Kris Kobach, the Republican former secretary of state of Kansas and an immigration hardliner, told Breitbart News radio listeners that it was true that migrant children were kept in cages at the border—something that Kobach admitted was “not ideal”—but that it was done for the children’s own protection.
Kobach joined SiriusXM Patriot’s “Breitbart News Daily” on July 30 as a “border expert” and Breitbart contributor to discuss his advocacy for DNA testing at the U.S.-Mexico border to determine if migrants are truthfully representing their familial relationships when seeking entrance into America. During his appearance on Breitbart’s radio show, Kobach also took up the line advanced by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan to defend the widely circulated images of children in fenced enclosures in migrant detention centers along the border—that the separation of children from their parents or accompanying relatives was done in the interest of the child.
“The conditions are not ideal because these facilities, these detention centers, are overcrowded. But they’re not concentration camps, they’re not hell holes, they’re—everybody’s getting three square meals. The infamous children in cages picture, which of course was taken during the Obama administration, by the way—that photo is simply of a wire, mesh, or chain link fence inside one of these facilities,” Kobach said.
He continued, “The reason they have fences separating one group of detainees from another is for their own protection. You don’t want children in the same section of the facility as adult males. It’s to protect the children.”
Kobach said some exceptions are made in which children are allowed to be detained with their parents, however court documents say more than 900 migrant children have been separated from their families since the Trump administration said it would end the practice.
“It is not ideal, and the reason it is not ideal is because we have this surge of migration,” Kobach said.
Breitbart News Daily host and Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alex Marlow agreed with Kobach.
Kobach is currently running for Senate, despite losing his gubernatorial bid by five points to his Democratic opponent in 2018. Kobach attempted to reassure Republicans in his state that he will be more equipped than he was in 2018 to handle attacks against his racist views in a video announcing his intention to run for Senate, ThinkProgress reports.
Politico reports that Kobach claimed credit for helping write President Trump’s plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Earlier this year, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, Kobach, and others organized a nonprofit corporation with the intention of funding construction of a border wall with public donations. Recently, Trump allies have pushed for Kobach to be nominated to the Cabinet post of secretary of Homeland Security.
