Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was in New York on Thursday for another meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.
After his highly-publicized first meeting with Trump in New Jersey on Nov. 20, Republican party officials in Kansas are speculating this second round is more than a suggestion that Kobach will land a job in the new administration.
“I’ve spoken with a couple of people close to the transition team,” says Clay Barker, Kansas GOP executive director. “Speculation is he’s being considered for a position in either the Department of Homeland Security or the Office of the Attorney General.”
Kobach’s office has not returned numerous calls for comment.
In his first get-together with Trump, Kobach was famously photographed holding a memo showing his plans for DHS in the first year of the administration.
The ideas included a total ban on Syrian refugees to the U.S., reintroducing a Bush-era program that required immigrants to be tracked, and questioning “high-risk aliens” about “support for Sharia law, jihad.”
Kobach had been quiet following that first meeting. But in an interview with WIBW in Topeka this week, Kobach said there was nothing in his memo that Trump hadn’t already talked about, including a plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“(We talked about) border security problems in terms of national security, border security problems in terms of law enforcement, in terms of crime," Kobach said in the WIBW interview. "And so I’ve talked to him about that as well. And I think his administration is going to make sure that he fulfills that promise.”
Kobach is the architect of some of the toughest immigration laws in the country. He’s linked his concerns about those in the country illegally to his efforts to crack down on voter fraud.
Laura Ziegler is KCUR's community engagement reporter. Follow her on Twitter,@laurazig.
Peggy Lowe is investigations editor at KCUR and Harvest Public Media. You can find her on Twitter at @peggyllowe.
