Proposals for cracking down on illegal immigration in Kansas are foundering because of a split among majority Republicans in the state House.

But House GOP leaders were under pressure Wednesday to get legislation moving.

House Speaker Mike O’Neal, of Hutchinson, told fellow Republicans during a caucus meeting that he’d prefer to avoid a debate on immigration because it would be divisive.

Some conservatives want the House to debate proposals favored by Secretary of State Kris Kobach (KOH’-bahk), who helped draft tough immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona. Some rural Republicans back a proposal from influential business groups to create a program to place some illegal immigrants in hard-to-fill jobs in agriculture and other industries.

Bills taking both approaches have stalled in the House Federal and State Affairs Committee.