Now, the former Sydney councillor and Young Liberal operator finds himself at the centre of US President Donald Trump's campaign to overhaul America's immigration system.

Mr Adams, a former Ashfield councillor cum motivational speaker on American values, won warm praise from Mr Trump on Saturday for his recent book, Green Card Warrior.

Mr Trump praised the book as "a must read", following a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he advocated America switch to an immigration system more like Australia's.

Mr Adams achieved a modicum of local prominence after his 2004 election to Ashfield council, after which he says he soon became Australia's youngest ever deputy mayor at the age of 21.

The Young Liberal warrior was linked to NSW's right-wing powerbroker David Clarke MLC and drew notice for attacking plans to remove a portrait from the Queen from council chambers, criticising multiculturalism and a bold proposal to cull all of Ashfield's pigeons.

"Ashfield should be inhospitable to pigeons," he told the ABC.

But his career as a motivational speaker in America soon bumped up against his local duties.

In 2009 Mr Adams was suspended from the Liberals for six months for conduct likely to "embarrass or cause damage to" the party following an altercation with a Channel 10 journalist Brett Mason.

Mr Mason was filming outside council chambers for a report on Mr Adams' overseas absences when he was abused: "I would just like to say that Brett Mason is a [expletive] good-for-nothing [expletive]. Thank you," Mr Adams said, according to the ABC's Media Watch program.

He later founded the "Halloween Institute", a group which organised "protests" in favour of making that date a public holiday in NSW.

The event received wide media coverage but the ABC's Media Watch program later described the event as a "commercial concoction" with protesters hired from the Rent-a-Glam agency. Mr Adams told the ABC they protested "of their own accord".

Latterly, Mr Adams' career as a conservative pundit has taken off. He has become a regular on Fox News and been endorsed by figures such as former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and '90s action movie sensation Chuck Norris.

But it has been his third book, the 112-page Green Card Warrior that has propelled Mr Adams to the centre of American political debate.

The book, like his first two, features a full-page portrait of the author on its cover. Mr Adams writes of a near five-year wait and $50,000 bill to immigrate to America, an "incredible tale of sabotage" he attributes to discrimination by the Obama administration because of his conservative views.

Mr Trump endorsed the book on Saturday following Mr Adams' latest appearance on the Fox and Friends program. In his speech this week, the President argued that America must take more migrants who can "support themselves financially" and cited Canada and Australia as models for change.

Australia received about 260,000 migrants last year, according to federal government statistics. A little more than 55 per cent came via the points-based skilled migration program which prioritises people with certain skills, qualifications and English proficiency.

In the latter half of last century America began moving towards an immigration system weighted more towards family reunion visas. Only about 15 per cent of America's annual, 1 million person migration intake is allocated on the basis of employment.

Mr Adams, who has created a non-profit - the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness - to advance his message, said he chose to immigrate to America "because I love guns, hot dogs, chicken fried steak, barbecue, cheerleaders, American football, small town parades, beauty pageants, pick-up trucks, muscle cars and 16-lane freeways lined with supersized American flags."