Iowa Congressman Steve King shares the same views on immigration reform as the most-recent entrant in the Republican presidential race, but King says he’s not ready to endorse Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo’s candidacy.
“I certainly encouraged Tom to run. I had, essentially, a heart-to-heart talk with him this past week and encouraged him,” King says. “I want to facilitate everything I can in Iowa so that his voice is well-heard here.” King and Tancredo both oppose amnesty for the illegal immigrants living in the U.S. today and instead they advocate construction of a fence along the southern border of the U.S. and stricter enforcement of immigration rules.
“It seems as though the immigration debate is about America becoming a giant ATM. People come into the country legally or illegally to cash into the benefits and take advantage of the jobs…then it’s big business taking advantage of the cheap labor. Well, we’re a lot more than a giant ATM. We are a country and a country’s composed of a people with a soul, with a culture, with a heart,” King says. “We need to take care of our soul, our culture as a nation. Tom Tancredo understands that.”
King says he doesn’t know yet whether he’ll endorse a presidential candidate before Iowa’s Caucuses, even his look-alike friend. Tancredo and King look so similar they are often mistaken for one another. King himself has done a double-take on occasion.
“I have walked by the television and thought I saw myself on TV…and mentally made the note: ‘I don’t have a tie like that,’ but it was Tom Tancredo not Steve King,” King says.