Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/10521
10A – Daily News – Saturday, May 15, 2010 A voice for Arizona's immigration law KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MCT) — Hundreds of miles from Arizona, law professor Kris Kobach leaned back in his chair at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, took a sip of coffee out of a Justice Department mug, and calm- ly defended the controver- sial immigration law he helped write. At 9 a.m. this Tuesday, he is on hold with a radio station in Tucson and in an interview with another in St. Louis. He has three more lined up. Since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law late last month, Arizona has become ground zero in the debate over illegal immigration. Senate Bill 1070, which has prompted protests, boycotts and lawsuits, makes it a state crime to lack immigra- tion papers and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally. President Barack Obama called it misguided and warned that it could lead to racial profil- ing. Kobach said the law actually discourages racial profiling and only kicks in when someone violates another law. "If they are running down the street with a pistol in one hand and a bag of money in the other and someone screaming, 'Bring back my money,' then the police officer can stop them," he said. "But just walking down the street, of course not." In the last few weeks, Kobach has been contacted by legislators from around the country seeking his advice and has been inter- viewed on local and nation- al radio and television pro- grams more than 50 times. A national survey released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 59 percent of adults polled supported the Ari- zona law. Kobach, 44, is an Ivy League-educated, outspo- ken advocate for the move- ment to fight illegal immi- gration and the go-to guy for cities and states looking to pass laws against it. He is counsel on nine ongoing cases around the country targeting sanctuary cities and in-state tuition for ille- gal immigrants and defend- ing the right of cities to pro- hibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants and employers from hiring them. Kobach said he is moti- vated by a desire to "restore the rule of law" in immigra- tion and to show that states and cities can do their part to help the federal govern- ment with enforcement. "People act like the law can't be followed in immi- gration," he said. "I take it as a challenge to show that it can." His opponents say that the laws Kobach writes and defends promote discrimi- nation. "At the end of the day, his involvement has been costly and the laws that he has supported have been divisive," said Omar Jad- wat, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union who has appeared opposite Kobach in courts in Pennsylvania, Texas and Missouri. "They distract and divert the resources of these towns and cities into hugely controversial and expensive sideshows that benefit only him." Just before 7 p.m. on a recent weeknight, Kobach pulled up to the Community Center in Lansing, Kan., in a GMC Sierra with the license plate "1787," the year the U.S. Constitution was adopted. Inside, the recent college graduate run- ning Kobach's campaign for Kansas secretary of state handed out stickers and lawn signs. Kobach stood in front of an American flag and told a China Buffet CHINESE RESTAURANT Open 7 Days A Week Mother’sDay Special $11.99 Expires 5-30-10 COUPON China Buffet Happy Hours Mon. & Tues. Lunch $ All Day $6.99 Wed - Thurs - Fri - Sat 6.99 Dinner $ 8.99 343 S. Main St. Red Bluff 530-529-5888 (No Checks) Kobach said Pearce asked him to help write the new immigration law. Kobach defended the employer law and said he is confident that the current law will sustain legal chal- lenges too. "It was drafted to withstand every legal argument that can be thrown at it," he said. "It's built like a tank." Raised in Kansas, crowd gathered for the Republican town hall meet- ing that Arizona had long been under siege by kidnap- pers, drug dealers and human smugglers from other countries and that something had to be done. When he described the gun battle that resulted in the recent shooting of a sheriff's deputy, the audience gasped. When he talked about the state's efforts to make life miserable for ille- gal immigrants so they will return to their native coun- tries, they applauded. "It's not rocket science," he said. "You ratchet up the level of enforcement so people leave on their own." Judges often have the final say on the constitution- Ownership Under New Sundays $ 9.99 Holidays $ 11.99 Expires 5-30-10 COUPON Shoppers discounts & restaurant specials at participating merchants WELL-BEING FAIRE Wine & Mamma Mia at the State Theatre Wine @ 4pm Movie @ 5pm Saturday May 22 10am-4pm ality of restrictive immigra- tion laws. In California, the federal courts struck down Proposition 187, which sought to deny public edu- cation and benefits to illegal immigrants, as an attempt to usurp federal responsibility. In Kobach's cases, the decisions have been mixed. He lost cases in Texas and Pennsylvania, where cities sought to prohibit landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. Kobach appealed and both cases are still pending. He won a case in California, where he argued that the state could not offer discounted tuition to illegal immigrants while not offering the same to stu- dents from outside Califor- nia. That case is pending in the state Supreme Court. In Arizona, Kobach helped state Sen. Russell Pearce draft a 2007 bill that required all businesses to use an electronic employ- ment verification system. Sponsored by Downtown Red Bluff Business Association Kobach attended Harvard College and Yale Law School and earned a doctor- ate from Oxford University. In 2001, just before Sept. 11, he began working under Attorney General John Ashcroft, an experience that he said made him keenly interested in immigration and the crucial link between immigration policy and national security. Before the attacks, several of the hijackers had been stopped by local police for traffic violations. "We had a missed opportunity of tragic dimensions," he said. Kobach helped create a reg- istration program designed to catch potential terrorists from Middle Eastern coun- tries. Hamid Khan, executive director of the South Asian Network in Artesia, said the registration policy created a lot of fear and resulted in the deportation of many people without terrorist links. "It became a clear reminder of how communi- ties are criminalized and how race and racial identity are how people get identi- fied," he said. Jack the Ribber Come by for the Best Lunch in town • Ribs •Tri-Tip • Pulled Pork • Specials Mon.-Fri. 11am-8pm Sat. 4-9pm 1150 Monroe St. 527-6108 The Red Bluff Pro-Am Committee thanks the following Sponsors for their tremendous support and encouragement: -- Diamond Sponsors -- LES SCHWAB TIRES ThankYou 2010 -- Platinum Sponsors -- CLUB CAR TONY’S REFRIGERATION BIG O TIRES REDDING DISTRIBUTING -- Team Sponsors -- CORNERSTONE COMMUNITY BANK DOMINICK’S CORNING VETERINARIAN CLINIC MOUNTAIN SPRINGS GOLF CLUB KYLE CHING GOVER RANCH EVENTS GARDENS GROWNEY’S THE GOLF CLUB OF TIERRA OAKS MALCOLM MAHER WAYNE’S GUIDE SERVICE DON ANDERSON SCOTT VALLEY BANK CLASSIC GOLF CAR ANDERSON TUCKER OAKS GC EAGLE’S NEST PIZZA BUCKINGHM GCC B & T MASONRY SEALE’S RECYCLING JUDSON ENGINEERING SHASTA PIZZA COMPANY BLUE ROCK SPRINGS GOLF COURSE JASON MUNSON BILL DEWILDT DAVID CARR GOLF KEITH DE MELLO RANDY GANS RIVERVIEW GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB