GOP Immigration Guru Insists DREAMers Should Self-Deport

By Igor Volsky/Think Progress

On Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), a long-time advocate of the DREAM Act, strongly rebuked a GOP witness for opposing a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents. The witness, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, rose to prominence for advising Mitt Romney’s “self-deportation” immigration policy during the 2012 presidential campaign and is the architect of both Arizona’s infamous “show your papers” law (SB 1070) and the Republican Party’s harsh immigration platform.

Speaking at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing, Kobach insisted that DREAM eligible applicants, many of whom have lived in the United States for most of their lives, should not be rewarded for the “sins of their parents.” Instead, DREAMers should go back to their parents’ country of origin, Kobach said, and “get in line with the rest of their countrymen.”

“That just defies basic compassion,” Durbin shot back, pointing to to Gabby Pacheco, an undocumented immigrant brought to America at the age of eight from Ecuador, who was testifying alongside Kobach. “She’s never known any other country,” Durbin explained, “this is her home.” Watch it:

Kobach responded by reviving self-deportation, arguing that “if you ratchet up the penalties for violating the law, people choose to leave.”

But Durbin predicted that the momentum has shifted from deportation to reform after the 2012 election. “Ultimately the voters have the last word. The voters had the last word on self-deportation on Nov. 6, so we’re beyond that now,” he said.

Under the bill introduced by the Senate’s so-called Gang of 8, individuals in DREAM Act Status can receive their green cards in 5 years and will be eligible for citizenship immediately after. The status only applies to students who entered the U.S. at age 15 or younger and have lived in the the country for at least five years.

Later in the hearing, Kobach argued that “declining to remove an unlawfully present alien is actually amnesty-plus, because — if you liken it to theft — you’re given the person what he is taken, namely presence in the United States. He’s taken it unlawfully, so you’re not only declined to punish, but you also allow him to have what he has taken.”

Romney Adviser Compares Homosexuality To Polygamy, Drug Use During GOP Platform Committee Meeting

By Adam Peck/Think Progress

During a meeting of the Republican National National Convention Platform on Tuesday, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach spoke out against an amendment that would have struck down the party’s longstanding support for the Defense of Marriage Act — which outlaws same-sex marriages — by comparing homosexuality with drug use and polygamy.

Pat Kerby, an RNC delegate from Nevada, introduced the amendment, arguing that “under the constitution, every American gets treated equally under the law.”

But Kobach, who is best know as the chief architect of Arizona’s xenophobic SB 1070 law and advises the Romney campaign on immigration issues, opposed the amendment by comparing LGBT people to drug users and polygamists:

Our government routinely judges sutuatons where you might regard people completely affecting themselves like for exmaple the use of controlled substances, like polygamy that is voluntarily entered in to. We condemn those activities even though they are not hurting other people at least directly. So this is worded way to broadly for inclusion in the platform.

The amendment was defeated by a voice vote.

Watch Kobach’s statement:

Etch A Sketch: Romney Camp Concedes Kobach Is Adviser; Kobach Concedes Romney Wants SB-1070 Nationwide

By Alex Seitz-Wald/Think Progress

As Mitt Romney pivots to the general election and tries to close his big deficit with Latino voters, his campaign spent this week apparently backtracking on two key aspects of its controversial immigration policy. But it now appears to have come back full circle to its original positions.

First, the campaign tried to distance itself from controversial immigration activist Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona and Alabama’s harsh anti-immigration laws. Romney had touted Kobach as an informal adviser, but this week said he was merely a “supporter” not an “adviser.” ThinkProgress and others spoke with Kobach, who disputed the claim and said he was still advising the campaign, but nonetheless Romney’s staffagain stood by their initial statement.

But today, a spokesperson agreed in an email to CNN that Kobach is indeed an “informal adviser.”

Secondly, the Romney campaign asserted that when the presumed presidential nominee said during a Republican primary debate that Arizona is “a model,” he was referring to the state’s E-Verify law, not its anti-immigration law, the Kobach-backed SB-1070.

But newly-confirmed immigration adviser Kobach disputed this as well. “He stated very publicly that Arizona’s law should be a model for how the federal government enforces its immigration laws. And he’s correct there too,” Kobach told CNN of SB-1070. Indeed, Romney’s “self-deportation” policy shares the same basic approach as Arizona’s law.

Kobach went on to say that he doesn’t expect Romney — who had the harshest immigration policy of any Republican presidential candidate — to moderate his stances at all when facing President Obama. “I think it would be unusual for a national presidential candidate to back away from statements he’s made in debates and he hasn’t shown any sign of doing so,” Kobach said.

Indeed, it will be very hard for Romney, whose PAC was one of the largest donors to Kobach’s campaign for Kansas Secretary of State, to distance himself from his immigration adviser or the law in Arizona.

Romney campaign tries to distance itself from key immigration adviser

By Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is distancing himself from the author of some of the toughest anti-immigration laws in the country, Kris Kobach, the first in what is expected to be a series of moves aimed at winning over crucial Latino voters.

Politico reported today that Kobach, responsible for the tough anti-immigration legislation in Arizona and other states, has been demoted from Romney’s “adviser” on immigration policy to a “supporter”.

Romney highlighted the role of Kobach in his campaign during the Republican primaries in states such as South Carolina, where there is a strong anti-immigrant feeling. But with the primaries all but over, Romney is beginning to pivot toward a position more sympathetic to Latinos.

Polls consistently show Barack Obama enjoying a two-to-one advantage over Romney among Latinos, a huge majority that could be the determining factor in the White House election. Romney, speaking at a fundraiser at the weekend, admitted his campaign was doomed if he could not win over Latinos.

Politico asked Romney’s campaign headquarters in Boston if Kobach was still an adviser. A Romney spokesperson emailed back to say he was “a supporter”.

Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, labelled this as evidence of Romney offering one set of views to Republicans for the primaries and caucuses and another for the general electorate.

Axelrod tweeted: “Etch-a-Sketch moment. After telling donors he’s ‘doomed’ unless he picks up with Latinos, Mitt puts kibosh on Kobach.”

The change in status came as news to Kobach. He told ThinkProgress that he continued to provide advice on immigration policy.

Kobach, 45, a former constitutional law professor, is at present secretary of state for Kansas. He co-authored anti-illegal immigration policies not only in Arizona but Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma, and he has given advice to other states. These policies have resulted in confrontations between the Obama administration and Arizona and other states which have introduced hardline immigration policies. The constitutionality of the issue is to be tested in the US supreme court next week.

In February, Kobach told the Guardianthat Romney had discussed imposing a nationwide crackdown on illegal immigrants if he were elected president. Kobach estimated that within the first four years of a new Republican presidency, as many as half of the current pool of undocumented immigrants – some 5.5 million people – could be made to flee by much more aggressive enforcement of immigration laws.

Romney first employed Kobach as an adviser on immigration in his failed 2008 bid for the Republican nomination. Romney has not directly described Kobach as an adviser, but he was effusive in January welcoming his endorsement.

“We need more conservative leaders like Kris willing to stand up for the rule of law,” Romney said at the time. “With Kris on the team, I look forward to working with him to take forceful steps to curtail illegal immigration and to support states like South Carolina and Arizona that are stepping forward to address this problem.”

Kobach has repeatedly described himself as an adviser to the campaign.

Romney could help himself with Latinos by choosing someone such as Florida senator Marco Rubio as his vice-presidential running mate or proposing a Republican version of the Dream Act that would offer a route to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

There is disappointment among many Latinos with Obama over his failure to tackle immigration issue as he promised in the 2008 campaign. But so far, misgivings about him among Latinos have been overriden by the hostile rhetoric toward immigrants from Romney and other Republican candidates during the primaries and caucuses.

On MLK Day, Romney Campaigning With Anti-Immigrant Official Tied To Hate Groups

By Amanda Peterson Beadle/Think Progress

On a day set aside to honor civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Mitt Romney plans to tout his extreme immigration positions during a campaign stop in South Carolina today — with Kris Kobach, the author of Arizona’s and Alabama’s immigration laws, at his side. He will attack his competitors Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry for their softer immigration stances, which could resonate with South Carolina voters who support that state’s harmful immigration law.

“Mitt Romney stands apart from the others. He’s the only one who’s taken a strong across-the-board position on immigration,” Kobach said, and he told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that Romney was much farther to the right on illegal immigration than his fellow presidential candidates. Watch:

Considering Kobach’s own opinions and associations, however, his endorsement may not be one Romney wants to tout.

Before he became Kansas’ secretary of state, Kobach worked for Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal branch of Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a “nativist hate group.” One of FAIR’s main goals is to overturn the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which “ended a decades-long, racist quota system that limited immigration mostly to northern Europeans.” FAIR’s founder John Tanton has said that he wants the U.S. to remain a majority-white nation through limiting the number of non-whites who enter the U.S.

When Arizona’s SB 1070, Kobach, in emails to then-state Sen. Russell Pierce (R), pushed for the law to be used to cast a wide net against Latinos. He helped write an even more harmful immigration law for Alabama, which effectively made it illegal to live as an undocumented immigrant in the state. And when Kobach ran for Congress in 2004, he lost by an 11-point margin after his opponent accused him of having ties to white supremacists. (While campaigning, he was working on a FAIR lawsuit against Kansas’ law granting in-state tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants; the suit was dismissed.) Kobach even once wrote a book opposing the anti-Apartheid boycott of South Africa.

Romney proudly said he “look[ed] forward” to working with Kobach on stopping illegal immigration, and Kobach has been equally effusive of Romney, saying, “Mitt Romney is the candidate who will finally secure the borders and put a stop to the magnets,” when announcing his support. Again and again, Romney has proven how hardline he is on immigration, and Kobach’s support continues to reinforce it.

Romney’s views on immigration are radical even in a field of candidates who appear to becompeting to take the most radical views on this subject. But as extreme as Romney’s immigration stances have been, campaigning with an anti-immigrant official with ties to a hate group on Martin Luther King Day is beyond the pale.