Predictably, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was a star witness at Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill, fearmongering about its potential to lead to more attacks like the Boston Marathon bombings. But another witness, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist (in photo), surprised some with his testimony in favor of reform, arguing that “people are an asset, they’re not a liability,” and that those who would make the nation less immigrant-friendly “would also make us less successful, less prosperous and certainly less American.” Afterward, Norquist tweeted: “Anti-immigrant witnesses @ Senate Judiciary hearing were quite weak. The communities of faith, farmers and business guys are all with Reagan.” When Norquist visited Topeka in January with a similar message for conservative legislators, Kobach responded that Norquist “has no legal expertise in immigration law.”
State Rep. Ponka-We Victors, D-Wichita, the only American Indian serving in the Legislature, inspired a meme on social media after last week’s House hearing on whether to stop allowing some children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates. Addressing Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who testified in favor of the bill, Victors said: “When you mention illegal immigrants, I think of all of you.” The cheers and applause were hushed by the committee chairman. But they continued online. A Londoner tweeted: “Fabulous. The ultimate people-in-glasshouses putdown. Ponka-We Victors, you’re my kinda gal.” Others variously tweeted: “Oh, snap!” and “bazinga!”
U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (in photo), R-Wichita, identified one of the big problems that need to be fixed as part of federal immigration reform: The current legal immigration system is so backlogged and broken that it encourages illegal immigration. “Our immigration policy is completely backward,” Pompeo told the Topeka Capital-Journal. “Today, if you want to come here in a legal way, with proper paperwork, it is very difficult. If you want to come here unlawfully, it’s easier.”
Of the major issues that President Obama mentioned in his State of the Union address, comprehension immigration reform might stand the best chance of occurring. Obama outlined reform concepts that have broad support among the public and growing bipartisan support in Congress, including increased border security and a pathway to citizenship. Sulma Arias, executive director of Sunflower Community Action in Wichita, applauded Obama for “creating a sense of urgency around fixing the broken immigration system.” But Arias said that sending immigrants “to the end of the line is not a solution, because it assumes that ‘the line’ is an equitable and a fair process.” She added: “Hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting for 12 years or more to become citizens. The broken immigration system promotes breaking the law because there is no way to play by the rules.”
The flurry of bipartisan action in Washington, D.C., toward comprehensive immigration reform has Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and his uncompromising approach to illegal immigration looking like yesterday’s news. “We haven’t tried a strategy of strictly enforcing our laws and encouraging people to comply with the law, which means go home,” Kobach said on PBS’ “Newshour,” arguing that the proposed “amnesty” would cost the country $2.6 trillion over 10 years (because the newly documented immigrants would want food stamps, Medicaid, etc.). Kobach also said that “our legal immigration system is working. And it’s the most generous one on the planet.”
President Obama called for immigration reform in his inaugural address Monday, saying the nation needs “a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.” The public agrees. More than 6 in 10 Americans favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Among Republicans, 53 percent favor a pathway to citizenship. That’s up 22 percent from 2010.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach said President Obama’s plan for comprehensive immigration reform was out of touch with Congress and the American public. But the plan is strikingly similar to proposals being developed by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., which have been endorsed by former GOP vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis. Rubio wants to allow illegal immigrants currently living in the United States to gain provisional legal status and eventually citizenship. “Ultimately it’s not good for our country to have people permanently trapped in that status where they can’t become citizens,” Rubio said. Last week anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist told Kansas lawmakers in Topeka that Kobach’s hard-line approach to immigration was bad for the economy and bad politically for Republicans.
Illegal immigration is sure to be debated by the 2013 Legislature, which includes many new members who share Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s zeal to pass an Arizona-style crackdown. But the Kansas Chamber of Commerce is bringing anti-tax activist Grover Norquist to address legislators Jan. 16 to warn against passing what chamber CEO Mike O’Neal calls “harmful, anti-business legislation.” Kansas lawmakers also should note Arizona’s five-year experience with its mandate that employers check the citizenship status of applicants by using the E-Verify database. Only 43 percent of businesses are doing so, and there is little enforcement. Mitt Romney had called Arizona’s E-Verify law a model for the nation. An attorney for Arizona businesses told the Yuma Sun that E-Verify has “a lot of deficiencies” and invites identity theft, saying about half of undocumented applicants can find ways around it.
The public is way ahead of many politicians on immigration reform. A Politico/George Washington University national poll found that 62 percent of those surveyed support “an immigration reform proposal that allows illegal or undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship over a period of several years.” A whopping 77 percent of those surveyed support allowing “the children of illegal or undocumented immigrants to earn the right to stay here permanently if they complete a college degree or serve in the military” (which is essentially the DREAM Act that GOP lawmakers have blocked).
It doesn’t sound like the results of the 2012 presidential election will deter Kris Kobach from his mission to fight illegal immigration at the state and local levels. Characterizing illegal immigration as “the ultimate unfunded mandate,” the Kansas secretary of state told NPR: “If state and local government can add their shoulders to the wheel and help to increase the total amount of enforcement, that will change the cost-benefit analysis of your typical illegal alien who says, ‘You know what, it’s getting harder for me to work illegally in the United States. It’s getting harder for me to get these public benefits, and I’m going to go home.’”
Donald Trump blasted Mitt Romney’s support of the “self-deportation” of illegal immigrants (a policy developed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach) as “crazy” and “maniacal.” “It sounded as bad as it was, and he lost all of the Latino vote,” Trump said (actually, 71 percent). He said that Democrats don’t have a good policy for dealing with illegal immigrants, “but what they did have going for them is they weren’t mean-spirited about it.” He said Republicans need clear proposals that address “people wanting to be wonderful, productive citizens of this country.”
Hispanic voters – especially in states such as Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico – were a key reason why President Obama was re-elected. Not only did more Hispanics vote this year than in 2008, but exit polls indicated that a higher percentage of them voted for Obama than four years ago. No doubt Mitt Romney regrets his decision during the GOP primary to embrace Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (in photo) and his policy of “self-deportation.” The GOP also should rethink its hard-line stances on immigration if it doesn’t want to keep losing national elections.
President Obama criticized Mitt Romney during Tuesday’s debate for supporting “self-deportation” of illegal immigrants, a policy pushed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (in photo). Obama also tried to link Romney to Kobach and Arizona’s controversial anti-immigration law by noting that Romney’s “top adviser on immigration” wrote the law. Romney has tried to distance himself from Kobach since embracing him during the GOP primaries. But Kobach isn’t backing away. He told the Washington Times after the debate that “Obama is completely out of step with the American public on the immigration issue,” and he predicted that Obama’s statements in the debate about immigration “will further alienate independent voters who are concerned about the millions of Americans who have lost jobs to illegal aliens.”
“Does Kobach Speak for Romney?” asked the Wall Street Journal’s Jason L. Riley, noting that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been pretty quiet about immigration lately while his informal adviser on immigration issues, Kris Kobach (in photo), has been anything but. “The Wall Street Journal left multiple phone messages asking the campaign to clarify Mr. Kobach’s role, but no one got back to us,” Riley wrote, also noting the role of Kansas’ peripatetic secretary of state in the GOP platform’s calls for finishing a border fence, mandating E-Verify and ending in-state tuition rates for illegal immigrants. Recalling that President Bush won more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, Riley wrote: “Apparently, some Republicans believe that President Obama’s 35-point lead among Latino voters is too narrow.”
Secretary of State Kris Kobach seems to be everywhere these days – except in Kansas doing his job. Last week he was in Pennsylvania trying to resurrect a law he wrote barring landlords or employers in Hazleton, Pa., from dealing with illegal immigrants. He then was in Alabama defending that state’s anti-immigration law at a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hearing. Kobach’s testimony was disrupted by protesters, one of whom shouted, “These laws are made from hate.” This week Kobach was in Tampa, Fla., persuading the Republican Party to include anti-immigration measures in its official platform. “If you really want to create a job tomorrow, you can remove an illegal alien today,” Kobach said. He also filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court in Dallas over the Obama administration’s plan to stop deporting certain young illegal immigrants and grant them work permits.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano argued that the Obama administration’s new policy on granting deportation deferrals allows DHS to focus its resources more effectively. “Our focus on removing those who pose a threat to our communities can be strengthened even further by preventing low-priority cases from overwhelming our resources,” she wrote. Under the policy that began last week, young people who were brought to the United States as children and who meet other guidelines and requirements can receive temporary work permits. Others contend that the policy rewards illegal immigration and that any policy changes should come from Congress, not the administration.
If it had been up to Kansans, rather than the U.S. Supreme Court, to pass judgment on the Arizona immigration law and “Obamacare,” last week’s decisions would have gone the other way. In a SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, 55 percent of those Kansans surveyed said states should have a right to create immigration laws that pre-empt federal law, and 52 percent disagreed with the high court’s decision that it was unconstitutional for Arizona to make it a state crime for illegal immigrants to work in the state. After the court upheld the health care reform law, 52 percent of Kansans polled by SurveyUSA said they disagreed with the decision, and 59 percent said people should be allowed to choose whether to have health insurance. But 79 percent said insurance companies should be required to cover everyone who wants to buy insurance – an endorsement of the law’s requirement that pre-existing conditions not be a basis for coverage denial (which also necessitates the mandate to buy insurance).
Asked by Time’s Swampland blog what the U.S. Supreme Court’s immigration decision means for Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach predicted efforts to pass laws mandating that businesses use E-Verify and law enforcement check immigration status, a la Arizona. And he didn’t sound much like a neutral state elections official. “But it will all be dependent on what happens in the Aug. 7 primary,” he said. “Each state has its own little game: In Kansas we had a very conservative House and we had a very moderate/liberal Senate, and there was this coalition of Republican moderates who would align themselves with Democrats and had a governing majority and would defeat conservative legislation. In the Aug. 7 primary it will be determined whether it will be a conservative Republican majority or a moderate/liberal Republican majority. If the conservatives take control of the Kansas Senate, then I think you will see legislation like Arizona’s have a good chance of succeeding.”
It was a big stretch for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer to call the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on her state’s immigration law “a victory.” The high court tossed out much of the law, which Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach helped write. The state “may not pursue policies that undermine federal law,” the court wrote. For now, the court did let stand the law’s requirement that police officers check the immigration status of those they detain if there is “reasonable suspicion” the person is an illegal immigrant. But even that provision could face additional legal challenges, said the justices, who want the issue first heard by state courts. The Supreme Court’s ruling isn’t much of a victory for the federal government, either. It was the feds’ failure to enforce immigration law, and Congress’ failure to create a workable and responsive immigration system, that caused some states to take matters into their own hands.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized the timing of President Obama’s order last week to stop deporting some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. But Romney wouldn’t say Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” whether he would reverse the order if he became president. Romney would only say that “there needs to be a long-term solution.” Romney has been trying to soften his stances on immigration since the GOP primaries, when he called for illegal immigrants to “self-deport” and was endorsed by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Meanwhile, Obama’s order is playing well among Latinos. Nearly 50 percent of Latino voters in five swing states said the order made them more enthusiastic about Obama, according to a Latino Decisions survey.
Last week the Kansas House again rejected an attempt to repeal the 2004 law that enables some children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities. To their credit, lawmakers opted not to interfere with the efforts of the 500 students who are making use the law and advancing their educational goals. During the lengthy debate, the unflinching advocate for those students was Rep. Mario Goico, R-Wichita, who peppered the repeal sponsor with questions and spoke movingly of having had no choice when he was sent by his parents to the U.S. from Cuba as a 15-year-old. Though he was able to gain refugee status from the State Department and stay legally, the kids helped by the Kansas law have no such option. As he said, “the Department of State has been absent without leave now for 40 years.”
Secretary of State Kris Kobach glossed over the differences he has with Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on immigration issues, telling Kansas media that GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney could “embrace both of us and go merrily along to win the election in November.” But Kobach has made clear that he doesn’t support a key element of Rubio’s GOP DREAM Act, which would grant visas (not citizenship) to young illegal immigrants who had been brought into the country, provided they are high school graduates and don’t have criminal records. Unless the immigrants go back to their home countries and get in the back of the immigration line, the policy amounts to “amnesty,” Kobach said in the Washington Post, adding that “amnesty allows someone who is illegally in the country to remain but with lawful status – that gives the illegal alien what he has stolen.”
Anti-immigration crusader and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been identified as an unpaid adviser to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the source of Romney’s view that “the answer is self-deportation.” But the nature of their relationship got murky last week. When Politico asked the Romney campaign whether Kobach was still an “adviser,” a Romney spokeswoman e-mailed back: “supporter.” Later, Kobach told ThinkProgress: “No, my relationship with the campaign has not changed. Still doing the same thing I was doing before,” which is “providing advice on immigration policy” and communicating “regularly with senior members of Romney’s team.” In response, though, President Obama adviser David Axelrod tweeted: “Kobach botches Mitt maneuver. Refuses to be Etch-a-Sketched away!” Slate political reporter Dave Weigel called it a case of “Ko-bachtracking.” The New York Times’ Lawrence Downes observed: “Latino voters. The Kobach crowd. Mr. Romney can try to have one or the other, but probably not both.”
The Kansas Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback have wisely shown little interest in Arizona-type legislation to combat illegal immigration. But several state officials have signed on in support of the Arizona law, which has been blocked by the courts and will be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court on April 25, the Lawrence Journal-World reported. In addition to Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped write the Arizona law, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and U.S. Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, are officially defending the law. “In light of the federal government’s refusal or downright ineptitude in protecting American citizens along our southern border, Arizona should have the power to deter illegal immigration in accordance with federal standards,” Jenkins said. Among those formally opposing the Arizona law are former Kansas Attorneys General Steve Six and Robert Stephan.
As Mitt Romney tightens his grasp on the Republican Party’s nomination, political observers are counseling him to moderate his stance on illegal immigration. He has called Arizona’s tough law a “model” and said “the answer is self-deportation.” Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped write the Arizona and Alabama laws, has been an unpaid adviser to Romney. But Romney recently won the endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has said the Arizona law “is not a model for our country” and is working on a GOP version of the DREAM Act to help high-achieving high school students who are illegal immigrants. And if Romney wants Latino votes in the fall, he should separate himself from Kobach, advised Bob Quasius, the founder of Cafe Con Leche Republicans. “Avoid all associations with extremists,” Quasius told ABC News. “Obama will hang Kris Kobach around his neck in the general election.”
Predictably, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was a star witness at Monday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform bill, fearmongering about its potential to lead to more attacks like the Boston Marathon bombings. But another witness, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist (in photo), surprised some with his testimony in favor of reform, arguing that “people are an asset, they’re not a liability,” and that those who would make the nation less immigrant-friendly “would also make us less successful, less prosperous and certainly less American.” Afterward, Norquist tweeted: “Anti-immigrant witnesses @ Senate Judiciary hearing were quite weak. The communities of faith, farmers and business guys are all with Reagan.” When Norquist visited Topeka in January with a similar message for conservative legislators, Kobach responded that Norquist “has no legal expertise in immigration law.”
