A bill proposed Monday would allow bounty hunters to capture people living in the country illegally or without legal permission.

Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson cast doubt Thursday on the fate of a contentious immigration bill, which proposes paying people a $1,000 bounty for turning in undocumented migrants in the state.

A confrontational legislative hearing Monday — with a witness calling a state senator a fascist and lawmakers battling over whether the state should put a bounty on undocumented immigrants — set the tone for this year’s debate on immigration and the state’s role in border security.

There is no appetite among House Republicans for a bill that would put a bounty on undocumented immigrants, Speaker Jon Patterson told reporters Thursday. The legislation, which was debated Tuesday in a Missouri Senate committee,

Dozens of people spoke out against the plan by state Sen. David Gregory, R-Chesterfield, during a committee hearing this week.

One bill being discussed in the Senate would include life imprisonment without parole as a punishment for immigration violations, and would allow Missourians to collect $1,000 bounties for reporting people who are in the country without legal status.