repububs "can’t seem to help but follow far-right leaders over a cliff of extremism" on immigration.

[pampango]

Republicans Need A New ‘Go-To Guy’ On Immigration

Republicans know they need to broaden their party’s appeal to Hispanic voters to have a realistic shot at winning the 2016 presidential election. But on the key issue of immigration, they can’t seem to help but follow far-right leaders over a cliff of extremism.

Writing for Reuters on Monday, Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Mason explain how as President Obama prepares to announce a new round of executive actions on immigration reform, Kansas Republican Kris Kobach has become GOP’s “go-to guy” on the issue:

The report goes on to detail how Kobach, who has masterminded some of the most restrictive anti-immigrant laws in America — including Arizona’s controversial “Show Me Your Papers” law — has already sued to overturn the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and will almost certainly play a pivotal role in the fight against any future initiatives from the White House.

Hispanic-Americans are the nation’s fastest-growing demographic group, and they have grown increasingly disgusted with the GOP — in no small part due to the policies that Kobach has championed. Republicans are well aware of this, yet they still can’t help themselves from moving further and further to the right on immigration reform. Meanwhile, Hispanic voters are moving further and further away from the Republican Party.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/republicans-need-new-go-guy-immigration/

And this from the SPLC:

When Mr. Kobach Comes to Town: Nativist Laws and the Communities They Damage

The towns that passed nativist laws in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas and Nebraska, along with the state of Arizona, have spent millions of dollars to defend them in court, and almost every judicial decision so far has gone against them. One community, faced with skyrocketing legal costs, had to raise property taxes, and another was forced to cut personnel and special events and even outsource its library.

Behind all of this stands one man: Kris Kobach, a former Kansas City law professor who was just elected Kansas secretary of state. For the better part of the last six years, Kobach has been chief legal counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). He helped to write and defend in court the laws in Hazleton, Valley Park, Farmers Branch, Fremont and Arizona, and he is seeking to do even more.

Kobach’s affiliation with FAIR is important. For most of the last three decades, FAIR has been working, as its founder John Tanton once wrote, to preserve “a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Although the organization is typically less than candid about its motives,

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/when-mr-kobach-comes-to-town