America’s Deporter in Chief (Kris Kobach)

[pampango]

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/30/america-s-deporter-in-chief.html

In the absence of congressional action, Kobach is after what he says is the best alternative: “People often see federal immigration policy as a dichotomy between amnesty and deportation. But the most rational approach is a third one: you ratchet up the enforcement so that people make their own decisions to start following the law.” In other words, take away the reasons people come to America illegally—education, work, housing, and, yes, citizenship for their kids—and, Kobach says, they will “self-deport.”

Though they have inspired mass protest, Kobach’s legal positions are tenable, even clever, say constitutional experts. He’s clarifying the fuzzy line between state and federal power, says Peter Schuck, a Yale law professor. But civil-liberties groups and immigrant advocates bristle in response. Kobach is “of counsel” to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which the SPLC calls an anti-Latino “hate group,” and endorsed by firebrands like Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Ariz., fueling accusations that Kobach is less Ivy League scholar than major-league bigot. “I don’t have a racist or nativist bone in my body,” he says, adding with a wink that he gets why people might say so. “In a legal debate, when your opponents turn to name-calling, it’s a good sign you’ve already won.”

This year may be Kobach’s most influential yet. From a base in Kansas, where he is the newly seated secretary of state, Kobach will help Arizona defend his laws against all comers. Both the Justice Department and American Civil Liberties Union have sued the state, claiming that immigration is a federal matter. He’ll also counsel a dozen or so states that are considering copycat laws and a coordinated assault on birthright citizenship. And he’ll litigate at least four ongoing immigration-related cases, including lawsuits against California (for extending in-state college-tuition rates to the undocumented) and San Francisco (for failing to notify immigration authorities before a thrice-arrested alien allegedly murdered three people). It’s a “legal jihad,” according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which calls the path he’s blazing “a trail of tears.”

Kobach’s contagious ideas and all-American good looks have made him a fixture on Fox News. But he’s no wingnut. His path to public life is so pedigreed it makes John Kerry seem rough-hewn. Kobach earned top undergrad honors at Harvard; won a Marshall scholarship to Oxford, where he picked up a political-science doctorate; got a law degree from Yale, where he was an editor of The Yale Law Journal; and did missionary work in Africa. He even won two Masters national rowing titles in the men’s double scull.
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Southern Poverty Law Center criticizes Kobach’s proposals on illegal immigration

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/jan/30/southern-poverty-law-center-criticizes-kobachs-pro/

The Southern Poverty Law Center earlier this month released a report focusing on Kobach’s legal and advocacy work to pass measures in cities and states that Kobach says are designed to combat illegal immigration. But the law center, a nonprofit civil rights group based in Birmingham, Ala., says his proposals are misguided, have led to expensive legal challenges and have stirred up racial tensions.

Kobach has been legal counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

The Southern Poverty Law Center says FAIR is a racist organization. The center’s report on Kobach describes the Republican as a political opportunist, comparing him to the character of con man Harold Hill in the musical “The Music Man.”

“The Southern Poverty Law Center has been saying negative things about me for a long time,” Kobach said. He said the group has “basically become a left-wing smear organization.”