President Donald Trump has set down a clear marker on immigration, and a freewheeling debate such as was going on in the Senate on Monday likely would not produce anything that meets all his demands, according to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has helped Trump develop his plan.
"The president set down a very clear marker," Kobach told Fox News' "Fox & Friends." "He said if you want this amnesty for the [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program] DACA recipients, you have to give me, you have to give the American people, the wall."
Trump has also called for an end to chain migration, an end to the Visa lottery system, and for additional border security, and in exchange, he is offering a pathway to citizenship for the recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
"I would add one more thing that's in the [Rep. Bob] Goodlatte bill on the House side, you have to give us e-verify," Kobach said. "If that is the terms of the deal, the president should feel comfortable signing it. If it doesn't have those four things, he should walk away. I don't think anything the Senate will produce will have the four things."
Kobach also discussed pending efforts to stop wall construction over various environmental reasons, such as to protect the habitats of endangered species.
"Under federal law that will not be enough to stop it," Kobach said. "Thankfully, Congress back in 2005, because of similar, ridiculous environmental lawsuits against the late 1990s of the portion of wall they built near San Diego, Congress passed a law that says all legal requirements can be waived in order to build a border wall."
However, he said he is concerned because the case is going before U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, the same judge Trump questioned over his ethnicity in connection with presiding over the Trump University case.
"If the judge puts aside any hard feelings against the president, this case is a slam dunk," Kobach said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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