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WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) Secretary of State Kris Kobach announced his bid for Kansas governor on Thursday.

On Friday, Eyewitness News sat down with the official in Wichita to find out some of his top issues and how he thinks the state could successfully pull itself out a budget crisis.

Kobach had two words for where he believes many problems lie - "illegal aliens".

Kobach said the state has a huge problem with undocumented immigrants and it's affecting the state's deficit.

"So, every year, Kansas government spends $424 million dollars on services and public welfare benefits that are consumed by people who are illegal aliens," said the secretary. "And we had the legislature talking about solving a $300 million dollar deficit in the state budget."

Kobach did not say where that number came from during the interview. Factfinder 12 investigators tracked down a study from 2010 that makes the same claim. The study comes from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Kobach is listed as legal counsel for a branch of FAIR.

FAIR's website describes itself, in part, as a "non-partisan organization of concerned individuals who believe that our immigration laws must be reformed." The Southern Poverty Law Center brands FAIR as an anti-immigrant extremist group with ties to white supremacists.

The study lists 133 sources as evidence dating back more than two decades. Factfinder 12 investigators are still going through those papers to find out how FAIR got those numbers. Eyewitness News has called Kobach's campaign to ask whether this study is the basis for his claim. Kobach's camp had not responded at the time this was written. Eyewitness News also reached out to other candidates in the race for governor, and had not heard back at the time this was written.

Kobach said Kansas is the only state that does nothing to discourage illegal immigration. He also pointed out the in-state tuition benefit for those who are not citizens.

"We wouldn't be in this budget problem that the legislature found themselves in if they had stopped the illegal immigration," he said.

Kobach said under his leadership as governor he would have the Kansas Highway Patrol sign an agreement to cooperate with ICE and "hand over people that they encounter that are illegal immigrants in the country."

He said he would force legislators to deal with illegal immigration and get rid of in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

"We should not be giving this subsidy at taxpayer expense," said Kobach. "We should not be giving it to people breaking our laws."

As secretary of state, Kobach has cracked down on illegal immigration and made voter registration laws tougher.

Because of this, President Donald Trump offered Kobach a position in the White House and in the department of security, he said. But, the secretary said he could make a bigger difference in Kansas.

"I felt like I could just move the ball further as governor and staying in the state I love then moving to Washington D.C.," he said.

Kobach will face Wink Hartman, Carl Brewer and Josh Svaty in the 2018 governor race.

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Kobach: Undocumented immigrants 'draining money out of the state budget' - KWCH

Illegal immigration across the southwest border appears to have jumped 27 percent in May, according to numbers released this week by Homeland Security, breaking a three-month streak of declines under President Trump and suggesting the slump in migrants has bottomed out.

The Border Patrol nabbed 14,535 illegal immigrants in the southwest last month, up from just 11,129 in April. Analysts said that the number of people caught is a rough measure of the overall flow of people trying to sneak in.

The number of illegal immigrants showing up at ports of entry without authorization also ticked up, from 4,649 to 5,432.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency that oversees the Border Patrol and the ports of entry, acknowledged the spike in crossings, but attributed it to a seasonal uptick.

CBP said it expects the uptick to continue through the summer months.

The numbers suggest that while Mr. Trump appears to have changed the calculations of many border crossers, theres still a segment of the population particularly among Central Americans determined to make the journey.

Agents usually record an uptick from April to May, but the jump this year is the largest on record.

Still, its by far the lowest May total on record. For example, May 2016 saw more than 40,000 illegal immigrants caught at the border.

Illegal immigration from Cuba and Haiti had been a problem last year, but had dipped under the final months of President Obama and again under Mr. Trump.

Now, Cubans appear to be surging again, while Haitians remain low.

Two other special categories of migrants unaccompanied minors and families traveling together also saw spikes last month, rising from a combined 2,117 nabbed by the Border Patrol in April to 3,070 in May.

Read this article:
Illegal immigration up 27 percent last month - Washington Times

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonrepeatedly praised the Trump administrations efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in his Friday interview with The Daily Caller, saying the administration has had unprecedented success withstopping illegal crossings, which Paxton said is an important issue to Texans.

Theyve done more than any administration in the history of the world, Paxton said when asked if he thought the Trump administration had done enough to keep Trumps campaign promises regarding illegal immigration.(RELATED:Texas AG: Media Downplaying Loretta Lynch Influencing FBIs Clinton Email Investigation)

So Im pretty happy that theyve done so much in such a short period of time so it would really be difficult for me to criticize them on that issue because theres no comparison with any other administration as far as how quickly and effectively theyve approached the problem on many different fronts.

Later, when asked what he consider the most important thing the Trump administration has done so far, Paxton again pointed to the White Houses work on immigration.

I think this immigration issue has been huge. Just because theres such a risk of terrorist threat, the fact that those numbers are so far down from where they were, I think that has been remarkable how quickly they got to that and how effective theyve been in impacting those numbers, he told TheDC.

The flood of illegal border crossings has dramatically decreased underTrump, who has embraced a much tougher stance on immigration than his predecessor, Barack Obama. While immigration-related arrests within the US have surged, the number of apprehensions at the border has plummeted.

Figures released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection this week show that the number of illegal aliens apprehended at the US-Mexico border last month dropped 64 percent compared to the same period last year.

Paxton said its encouraging to see the number of illegals crossing the border drop so dramatically.

Obviously we always have more room to improve but theyve done a really good job with that issue, he said.

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Texas AG: Trump Has Done More To Stop Illegal Immigration Than Any Other In World History - The Daily Caller

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Officials at the agency accepted new requests from 17,275 illegals from January 1 to March 31 and approved two-year extensions for 107,524 of the illegals who earlier got work permits, Social Security cards and federal financial aid via the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals quasi-amnesty created by former President Barack Obamain the run-up to the 2012election.

PresidentDonald Trump was inauguratedJanuary 2o, ensuring most of the new and renewed DACA work permits were approvedduring his presidency, despite his campaign promises to halt the DACA programwhich now includes roughly 765,000 younger illegal immigrants.

Trumps supporters shoulduse their political clout to make Trump do the right thing, said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Now wehave data, and theres noquestion that hesissuing thousands of work permits to new illegal aliens so probably the correct approach [for Trump supporters] is adetermined insistence on [Trump] doing the right thing, he said. The administration is doing a lot of good stuff, he added, noting that Trump is under constant pressure from liberals who wont give him any credit even when he does somethingthey like.

The administration is doing a lot of good stuff on immigration, Krikorian added, noting that Trump is under constant pressure from liberals who wont give him any credit even when he does somethingthey prefer.

The DACA population is large, given that 4 million young Americans enter the job market each year to face job competition from up to 1 million new immigrants, from 1 million temporary contract workers and from the resident population of 8 million working illegal immigrants.

Immigration reformers denounced the news:

Issuing new work permits to illegals who dont have them already makes no sense at all, either from a P.R. perspective or politically, wrote Krikorian wrote:

Renewals, at least for a time, I can understand the [media] orgy of sob stories that would result from ending the work permits of some three-quarters of a million people would be a wonder to behold

Though I was initially skeptical, it might even make sense to try to trade a real, lawful amnesty for the DACAs in exchange for important immigration changes only Congress can pass specifically, universal E-Verify and cuts in legal immigration. In that case, announcing that renewals would continue until, say, the end of the year could be a powerful motivator for congressional Democrats.

My speculation is that the White House has no idea what to do about DACA and so is just letting it continue on autopilot amnestying 192 new illegals a day.John Kelly, thesecretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said June 7 that officials are not seeking to repatriate DACA illegals.We are not, not, not, targetingDACA registrants right now, he said.

Critics say the DACA program may be vulnerable to a lawsuit by immigration reformers.

We will immediately terminate President Obamas two illegal executive amnesties in which he defied federal law and the Constitution to give amnesty to approximately five million illegal immigrants, five million, Trump said August 31, 2016, referring to the DACA and the so-called DAPA amnesty, which was struck down by a federal court in Texas.

You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew,oremail him at bkew@breitbart.com

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125000 'DACA' Illegals Got Work Permits Since January - Breitbart News

LENEXA Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach announced that he will run for governor in 2018 and told supporters gathered the state has suffered from a lack of leadership and its his time to step up.

Kobach repeatedly struck out at poor leadership in the statehouse against the backdrop of his campaign signage saying Time to Lead. He outlined three issues to tackle in his campaign: a culture of corruption in Kansas politics, taxation and illegal immigration.

Kobach blasted legislators and their billion-dollar tax increase that passed Tuesday, saying a governor needs to be willing to tell legislators what bills he wants to see and hold them in session until those bills are on his desk.

Kansas doesnt have a revenue problem, Kobach said. Kansas has a spending problem.

Kobach, who was elected Secretary of State in 2010 and secured a second term in 2014, highlighted successful cuts in his office, where he said he reduced employment by 18 percent over six years and decreased his budget.

He also pulled no punches in talking about the culture of corruption he said is rife in Topeka, calling for term limits and action to drain the swamp. He focused on legislators who stay too long in their positions or jump straight into lucrative lobbying jobs when they leave.

Kobach announces run for governor.

Sen. Anthony Hensley you may not know this he was first elected to the Legislature when Gerald Ford was president and I was 8 years old, he said, referring to the Senate minority leader, a Topeka Democrat.

Kobach clarified during a news conference, when asked about his own years as a public servant, that he was referring to those who serve for decades in political positions.

Ive been in Topeka for six and a half years, Kobach said. Usually, if you run for governor, you have to be proven in some office to move onto a higher office. But to sit in one office for decade after decade after decade, as some legislators do, I think thats got to stop.

He suggested time limits be used to put the brakes on legislators moving straight to lobbyist positions.

In a statement, Hensley said Kobach is neck deep in the swamp.

Its pretty ironic that Kris Kobach would question my public service record when he has been nothing more than a part time Secretary of State who is the master of voter suppression, Hensley said. When hes not using the state airplane to travel to political functions, hes working with white supremacist hate groups to intimidate minorities and immigrants. That is why I have called him the most racist politician in America.

Kris Kobach has proven that he is incapable of draining the swamp because he is neck deep in the swamp, Hensley added.

Kobach also challenged the state to stop providing free services, including in-state college tuition and welfare, to illegal immigrants an issue for which he has received national attention.

We have to realize that there are thing we need to do in Kansas to put Americans first, to put Kansans first, he said. Weve had no efforts to stop illegal immigration. In fact, Kansas is the sanctuary state of the Midwest. We are the only state in a five-state area that has done nothing to discourage illegal immigration.

Democrats voiced concern that Kobach would continue policies of the Brownback administration.

Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, called that agenda radical and said last years legislative election proved Kansans are looking for new leadership.

In 2016, the voters made it clear they wanted to return sanity and common sense to the state, she said. They wont vote to go back in 2018.

John Gibson, chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, echoed that sentiment in a statement and called for debate on the states future.

By nominating Kris Kobach for governor, the Republican Party would continue to endorse the failures of Sam Brownback, he said.

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, called him the most toxic politician in the state.

Kobachs run gives Democrats opportunity in the next election if hes the Republican nominee, Ward added.

Neil Melton, chairman of the Johnson County Young Republicans, and Daniel Fry, midwest vice chair of the Young Republican National Federation, both were impressed with Kobachs announcement.

I think there were some great points that arent part of the current narrative, said Melton. I thought it was refreshing to hear some new ideas.

Melton referred, in part, to Kobachs comment that a governor should keep the legislators in session until they put the bills he wants to see on his desk.

Frye agreed, and pointed also to the spending issues the state has.

Theres so much misinformation about the spending and about the revenue, that its good to have someone like Kris that can actually give you these facts in a well-presented way, Fry said. He doesnt talk to people like hes 30,000 feet above them. Hes very relatable.

Kobach joins Wichita businessman Wink Hartman and former state Sen. Jim Barnett, of Emporia, as candidates seeking the Republican nomination.

Barnett, who filed campaign finance documents earlier this week, was the GOP nominee for the governors race in 2006, when he lost to Kathleen Sebelius. He unsuccessfully ran for the GOP nomination in Kansas 1st Congressional District in 2010.

Democrats Joshua Svaty, a former agriculture secretary, and Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer also have filed for the race, as has Libertarian Chris Rockhold.

Kobachs announcement cleared the way for others to look at his position. Sedgwick County clerk and Kansas Republican Party chairman Kelly Arnold announced Thursday afternoon that he is exploring a run for Kansas Secretary of State.

Capital-Journal staff writer Luke Ranker contributed to this report.

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Corruption, taxation, illegal immigration focus of Kris Kobach's run for governor - Topeka Capital Journal