Congressman King holds forums on immigration

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a republican from Kiron is holding forums in Des Moines and Council Bluffs today (Monday) to call attention to what he says is a need to reform the country’s immigration policies. King says in the last presidential election, John Kerry and George Bush avoided the immigration issue. “The reason was, I don’t think either one of those candidates where with the American people. The American people understand that you have to control your borders. You have to have the rule of law. If you don’t have a border that you can control, then you don’t have a nation, ” King says. King says it’s a problem that can’t continue to be ignored. King says as many as three-million people came across the southern border of the U.S. in the last year. He says the border patrol stopped one-million-139-thousand of them, but sent back only about 16-thousand. He says the rest promised to go back, but he says at least 84-percent of them didn’t. King has two of his colleagues coming in for the hearings. He says he’s invited in Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and Congressman Tom Tancredo from Colorado who he says are both leaders on the immigration issue. King is on the immigration subcommittee and says he wants to bring the issue into the spotlight in Iowa.He says the idea is to prepare the groundwork so the candidates for the 2008 caucuses hear from Iowans on immigration. The Des Moines forum is at 9 A.M. and the forum in Council Bluffs is tonight at 5:30.