10:57 PM EDIT: Steve King is doubling down on this comments:
“…It’s not something that I’m making up. This is real. We have people that are mules, that are drug mules, that are hauling drugs across the border and you can tell by their physical characteristics what they’ve been doing for months, going through the desert with 75 pounds of drugs on their back and if those who advocate for the DREAM Act, if they choose to characterize this about valedictorians, I gave them a different image that we need to be thinking about because we just simply can’t be passing legislation looking only at one component of what would be millions of people.”
John Boehner is repudiating King’s comments, calling them “wrong” and “hateful”:
Boehner called the remark “wrong.”
“There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language,” he said in a statement. “Everyone needs to remember that.”
The House Immigration Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony about the KIDS Act, a half-measure bill that would create a path to legal status for DREAMers but not their parents. Committee Republicans today generally had open-minded comments about DREAMers, noting that the “law treats kids differently,” that they had no control over when they came to the US, and that they were in the only country they’d ever called home.
Too bad most of these Republicans, along with every single one of their House GOP colleagues (except for six), were on the record just last month voting in favor of an amendment to deport DREAMers, an effort pushed by none other than the #1 anti-immigrant hardliner in the House, Rep. Steve King. Yesterday, AV issued a press release titled, “Who is the “King” of the House Republicans,” which noted that Rep. King “is now “the man” when it comes to House Republicans stating a clear position on immigration policy.
And today, Talking Points Memo is making it clear exactly who those House Republicans sided with. Steve King has compared immigrants to dogs and cattle and called DREAMers “illegal aliens” who “have just invaded my DC office.” But last week, King left another quote for the ages when he tried to claim to Newsmax that not all DREAMers are star students and valedictorians:
For everyone who’s a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.
(This came shortly after a part in the interview where King claimed, “There isn’t anyone that can fairly characterize me as anti-immigrant.”)
Did we mention that Republicans are supposed to be in the middle of an effort to reach out to Latinos and minority voters? For everyone who questions why Republicans need to pass immigration reform in order to get into the good graces of Latino voters, King surely makes it clear every time he opens his mouth. As long as immigration reform is an issue, hardliners like King will continue to make cringe-inducing comments like the above. And more Latino, immigrant, minority, and moderate voters will never, ever vote for the GOP again.
Check out these tweets today from people reacting to King’s latest:
