Rep. Joe Garcia (D-FL) on Tuesday condemned Rep. Steve King’s (R-IA) comments on legalizing undocumented immigrants in a Newsmax interview last week.
“In my district, I have multiple schools, who on a regular basis produce valedictorians and they are undocumented,” Garcia said in a House Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration. “However, when members of this house use language such as ‘for every one that is a valedictorian, there are another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and have calves the size of cantaloupes because they’ve been hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert,’ it is offensive.”
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) also made reference to King’s remarks in the hearing, citing the “valedictorians, salutatorians, young men and women” who come through her office “with tears in their eyes” as motivation to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.
