Rep. Steve King (R-IA) invoked the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks at a rally in Omaha, Neb. Friday to argue that undocumented immigrants are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans.
In a video recording of the event surfaced by the Des Moines Register on Thursday, King said a former immigration official from New York told him in congressional testimony that the number of Americans who have been killed by people who entered the country illegally would be “in multiples of the victims of Sept. 11.”
“Now that hits home, doesn’t it?” King said. “When you think about multiples of the victims of Sept. 11, three thousand times something.”
The rally was held to honor victims of crimes committed by people residing in the United States illegally, according to the Omaha World-Herald, including a 93-year-old woman who died after being raped and beaten in her home by a native of Sonora, Mexico.
“The violent rape and murder of 93-year-old Louise Sollowin was a 100 percent preventable death,” King said. “What we needed to do was enforce our existing laws. We didn’t even need to pass a new one.”
Friday’s comments aren’t King’s first on the consequences of immigration policy. Back in July, King said that for every undocumented valedictorian, there are 100 more immigrants carrying drugs across the border.
