Kansas Legislature unites against plague of ‘transnational repression’ by countries, terrorists

Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, is a champion of House Bill 2413 that includes a measure raising criminal penalties against foreign countries and terrorists organizations engaged in transnational repression in Kansas. Directly behind Humphries in this March 2025 photo taken at the Capitol is Rep. Dan Osman, an Overland Park Democrat voting for the bill but skeptical higher sanctions will deter international spies. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Rep. Susan Humphries’ powers of persuasion led to unanimous support in the Kansas House for a bill elevating prison sentences for agents of foreign countries or terrorist organizations convicted of crimes while trying to coerce U.S. citizens, legal residents or asylum seekers in Kansas.

Humphries, a Wichita Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the threat was real because the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security established a task force in Wichita during June 2025 to address “transnational repression.”

“This is happening in Kansas,” she said. “We can’t really tolerate a foreign power operating maliciously without consequences. When a foreign government attempts to harass, coerce someone in Kansas it’s not merely committing a crime against an individual, it’s challenging our authority.”

The Kansas Senate voted unanimously for passage of the anti-spy legislation included in House Bill 2413, which featured higher penalties for stealing livestock, grain or hay. The bill sent to Gov. Laura Kelly also decriminalized the practice of catching feral cats for sterilization and vaccination before returning the felines to the wild.

The transnational repression section of the bill targeted the “foreign adversaries” of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, but broadly included international terrorist organizations.

The legislation inflated prison sentences for behavior by a “foreign principal to influence, control or impose … preferences on the behavior of individuals … through physical contact, threats or electronic targeting.” The higher penalties also would apply to indirect threats of financial coercion or use of social media.

This portion of the bill was sought by State Armor, an organization pushing state-level legislation to counter the Chinese Communist Party and other unsavory entities. It’s led by Michael Lucci, who has been associated with Cicero Institute, a Texas-based think tank focused on market-driven policy, including bans on homeless camps; State Policy Network, a collection of more than 150 conservative and libertarian think tanks; and Platte Institute, a free-market group from Omaha, Nebraska.

Jacqueline Deal, an adviser to State Armor with expertise on China, told Kansas lawmakers the most frequent perpetrator of transnational repression from 2014 to 2022 was China. She urged the Legislature to label the bill as the “Crush Transnational Repression in Kansas Act,” but lawmakers declined.

“Targets are often defenders of human rights or political opponents, and these targets tend to be students, artists or journalists seeking to exercise the rights and freedoms to which they are entitled on American soil,” Deal said.

She said cases linked to transnational repression were often prosecuted in state courts, and enhanced penalties for this line of criminal conduct was appropriate.

“Ideally, these penalties will deter,” Deal said.

During House floor debate on the bill, Rep. Dan Osman, D-Overland Park, said it was folly to believe incremental nudging of the state’s sentencing grid would stop crime.

“The principals will say, ‘If you increase the severity level just one level, that’s going to make the difference,'” Osman said. “And, we come back the next year and the crime has continued.”

Osman, who voted for the bundle in HB 2413, said there was no more obvious example of the flawed logic than provisions targeting transnational repression in Kansas.

“There is no spy out there, there is no foreign agent out there, that’s going to say, ‘Oh, my God, you increased the severity level by one. I should go back to … Venezuela now.’ It’s not going to stop anyone,” he said.

Sen. Craig Bowser, a Holton Republican, offered a different take on portions of the bill dedicated to nefarious agents operating in Kansas. He pointed to the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist, who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s execution.

“But, more often, repression is subtle,” Bowser said. “Its harassment, cyber intimidation, threats to family members overseas, misuse of the legal processes and coercion designed to silence speech. While national security is primarily a federal responsibility, the crimes themselves often occur locally — in our cities, on our college campuses and in our communities.”

He said the legislation required training of Kansas law enforcement officers to identify patterns of foreign coercion. Enactment of the bill would put the world on notice that Kansas wouldn’t wait for action from Washington, D.C., to address instances of foreign interference, he said.

“This legislation is not partisan,” the senator said. “It is about defending the rule of law, protecting vulnerable residents and ensuring that no foreign power operates above the law within our borders.”