Top Republican and conservative leaders, from House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor to FOX News personality Sean Hannity and columnist Charles Krauthammer, have spent the last few weeks lamenting their party’s dramatic losses with Latino voters in the recent election. Chief among their reflections, and the reflections of political observers of all stripes, is that Romney’s embrace of anti-immigrant policies espoused by his immigration advisor, Kris Kobach, was a leading cause of the Latino exodus from the GOP.
This Tuesday, November 20th, DREAMers from across the nation are traveling to Topeka, Kansas to protest Kris Kobach and deliver a clear message: You cost your party our support. It’s time to resign as Kansas Secretary of State, and to stop taking your anti-immigration messages to other states.
As Mitt Romney’s adviser on immigration during the presidential campaign, Kobach succeeded in getting Romney to espouse extremist fantasies such as “self-deportation” and to vow to veto the DREAM Act. Romney also called Arizona – a state where Kobach has wielded an enormous influence – a “model for the nation.”
Kobach also successfully inserted hard-line anti-immigrant language into the 2012 GOP party platform. And he is the author of many state anti-immigrant laws, including Arizona’s SB 1070 and Alabama’s HB 56. Currently, Kobach is the lead counsel in a lawsuit to end the President’s wildly popular “deferred action” for DREAMers program, which protects immigrant youth from deportation.
Kris Kobach’s ideas have been disastrous for the nation, for Kansas, for Mitt Romney, and for the GOP. As the Republican Party grows to accept the fact that it must moderate its positions toward immigration and Latino voters — or face irrelevance — DREAMers and their allies will be marching on the Kansas State Capitol to let Kobach and other anti-immigrant extremists know that their time is done.
Here are details of the event:
When: Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2012
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Where: Memorial Hall, 120 SW 10th Avenue, Topeka, KS 66612
What: DREAMers and local leaders asking Kris Kobach to end his lawsuit against deferred action, and to step down from office
