About 50 college students who are in the U.S. illegally marched Tuesday on Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach's office urging him to stop working on immigration laws and to do his state job.

The students from Kansas and Arizona delivered a letter to a staff member, who said Kobach was in his office but unable to meet with the students. The letter calls for Kobach to stop working on immigration laws and focus on his duties as secretary of state or resign for office.

"I'm still standing and fighting to have the American dream," said Ernesto de la Rosa, a 24-year-old Dodge City student who attends Wichita State University. "We need a path to citizenship."

The students are members of the DREAM Act Coalition. The DREAM Act would create a citizenship path for residents who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Kobach is a Republican and former law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has helped shape immigration policies around the country and continues to litigate immigration issues in other states while serving in his Kansas position.

Kobach told The Associated Press he read the students' letter but thought it would have been inappropriate for him to have met with the students in his office because he tries to separate his official duties from his outside interests.