TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican Kris Kobach raised a migrant caravan moving through Mexico as an issue in his campaign for Kansas governor, suggesting that lax state immigration policies are helping to lure them north.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is a strong ally of President Donald Trump and has made enacting state policies against illegal immigration a cornerstone of his campaign for governor. He’s had a national profile on the issue for at least a decade and advised Trump’s campaign in 2016 and the White House since.

During a debate Thursday night in the southwest Kansas town of Garden City, Kobach repeated a disputed claim that Kansas provides $377 million a year in welfare benefits and other services to immigrants living in the state illegally.

“And policies like that are why we have a caravan marching north to come to the United States, because we give out the goodies as soon as you come across the border,” Kobach said.

Kobach’s statement drew a mix of loud boos and cheers from the crowd, and his closing statement also was interrupted. His comments about immigration came in a wide-ranging debate on familiar campaign themes that included taxes, public school funding and other state spending.

Southwest Kansas has seen an influx of immigrants in recent decades, lured by agricultural jobs, particularly in meatpacking. Nearly half of Garden City’s 27,000 residents are Hispanic, according to census figures.

Both Democratic nominee Laura Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, and independent candidate Greg Orman, a Kansas City-area businessman, suggested that Kobach’s hardline approach on immigration would hurt the state’s economy.

“So much of our economy, whether you’re talking about here in the southwest or across the state, depends upon quality immigrant labor,” Kelly said, adding that she’d push Congress for comprehensive immigration reform to “let people live in peace.”

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FORSYTH, Mo. (AP) – Court documents say a southwest Missouri jailer who is charged with having sex with an inmate told a detective that the inmate was “tempting” him.

51-year-old Jay Senger was charged Tuesday with three felony counts of having sex with a prisoner while working at the Taney County Jail. He is free on bond. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.

Charging documents say the inmate told a jail administrator Monday that she performed oral sex on Senger and consented to him touching her sexually while he stood in the doorway of her cell after lockdown.

The documents say Senger told a detective during an interview that the inmate was “tempting” and “teasing” him.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Authorities are going door-to-door and using a helicopter to search for a missing 4-year-old boy in Jefferson City.

Police Capt. Deric Heislen says Darnell Gray was last seen Wednesday night at the apartment where he lives. The boy’s father was at work when an acquaintance reported the boy missing just before 7 a.m. Thursday. Also missing was the boy’s coat, backpack, two juice boxes and some cookies.

Heislen says the child’s disappearance isn’t believed to be a parental abduction. He says authorities don’t know what happened to the child. No one has been arrested, and Heislen says the family is cooperating with authorities.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol has issued an endangered persons advisory, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has issued an alert for Darnell .

The story and headline have been corrected to show the boy is 4, not 3.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas bank robbery and are offering a reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the reward Thursday in connection with the September 29, robbery of the Kaw Valley Bank at SW 29th Street and Urish Road in Topeka.

The suspect entered the bank with his face covered with a nylon draw string style bag over his head, indicated he had a weapon, demanded cash and left with an undisclosed amount of money in black 2012-2016 Chevrolet Malibu that had been parked in the adjacent Dillons parking lot.

The suspect did not display a weapon and there were no injuries.

The suspect is described as a black man, 6-foot-1 – 6-foot-4 and weighing 300 lbs. He was wearing a light blue zip-up jacket, dark colored pants, and white tennis shoes.

Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call the FBI Topeka office at 785-231-1700 or the Kansas City office at 816-512-8200. Tips can also be sent the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office at 785-251-2200 or Crimestoppers at 785-234-0007.

KANSAS CITY– A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday to 51 months in federal prison for stealing 14 guns from a pawn shop, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said.

Angel D. Mora, 20, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of stealing guns from a licensed firearms dealer. At a sentencing hearing, a prosecutor said Mora and accomplices broke into Joe’s Pawn and Gun in Kansas City, Kan.

They took seven rifles, five shotguns and two handguns. When police arrived during the burglary, Mora fled on foot. Investigators found him hiding along a creek bed and arrested him.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas election officials are reviewing text messages claiming to be from President Donald Trump and telling residents that their early votes hadn’t been recorded, as Democratic leaders worried Thursday that they were part of efforts to “steal” a close governor’s race.

State Elections Director Bryan Caskey said the Kansas secretary of state’s office received 50 or 60 calls about the texts Wednesday, mostly from the northeastern part of the state. Caskey said the office is trying to determine whether the texts broke a law before determining what to do next.

One text says “Your absentee ballot is ready. Remember to vote for Pres. Trump’s allies.” A follow-up text says, “This is President Trump. Your early vote has NOT been RECORDED on Kansas’s roster.” It urges the voter to confirm his or her polling place.

Democrats are on edge because Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the state’s top elections official, is a Trump ally and the Republican nominee for governor. He’s in a dead heat with Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly after defeating GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer in the August primary by only 343 votes out of more than 317,000 cast.

Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, and Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, said during a Statehouse news conference that they worry the texts are confusing voters because at least a few Democrats received them. Ward said some new voters may conclude that the voting process is too complicated and give up.

“The whole purpose of sending it out is to sow confusion,” Ward said. “Remember, we’re talking about an election that can be determined by 300 or 400 votes. So, 50 here, 50 there, 50 there, pretty soon, you’ve stolen an election.”

They called on Kobach and his chief deputy, Eric Rucker, to step aside from administering elections so that final decisions in the secretary of state’s office are left to Caskey.

Kobach spokeswoman Danedri Herbert said he does not plan to step aside because he has a responsibility under the state constitution to oversee elections. She noted that most states, including Kansas, give the job to an elected official.

As for the top Democrats, she said, “Their claims are ridiculous.”

County election officials handle the actual counting of votes. The job is overseen by an elected clerk in 101 of 105 counties. Election commissioners appointed by Kobach are in charge in the state’s four most populous counties, which are home to almost half of the state’s more than 1.8 million registered voters.

Ward and Hensley sent an open records request Thursday to Kobach demanding copies of all written and electronic communications between him, his employees and his county election officials since the Aug. 7 primary.

“We’re not trying to cause chaos. We’re trying to make sure they know we’re watching and we’re not going to let them steal an election, OK?” Ward said. “This is an incredibly close election and any mistake or any action that diminishes or suppresses the vote could swing an election.”

The texts to voters link to a website for the Republican National Committee, and Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kelly Arnold said he suspects that’s who sent the messages. He said the texts didn’t come from state party officials.

The RNC didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

But Arnold said the texts appeared to be part of a get-out-the-vote effort. He said party officials pay for regular updates on who has requested and returned advance ballots or voted early in person, though that information can sometimes be slightly outdated.

“We are trying to get out as much information to our voters as possible,” Arnold said.

Caskey said voters should only trust voting information that comes from state or local election officials. He added that this is the first time the state has received a complaint about the content of a text, which campaigns have increasingly used this election cycle.

Lyon County Clerk Tammy Vopat, a Republican, said she spoke to one man who received one of the texts after voting early and assured him that his vote would be tabulated on election night. She said the texts, which she described as “bogus” were discussed Wednesday during a routine weekly phone call with state and county election officials.

“It worries me that information like this is being sent out that puts doubt in our voters’ minds,” Vopat said.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old man has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a Kansas police captain in July 2016.

Jamaal Lewis was scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 5, but he pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree felony murder in the killing of 46-year-old Capt. Robert Melton in Kansas City, Kansas.

Melton was searching for suspects in a drive-by shooting when he saw Lewis walking and tried to block him with his patrol car. Prosecutors say Lewis pulled a handgun and fired several shots through the passenger-side window of Melton’s vehicle. Lewis was originally charged with capital murder.

Lewis could be sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 25 years. He will be sentenced Nov. 30.