Today, after conservative bloggers expressed outrage about “a mob” of 200 people using “intimidation tactics” at a protest in front of the home of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Fox News’ Tod Starnes interwiewed Kobach, who said that he is calling for a criminal investigation about the protest.
Protesters in front of Kris Kobach’s home. Credit: @scaKS
Here is what Starnes reported:
“I was just appalled,” Kobach told Fox News. “They have a right to protect at my office or at public places – that’s fine. But they don’t have a right to enter someone’s private property and engage in this kind of intimidation.”
“I have four little girls and they would have been terrified to see 200 protesters shouting at their daddy on megaphones on the front lawn,” he said.
The secretary of state said a large number of the protesters were believed to be illegal aliens. They can be seen on video chanting in Spanish, standing on Kobach’s porch, front yard and driveway and demanding that he come outside.
“Kris Kobach, come on out,” one unidentified protester shouted. “We’ll show you what Kansans are all about.”
Kobach and his family happened to be out-of-town when the demonstrators arrived. Video showed the protesters arriving in four buses – and then marching through the neighborhood. They left behind 20 pairs of shoes at his doorstep – representing illegals who’ve been deported.
Kobach has built a national profile presenting tough policies on illegal immigration issues. He and his family apparently weren’t home during the protest at his home.
“You don’t go to a public official’s home and try to intimidate him because of the positions he’s taken,” he said.
Later in the story, Kobach said the following: “On a typical Saturday, my four girls would have been riding their bikes and coloring chalk in the driveway,” he said. “That’s where they play. If four buses pulled up and the mob started marching down upon them, they would have been absolutely terrified.”
He added, “If we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid – because it took the police 15 minutes to show up,” he said. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment. There are situations like this where you have a mob and you do need to be able to protect yourself.” Kobach said that the Second Amendment “is the private property owner’s last resort.”
Koback aslo said, “Don’t come to my home and don’t scare my family.”
Meanwhile, Sunshine Action Network, the group that protested at Kobach’s home, issued a response to Kobach’s comments:
Sunflower Community Action Executive Director Sulma Arias released the following statement in response to Secretary of State Kobach’s degrading statements about immigrants:
“On Saturday Kansas families – including children who were separated from their parent’s because of Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s policies – prayed, rallied, and then peacefully gathered outside Sec. Kobach’s home to remind him that Kansans believe in keeping families together. Sec. 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. Nowhere is safe from his vicious policies of racial profiling and home raids, and our peaceful protests outside his home have now even led to violent physical threats. Enough.”
“We demand an end to Sec. Kobach’s destructive policies and violent behavior. We urge Senator Moran to take immediate steps to distance himself and fix our broken immigration system by supporting and voting for comprehensive reform that puts family unity first and includes a pathway to citizenship for all 11 million undocumented Americans. Only then will children like Carolina and Dora, who were present for Saturday’s peaceful gathering, not have to spend Father’s Day alone as a result of families torn apart.”
Monday afternoon, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told Fox News that the 2nd Amendment was essential in responding to events like Saturday’s peaceful protest outside his home. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment,” Kobach told Fox News. Children as young as five were outside his home, which was unoccupied at the time of the event.
On Sunday, Kobach took to talk radio to make degrading statements about a group of 700 Kansans who converged in Kansas City Saturday to pray for and tell stories in support of common sense immigration reform. 300 members of the group travelled to Sec. Kobach’s house after the event to peacefully deliver a message to him that his policies dedicated to tearing immigrant families apart are out of the Kansas mainstream. Families and children whose fathers have been deported, including Caroline and Dora, were present to tell Mr. Kobach how his policies have hurt them directly, and they delivered single shoes of fathers torn apart from their children by Sec. Kobach’s policies.
