The mere mention of Kris Kobach elicits fear and fury among immigrant rights activists who view him as anti-immigrant and a racist. But to opponents of undocumented immigrants, Kobach is a hero and viewed as someone bent on protecting Americans from foreigners who are not authorized to be in the United States.
Though there has been no announcement from President-elect Donald Trump, it's understood that his transition team is considering Kobach _ the Kansas secretary of state _ for a job dealing with immigration.
Kobach met with Trump on Nov. 20, apparently to talk about an appointment or nomination in the next administration.
A statement from the transition team said Trump and Kobach had discussed border security, international terrorism and reforming the federal bureaucracy.
No one has said what job would be offered to Kobach. Trump has yet to name a Homeland Secretary or head of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
When Kobach arrived in New Jersey to see Trump last month, he unwittingly provided a glimpse of his interest immigration matters. The front page of a document he was carrying contained a list of apparent proposals he might have discussed with Trump.
The first proposal, according to reports, was to bar the entry of potential terrorists into the country by resuming a program that would require the registration and tracking of foreigners from "high-risk areas."
The program mentioned in the document Kobach carried was NSEERS, which stands for National Security Entry-Exit Registration System. It was implemented by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and then deactivated in 2005.
Kobach helped design NSEERS when he worked for Attorney General John Ashcroft after 9/11. Kobach had spoken of starting such a plan in an interview with Reuters after Trump's election victory in which he also noted that the new president would move quickly to build a wall along the Mexican border.
Kobach is not widely known by the national public, but his name is familiar to immigration activists. He has been a legal adviser at Immigration Law Reform Institute, which is linked to the Federation for American Immigration Reforms, or FAIR.
FAIR is one of at least three organizations that seek both an end to illegal immigration and tighter controls on legal immigration. The other two are NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies, or CIS.
"Mr. Trump's pro-border, pro-enforcement message will very likely discourage new illegal immigration and encourage illegal immigrants currently in the country to return home," said Jon Feere, legal policy analyst for CIS.
FAIR issued a statement praising Trump for his intentions on the border and undocumented immigrants.
Born in Madison, Wis., Kobach grew up in Topeka, Kansas, where his father ran a car dealership.
After high school, Kobach went to Harvard, where he earned a bachelor's degree in government. While at Harvard, his interest in immigration began when he met professor Samuel Huntington. In 2005, the professor published the book "Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity," which upset immigrant rights activists because he cast the growing Hispanic population as a threat to what he described as the traditional Anglo-Protestant culture of America.
After Harvard, Kobach went to Oxford and then to Yale LawSchool.
After an interlude as a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kobach in 1999 was elected councilman in Overland Park, Kan.
Days before the 9/11, attacks, Kobach traveled to Washington to become a White House intern. From there he was sent to the Justice Departament where he went to work on issues related to immigration and border security for Ashcroft.
When his internship ended, Kobach continued his work for Ashroft and help draft the first version of NSEERS.
In 2011, Kobach took office as Kansas' new secretary of state.
In that job, Kobach supervises the state's election system and has sought to tighten requirements claiming that undocumented immigrants could exploit loopholes and cast illegal ballots.
