WikiLeaks: Here’s What President Obama Really Thought of Trump’s Border Wall
Back when then-Sen. Barack Obama was running for the presidency in the fall of 2008, his campaign drafted an immigration policy proposal that looks nothing like what he’s been advocating—not just during his presidency, but while campaigning earlier this year for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In the document, released by WikiLeaks, the Obama campaign advocated for a border wall. One of Obama’s stated “core goals,” according to the campaign memorandum, was to “preserve the integrity of our borders to reduce illegal immigration.”
It also included the following statement:
Securing our borders will not solve the illegal immigration problem in isolation, but combined with an earned path to citizenship for the undocumented and new legal alternatives to unauthorized entry, some additional fencing could help get the border under control.
It also stated:
[Obama] supports additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
And:
[Obama] believes we need additional Customs and Border Protection agents with better technology and real-time intelligence.
President-elect Donald Trump is being called a racist for suggesting a similar policy on the campaign trail. Now, the guy who was primarily responsible for ensuring that language was included in the Republican Party platform, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach—an ardent opponent of illegal immigration—is considered to be the front-runner for Attorney General.
Kobach is currently a member of Trump’s transition team, and has an impressive resume:
- He is a counsel with the Immigration Law Reform Institute.
- He is a graduate of Harvard (bachelor’s degree), Oxford (master’s degree) and Yale (law degree).
- He has served as counsel to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
- He played a significant role in drafting Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 and Alabama’s House Bill 56, both of which crack down on illegal immigration.
