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Tags: Steve King | Bad People | Dreamers

Rep. Steve King: 'Some Awfully Bad People' Among Dreamers

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By    |   Thursday, 08 December 2016 11:18 AM EST

The term "Dreamers" is the "most sympathetic" name that could given for immigrants brought at a young age to the United States, and there are "some awfully bad people" in their ranks, Rep. Steve King said Thursday, just one day after President-elect Donald Trump indicated in his Time "Person of the Year" article that he would like to work something out concerning their status.

"Some of these Dreamers go on to the age of 37 or 38 or maybe older, and that's if they tell the truth," the Iowa Republican told CNN's "New Day" host Alisyn Camerota. "I'll just say this, that I've spent a fair amount of time down at the border. I've been down there and helped arrest people that are smuggling drugs in."

King said if he listened to Trump's campaign promises, "I would expect on the first day he would cancel all of the DACA documents out there that President [Barack] Obama unconsitutionally issued, and that would end it for them."

And after that, when "Dreamers" are encountered by law enforcement officials, "they would be put through the process," said King.

However, Trump told Time magazine that he has a different view about the nation's Dreamers.

"They were brought here at a very young age," Trump said. "They've worked here, they've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs, and they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen."

King said he's watched as drug runners brought in an "average of about 65 pounds" of marijuana across the border, and "some of them every day they take another load."

Camerota asked if King thinks the drug traffickers are the same as Dreamers who were brought in against their will, and he said he thinks the phrase is a "made-up term."

"Did any of those little kids say I didn't want to come here?" argued King. "Or did any of them came in the day before they turned 18? Did they say, 'I was brought here against my will?'"

King said some of the Dreamers were "walking across the border on their own, lots of them, and we see them coming across every day at McCallum, Texas. They're still pouring across the border. They know what they're doing. It's not against their will."

And when it comes to children, King said their parents should be asked.

"Will those children point to their parents and tell us you really need to enforce the law against my parents?" said King. "Because they know what they were doing when they caused me to break the law. I don't think we've thought through this very well."

The president hasn't granted unconstitutional amnesty to Dreamers' parents, but "he would like to," and the parents are not being spoken to about their actions, said King.

"They're the facilitators," said King. "If the kids are innocent, the parents are guilty. We have to look at the parents."

The law says that people brought in as children, no matter what the age, or if they're in college, the military, or working, they are still undocumented and need to return to their own countries, said King, and Obama changed the law without asking Congress.

"I don't think you get that asked unless you first enforce the law, and demonstrate you secured the border," said King, admitting the issue "tugs" on his heart as well, "but the most important thing is to restore the respect for the rule of law."

If people are rewarded for breaking the law, King said, then he wonders what "all this" was about.

"I work 30 years to try to restore respect for the rule of law because of Ronald Reagan's amnesty in 1986," said King, "and I don't want to let this go because somebody's heart got a little softer than it was before the election."

King also spoke out about Trump's call for a wall at the Mexican border, saying if there's going to be a wall, there will be a real wall, not just a fence or other measures, even if he wonders how Trump will get Mexico to pay for it.

"When you say a wall, you mean a wall," said King. "You want to build a fence. You say fence. You don't use it as a euphemism for a virtual, say surveillance from hot air balloons that are floating over the border which some people have advocated.

"And I'll say this, the cheapest and most effective thing we can do is build a concrete wall, a structural concrete wall. I know that there's equipment out there that could form and place a trench, a foundation for a wall."

And, King said, he's calling on Trump to build that wall, and not just a wall.

"Let's build a fence, then a wall, then a fence, so we create two no-man's lands, one on either side of the wall," said King. "When we pick people up there they don't really have an excuse. They weren't out there picking mushrooms."

Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


Politics
The term "Dreamers" is the "most sympathetic" name that could given for immigrants brought at a young age to the United States, and there are some awfully bad people in their ranks, Rep. Steve King said Thursday,
Steve King, Bad People, Dreamers
837
2016-18-08
Thursday, 08 December 2016 11:18 AM
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