Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he is shaken and his wife remains in fear of the mob of pro-immigration advocates who descended on their home last weekend.
"One hundred to 200 people descended on our house and started chanting … 'Kris Kobach come on out. See what Kansans are all about!' It was a pretty threatening deal," Kobach told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
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"Thank God my family and I were not there. It was the Father's Day weekend and we were away. It would have terrified my four little children, ages nine, seven, three, and one, and my wife is still petrified about this."
The Wichita-based Sunflower Community Action group said they were protesting Kobach's harsh policies against undocumented immigrants, which have separated families by deportation. They said they went to Kobach's home because he had refused to meet with them at his office in Topeka.
"Kobach has spent years promoting policies that do not represent Kansan values, hateful policies that force our families, friends, and neighbors to live in fear across Kansas and America," the group said in a statement after the rally.
Kobach said while Americans "absolutely" have the right to free speech, they must do it in a public place, "not in the private driveway of a private home. There's not right to do that.
"It looks like there may be several crimes that they committed and the local county authorities are looking at that."
He was referring to the so-called "Klan laws," enacted years ago to stop the Ku Klux Klan from intimidating officials by trespassing on their property or threatening violence.
Kobach said he has no assurance the protesters won't return and he fears for his children. He has already asked for additional protection from the police.
"There used to be a line in American politics where people have vigorous, sometimes fierce and angry, debates in the public square but you, at least, respect someone's privacy at home," he said.
"You don’t break the law and trespass and threaten them at home. But that line has been crossed. These are mob and intimidation tactics … The kind of things we associate with Chicago style policy."
He added that protecting his children is essential.
"Kids … have real insecurities and fear about strangers and invaders and people who might come to the home and take them," he said.
"It would have absolutely scarred them to see these people descending on the house chanting, shouting things through a megaphone about their daddy."
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