If former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach actually thinks he can fix the asylum insanity at the southern border in a matter of just six months, then he deserves whatever he wants from the administration.
Kobach is apparently so confident in his capability that when President Trump asked him about possibly serving as his “immigration czar,” Kobach submitted a list of conditions to be met in order for him to accept the job. According to the New York Times, included on the list were access to a private government jet, weekends off, and a “promise” that Trump nominate Kobach as Department of Homeland Security secretary by Nov. 1 of this year.
The report says that Trump met with Kobach after Kirstjen Nielsen resigned in April as head of Department of Homeland Security, and the two of them discussed creating the czar position “to coordinate immigration policy across government agencies.”
Kobach showed up for the meeting with “a detailed plan to crackdown on asylum seekers entering the country” and submitted his list of conditions “in recent weeks.” If hired immediately, that would give Kobach, at the most, over six months to make any changes to the asylum sham that has turned border agents into a welcoming committee for Central America’s worst problems.
It’s clear already that Kobach isn’t wanted at the White House by some influential people inside. The Times said its knowledge of the list of conditions was made possible “by three people familiar with it” and that some in the administration “were taken aback by what they regard as its presumptuousness.”
Guessing who those three people are is very easy, and Kobach likely knows them — hence his request for maximum autonomy, “walk-in privileges with the president,” and an “assistant to the president” ranking.
There is nothing more important on the immigration issue right now than fixing the asylum fiasco. Trump should give Kobach whatever the hell he wants if his plan has even just a 51% chance of working.
But Kobach’s ability to do the job would require something extraordinarily scarce in the White House: Trump’s attention and support. Maybe Kobach should have made sure those were on his list.
