Kris Kobach for Governor? Kris Kobach’s Lucrative Trail of Courtroom Defeats in Immigration Cases

Anti-immigrant activist Kris Kobach is running for Governor of Kansas.  In this article on ProPublica (“Kris Kobach’Lucrative Trail of Courtroom Defeats”),  Jessica Huseman and Blake Paterson, ProPublica, and Bryan Lowry and Hunter Wood, look carefully at the work over many years of  the candidate for Kansas governor defending towns that passed anti-immigration ordinances. The towns have lost big — but Kobach has fared considerably better. 

The article talks to some former clients:

“`Ambulance chasing’ is how Grant Young, a former mayor of Valley Park, describes Kobach’s role. Young characterized Kobach’s attitude as, `Let’s find a town that’s got some issues or pretends to have some issues, let’s drum up an immigration problem and maybe I can advance my political position, my political thinking and maybe make some money at the same time.’

“Kobach used his work in Valley Park to attract other clients, with sometimes disastrous effects on the municipalities. The towns — some with budgets in the single-digit-millions — ran up hefty legal costs after hiring him to defend similar ordinances. Farmers Branch, Texas, wound up owing $7 million in legal bills. Hazleton, Penn., took on debt to pay $1.4 million and eventually had to file for a state bailout. In Fremont, Neb., the city raised property taxes to pay for Kobach’s services. None of the towns are currently enforcing the laws he helped craft.”

KJ