals have already been deported in his first week. Unfortunately, fearmongering has gripped some in our country regarding deportation plans, but the facts are clear – risky and harmful criminals are the ones who have been targeted and removed from the United States. Everyone should feel safer that in just one week’s time, more than 1,000 murderers, rapists, terrorists and thieves are no longer in our communities.

We will continue working on more legislation to secure our border and our nation. The United States has been and always will be a place for immigrants from around the globe to seek freedom and a better life. But those coming to this country to do harm, like the ones deported this week, will have no place here.

Sincerely,

Member of Congress

.On Friday, Kansans from across the state, including many from south central Kansas, came to Capitol Hill to make their voices heard for the voiceless.

The March for Life is an annual event that started about five decades ago after the disastrous Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade in 1973. While Roe was overturned in 2022 thanks to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision which returned the issue to the states, there is still much to be done to protect innocent babies and mothers.

At the federal level, we can still play a role in the fight for life by advocating for common sense protections, which a majority of Americans support, for the most vulnerable among us – like the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act or my bill to protect individuals with a pre-natal diagnosis of Down syndrome.

There are so many young Kansans who understand the importance of valuing life, and I was pleased to meet some of them in D.C., including a group from Bishop Carroll High School’s broadcasting class who interviewed me about the pro-life movement. These bright, compassionate students are already leaders in their schools and communities, and I look forward to seeing what they do in the future.

Before Friday’s March for Life, the House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that mandates babies born following a botched abortion receive the same medical care that would be given to any other child born. To those who are wondering – yes, this does happen, and there are abortion survivors today that I’ve met and heard speak. Additionally, this bill is needed because there are folks who are extreme enough to say that abortion survivors should not be cared for upon birth. While this bill seems like a no-brainer, only one Democrat joined all Republicans in voting yes, and one simply voted present.

.Did you know that Grenola, Kansas, in Elk County was named by combining two towns’ names? Grenola is a portmanteau – the combination of the first part of the town of Greenfield and the last part of the town of Canola. A railroad was built between the two towns in 1879 and was used for transporting cattle. The town was well-known for shipping cattle and became the largest shipping point in the country from 1881 to 1884.