Like clockwork, here comes Steve King, once again making comments demeaning immigrants and claiming that military DREAMers wishing to join the armed services are “mercenaries” rather than patriots.
According to Right Wing Watch, King was speaking with Iowa TV station KIMT last week when he falsely stated that those who would be granted a path to citizenship for military service under the DREAM Act or two bills being considered in the House “lied to get into the military.”
“It isn’t that we have to hire mercenaries to put on a uniform,” King said. “We have always had an adequate number of American patriots to step up who are lawfully present in the United States, most of them citizens.”
King’s latest follows his recent statement that military DREAMers who show up to enlist should be greeted with a bus “to Tijuana.” His remarks ignore the real sacrifice of people like Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, who came without papers from Guatemala and was one of the first combat deaths in Iraq — and the continued efforts of DREAMers affiliated with Let Us Serve, which pushes for ways to allow DREAMers to enlist in the military and earn a path to citizenship.
Meanwhile, according to documents obtained by Shelby County Democrats in 2010 through the National Archives, King himself actually received a student draft deferment, or a “2S” status so that he could attend Northwest Missouri State University, during the Vietnam War. When he left school, his “2S” deferment was no longer valid but his draft number 308 “insulated him in the draft lotteries held in 1970, 1971, and 1972.”
Watch King’s interview with KIMT below: