Congressman Steve King Stirs Controversy Again, Suggests Undocumented Immigrants are Drug Mules

Iowa Congressman Steve King yet again made controversial comments about immigrants, when he suggested that many undocumented immigrants entered the U.S carrying ilegal drugs, Des Moines Register reported.

During an interview with Newsmax, the Republican said that many undocumented youth are drug mules and should not have access to citizenship. King said that while some minors were brought to the U.S turned into exemplary members of society, known as DREAMers, others are drug traffickers that work for dangerous Mexican cartels.

"They aren't all valedictorians, they weren't all brought in by their parents," King said. "For every one who's a valedictorian, there's another hundred out there that they weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act," he added.

The Wall Street Journal said that Florida Congressman Joe García called King's words "offensive." "When members of this House use inflammatory language, use offensive language, it does not help the process," the Democrat said, according to Des Moines Register. "It is beneath the dignity of this body and this country."

The Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan said, "Steve King's comments are offensive, ridiculous, and go against the very values of respect and equality that Iowans hold dear."

But Democrats weren't the only ones who criticized King's comments. "There can be honest disagreements about policy without using hateful language. Everyone needs to remember that," House Speaker John Boehner, the highest-ranking Congressional Republican said in a statement.

Despite the reactions, King stood by his comments in an interview with Radio Iowa, according to Latino Fox News. "It's not something that I'm making up. This is real. We have people that are mules, that are drug mules, that are hauling drugs across the border and you can tell by their physical characteristics what they've been doing for months, going through the desert with 75 pounds of drugs on their back," King said.

"If those who advocate for the DREAM Act, if they choose to characterize this about valedictorians, I gave them a different image that we need to be thinking about because we just simply can't be passing legislation looking only at one component of what would be millions of people," King told reporter O. Kay Henderson.

On July 19, during an interview on Univision's "Al Punto Con Jorge Ramos," King said that what happened to undocumented immigrants wasn't his responsability, the Huffington Post reported.

"What would you do with them? I mean, the idea of self-deportation, as you know, with Mitt Romney just didn't work," Ramos asked the Republican.

"Well, here - it isn't my responsibility to solve that problem," King said. "And American citizens and legal Americans do not have a moral obligation to solve the problem of the 11 million people that are here unlawfully. That's a condition they willfully stepped into on their own, and some of them will make the decision on their own on what to do. Many of them actually will do that."