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"For me, the most important issue in the Republican presidential contest is immigration," Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (pictured in 2014) said. | AP Photo Kris Kobach endorses Donald Trump

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach endorsed Donald Trump on Monday, hailing the Republican front-runner’s stance on immigration and supporting Trump’s notion that Mexico will pay for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

“For me, the most important issue in the Republican presidential contest is immigration and its effect on our national security,” Kobach said in a statement. “On that issue Mr. Trump stands head and shoulders above the other candidates.”

Trump has proposed building a wall on the southern border, which he insists Mexico will pay for, and constantly claims responsibility for thrusting immigration reform into the national spotlight when he announced his candidacy last summer.

“He has made it clear that ramping up the enforcement of our immigration laws will be his top priority,” Kobach said. “And he has forcefully rejected the notion of giving amnesty to illegal aliens living in the United States.”

Kobach, an influential hard-liner on immigration who also serves as a lawyer at the Immigration Reform Law Institute, cited a provision within the PATRIOT Act he said the U.S. can use to ensure Mexico does, in fact, pay for the wall.

“We have the ability to shut down the flow of remittances to Mexico from illegal aliens working in the United States,” he said. “Mexico will then have to make a choice: Either make a single payment of $5 billion to $10 billion to the United States to pay for the wall, or lose most of the $23 billion in remittances that Mexico receives every year from its nationals working illegally in the United States.”

Kobach became a national figure after helping cities and other states draft tougher immigration laws before he was elected secretary of state in 2010.

“Now, more than ever, America needs Mr. Trump’s aggressive approach to the problem of illegal immigration,” the former law professor said.