TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas official who serves as an informal adviser to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team on immigration issues doesn’t expect mass deportations to incite the arrest of migrants in sensitive places such as schools and churches.

But Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach expects Trump to take steps that will trigger a legal challenge to the citizenship status of U.S.-born children of immigrants living in the country illegally. He also expects Trump to encourage local and state law enforcement to assist in efforts to stop and detain migrants.

Kobach has for two decades he has been one of the most influential lawyers in the Republican movement aimed at restricting illegal immigration. He is also a longtime Trump supporter who could be a key ally given the need for cooperation from federal immigration authorities at the state and local level to make good on Trump’s promise of the largest deportation operation of the history of the United States.

He said Wednesday that he was in regular contact with Trump’s team, including Tom Homan, Trump’s pick for border czar, and Stephen Miller, new White House deputy chief of staff for policy. He made his comments in an interview with The Associated Press. Here are excerpts:

Critics of Trump’s mass deportation plans say he is promising to expel millions of immigrants from the United States and that doing so is not logistically possible. But Kobach and other Trump allies believe only a portion of those migrants would need to be deported for those efforts to succeed.

KOBACH: “Once a massive enforcement effort is implemented, many people start leaving on their own.”

“You can put a multiplier on that number, and it will be a much higher number. They will start leaving on their own because they don’t want to get arrested. They want to leave on their own terms, and so I don’t know – we don’t know – what that multiplier will be, but there will be one.

Immigrant rights advocates fear the Trump administration is abandoning a longstanding policy of avoiding arrests of migrants in sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and places of worship.

KOBACH: “I didn’t hear that. … First of all, I don’t think K-12 students are being arrested. It will be adults who will be the targets of expulsions. »

“There are some places where it’s better to make an arrest than others. There are reasons why a police department’s policy is different when it comes to a high-speed chase through a neighborhood versus a high-speed chase on a highway. So I think they’re probably going to have to decide which ones pose the least risk to the public.

Birthright citizenship means that everyone born in the United States is a citizen, regardless of the legal status of their parents. Trump has promised to end it, although others say the 14th Amendment enshrines it in the U.S. Constitution.

KOBACH: “Anything the Trump administration does will definitely be sued, because it’s one of those hot-button issues.”

“I believe the Trump administration has every intention of tackling this issue during its second term.”

The Trump administration reportedly needs help from state and local authorities in its efforts to deport millions of immigrants living in the United States illegally.

A provision of federal immigration law allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter into agreements with state authorities and law enforcement agencies to designate and train agents to arrest migrants.

KOBACH: “They can provide a force multiplier to the federal government, and I think that’s the most important and best thing that states and counties can do to help. … The fact is that it casts a net on a daily basis.”

“I don’t see how a massive deportation program could succeed without that.”

President Joe Biden’s administration has reduced the number of beds ICE has available to detain immigrants living in the United States illegally. However, in August the agency released requests for information on the potential for new detention centers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, documents show.

Trump could seek new contracts with counties to keep immigrants in their jails, and Kobach said he has already worked as an attorney for some Texas counties with jails larger than they need for local offenders.

KOBACH: “The Trump administration and those in the immigration industry are well aware of this problem and I have spoken to them.”

“A few of these (Texas) counties have a very large facility, a jail, and the reason it’s so large is they want to contract with other counties and with the government federal.”