Rep. Steve King (R-IA), notorious for his controversial remarks about undocumented immigrants, has no sympathy for DREAMers who want to enlist in the U.S. military.
“As soon as they raise their hand and say ‘I’m unlawfully present in the United States,’ we’re not going take your oath into the military, but we’re going to take your deposition and we have a bus for you to Tijuana,” King told Breibart News in an interview published Wednesday. “That’s the law. Are they going to then suspend the law that requires ICE to place people into removal proceedings that are unlawfully present?”
Last year King said he opposed legislation that would help undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children gain legal status because many of them smuggle drugs.
“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,” he said in an interview with Newsmax.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz criticized Kings remarks, as well as comments made by Reps. Mo Brooks (R-AL) and Louie Gohmert (R-TX), in a Thursday call with reporters, according to the Huffington Post.
“This rhetoric is insulting, unacceptable and harmful,” she said. “These most recent comments by my Republican colleagues are a new low in Republicans’ attempts to insult Hispanics and the immigrant community and derail immigration reform.”
King, Brooks and Gohmert all told Breitbart News they opposed Rep. Jeff Denham’s (R-CA) push to add to the Defense Authorization bill a measure that would let young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before age 15 to enlist in the military and eventually apply for citizenship.
