Kris Kobach isn't asking much to grant America his services as President Donald Trump's new immigration czar. Just 24/7 use of a government jet. And a West Wing office with "walk-in" privileges to the Oval Office. And a future appointment to head Homeland Security. Oh, and authority over top Cabinet officials, including the attorney general and the secretary of defense.
For these and some other modest demands, America would get an immigration czar who's spent his whole career proving how disastrous such an appointment would be. What a bargain!
Kobach's entire elective résumé consists of two terms as Kansas' secretary of state and the loss of a gubernatorial race. Yet he's shown a Forrest Gump-like ability to insert himself into some of America's biggest controversies--if Gump had been a self-promoting purveyor of noxious xenophobia.
In 2017, Kobach signed on to co-chair a commission investigating Trump's unfounded claim that illegal voting by non-citizens cost him the 2016 popular vote. There was never a bit of truth to Trump's vote-fraud assertion, but that didn't stop Kobach from making a three-ring show out of the commission before it was unceremoniously shuttered.
Remember the notorious "papers, please" law allowing former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to essentially stop anyone with brown skin and demand they prove their citizenship? Kobach, freelancing outside his own state, was its chief architect. He co-authored a similar measure in Alabama and offered legal counsel to defend anti-immigrant laws in Pennsylvania and Texas.
Now Trump wants an "immigration czar" to coordinate immigration policy across federal agencies. Given Trump's open hostility toward immigrants almost regardless of legal status, Kobach perhaps believes he has an in.
Among Kobach's demands is that the president "sits down individually with Czar and the secretaries of Homeland Security, Defense, Justice, Ag, Interior, and Commerce, and tells each of the Secretaries to follow the directives of the Czar without delay, subject to appeal to the President in cases of disagreement."
Giving Cabinet-dominating authority to a non-Senate-confirmed position would be constitutionally questionable.
Trump might want to consider this: Any self-proclaimed dealmaker who linked up with a grifter like Kris Kobach would be certifiable--as a chump.
Editorial on 05/23/2019