On Thursday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) fired back at Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, accusing the “establishment Republican” of vilifying opponents of comprehensive immigration reform by using the same tactics Obamacare proponents employed to ram through the health care law.
Norquist alleged on Wednesday that King’s “anti-immigrant” views would prevent him from ever winning statewide office in Iowa.
“There isn’t anyone that can fairly characterize me as anti-immigrant,” King said in response to Newsmax. “That’s a label that the open-borders people have tossed around. They’re conflating the terms anti-illegal immigrant and anti-immigrant as if it were the terms healthcare and health insurance.”
He continued, “They did that in order to pass Obamacare. Now, they’re conflating anti-immigrant with anti-illegal immigration to pass amnesty. So that’s one trespass on the part of true justice of the American way for Grover Norquist.”
King asserted that there are many businesses in the state and in the country that are for immigration because of the anticipation of having “cheap, illegal labor ready to take those jobs.”
The Iowa Representative specifically named three types of groups that have the most at stake in passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation:
“First, there are the elitists,” King said. “Elitists see that they should have access to cheap labor to clean their homes, mow their lawns, and take care of their gardens.
The second group is Democratic power brokers. They see a tremendous advantage to the Democratic Party that turns us into a one-party system if they do what they’re trying to do with the Gang of Eight bill in the Senate.”
He said the third group in favor of the Senate bill is “those employers of illegals who benefit from cheap labor at the expense of the taxpayers who are subsidizing them through welfare programs.”
“If you want to support the elitists or Democratic power brokers or employers of illegal labor, then support the Gang of Eight, listen to Grover, listen to Karl Rove,” King said.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate’s immigration bill would lower the wages of working class Americans and King mentioned that, “The highest unemployment in this country is in the lowest-skilled jobs. We don’t need more unskilled people in America. We need to give access to people who can earn their own way — and I would think that would be something on which Grover Norquist and I could agree.”
“I remind them that if we become independent of illegal labor, we may fall back to a place where we’re no longer depending upon illegal labor,” King said. “In doing so, we’ll let them see the wages go up, especially in the unskilled and the low-skilled jobs where we have double-digit unemployment today.”
King emphasized that the comprehensive immigration reform needed to be opposed to preserve the rule of law and the working class.
King stated:
The members who are standing up and opposing amnesty are the ones who are keeping their oath of office and adhering to the rule of law–and they understand what happens in a civilization if you reward people for breaking the law, you get more lawbreakers.
King said, “If you want to defend the Constitution, the rule of law, and preserve a better destiny for the United States of America–where individuals can make a living with their hands, their backs, their minds, standing on their own two feet–then stand with me.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.