On Univision’s spanish-language Sunday show, Al Punto, citizen activist D.A. King said if the United States enforced its immigration laws on the books, the country would deter illegal immigrants from coming and encourage illegal immigrants to leave because they would not be able to find work or receive benefits.
“I am a firm believer in attrition through enforcement,” King said. “If we enforce the law, as it is written, and people here illegally cannot obtain a job or a benefit or a service, they will go home.”
Host Jorge Ramos said King was describing what Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called “self-deportation”and asserted such a policy does not work. In response, King noted that there were news reports of Mexican officials who approached lawmakers in Arizona to ask how the Mexican government could provide housing and schools to Mexicans who had left Arizona after the state enacted tougher enforcement laws (SB 1070) against illegal immigrants in 2010.
Ramos also tried to assert that Romney lost the election because of his self-deportation comments when the numbers showed that Romney would have lost even if he had won 70 percent of the Hispanic vote.
King, who left his small business to advocate against open borders and for enforcement more than a decade ago and now runs “The Dustin Inman Society,” emphasized how respectful his debate ultimately was with Ramos, even though they were on opposite sides of the issue.