Kansas legislators can’t avoid a debate on illegal immigration after they open their annual session Jan. 9.

Kris Kobach, an architect of get-tough proposals across the nation, serves as secretary of state, and fellow conservative Republicans are eager to raise the issue.

But even Kobach acknowledges that his home state’s lawmakers are likely to concentrate on familiar proposals rather than move as aggressively as legislators did in 2011 in Alabama, which claims the nation’s toughest immigration law.

Instead, Kansas legislators are expected to consider a measure requiring government contractors to use the federal E-Verify system to check the status of their workers.

Another proposal would direct law enforcement officers to check the status of people they suspect of being illegal immigrants after stopping them for other reasons.