Speaking at the border of the United States and Mexico, Kris Kobach said Republican attorneys general have taken on a different role with President Donald Trump in office.

"We are playing a very different role now," said Kobach, who is the Kansas attorney general and the chair of the Republican Attorneys General Association . "We are not playing the role of trying to force the federal government to do its job and to abide by the law, but rather we're trying to help the federal government restore the rule of law to immigration. I would characterize our role as principally that of a force multiplier."

Kobach was speaking at a May 21 press conference at the border wall in Yuma, Arizona. He touted work by his office and other Republican attorneys general on lawsuits against President Joe Biden's administration over immigration policies, which he said intentionally caused a border crisis.

"There were a total of 31 lawsuits, and the Republican states won the vast majority of those suits," he said. "Now we're in a very, very different situation. We have an administration that not only is willing to enforce the law, is willing to reverse all those policies, but is actually aggressively enforcing the law and cooperating with foreign countries in a way that the previous administration had no interest in doing."

"The role of the attorney general has changed in the last 20 years for both teams, if you will, for both parties," Kobach said, "because ... if there is an allegation that a presidential policy, regulation, order is illegal, then it oftentimes falls to the state attorney general — or a collection of them — to bring that case."

Kobach sees role of Republican AGs as force multiplier

At the border, the border wall is a force multiplier for border patrol, Kobach said. "But in the interior of the country, probably the biggest force multiplier for ICE is state and local law enforcement through Section 287(g) agreements."

"After the Trump administration took office, 10 states acted very quickly to sign 287(g) agreements," Kobach said, "because the Trump administration is undertaking this massive task of the largest interior removal since the Eisenhower administration."

Kansas is one of those 10 states. At the May 21 news conference, attorneys general of three more states announced they were joining the effort.

In February, Kobach announced an agreement between the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that will allow KBI agents to work with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement on removing "criminal illegal aliens" from Kansas.

The agreement under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides for "a limited number of KBI agents will receive ICE training that authorizes the agents to arrest illegal aliens, to serve and execute warrants for some immigration violations, and to issue immigration detainers."

KBI director Tony Mattivi told reporters in Topeka earlier this month that training had not yet begun.

"We've been talking with them about moving forward under the 287(g) agreement," Mattivi said after a May 2 memorial for fallen law enforcement officers at the Statehouse. "We just got information from them about training, so we're starting to take those steps and start down that road. ... Nothing in the process has actually started, other than us communicating and making arrangements for it to happen."

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at . Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd .