Rep. Steve King and His Boston Marathon Immigration Reform #NoMames Fail

Apr 16, 2013
3:29 PM

Memo to Congress: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) needs to shut up. As reported by Think Progress, today King offered his thoughts about the Boston Marathon tragedy and how it proves that this country should not push for comprehensive immigration reform.

steve-king

Here is what TP shared today:

Representative Steve King of Iowa, a prominent House conservative, says Congress should be cautious about rushing immigration reform, especially after Monday’s bombing in Boston, where three people were killed.

“Some of the speculation that has come out is that yes, it was a foreign national and, speculating here, that it was potentially a person on a student visa,” King says. “If that’s the case, then we need to take a look at the big picture.”

On immigration, King says national security should be the focus now, and any talk about a path to legalization should be put on hold. “We need to be ever vigilant,” he says. “We need to go far deeper into our border crossings. . . .We need to take a look at the visa-waiver program and wonder what we’re doing. If we can’t background check people that are coming from Saudi Arabia, how do we think we are going to background check the 11 to 20 million people that are here from who knows where.”

Does King not even read The Washington Post? The whole issue of a “Saudi” suspect was silenced yesterday:

U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday that a Saudi national injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is regarded as a witness, not a suspect.

The Saudi, who is recuperating at a Boston hospital, is in his 20s and is in the United States on a Saudi scholarship to study at a university in the Boston area.

As for the idea of being “vigilant,” we offer the example of hero Carlos Arendondo, who, according to reports, entered this country without authorization:

Amidst the terror of the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday afternoon, there were many great heroes, including Carlos Arredondo — the father of a Marine who lost his life in Iraq in 2004.

Arredondo, 52, can be seen in countless images and videos from the immediate aftermath of the explosion, running towards the area where bomb went off, pulling away debris to help those who had been hurt, and tending to a young man in a wheelchair who seemed to have lost both his legs in blast.

The Costa Rican-born hero, who lives in the Boston suburb of Rosindale, can be seen in the YouTube video below, at times shaking, while describing the traumatic scene that he witnessed.

“I just concentrated on that young man,” Arredondo said. “I tied him up, [his] legs, talked to him, he was conscious, I let him know ‘The ambulance is on the way. It’s okay, it’s okay, nothing happened, you’re okay, wait, wait, stay with me, stay with me.’”