Steve King (file photo)
Republican Congressman Steve King says if Mexico fails to stop a caravan of asylum seekers from Central America who’re headed north, then President Trump must follow through on his threat to send troops to seal the southern border and prevent their entry in the United States.
“It’s one of those promises that has to be kept,” King says. “I think about when Ronald Reagan said to the air traffic controllers: ‘You have a chance to come back to work, but if you don’t, I’m going to fire you.’ And some said: ‘He doesn’t have the nerve to do that,’ but Ronald Reagan had to do that if he wanted to maintain his presidency and this is one of those kind of circumstances, too.”
Recent reports indicate the caravan, which started in Honduras, has swelled to a group of 4000 making their way through Guatemala. King says President Trump must also carry out his threat to end U.S. aid to countries along the migration route if the caravan reaches the U.S. border.
“That adds up to quite a bit of money,” King says. “I think (Trump) should say further that we’ll redirect those funds into building a wall.”
King, who is seeking a ninth term in the U.S. House, has long advocated building a wall along the southern border and he has strongly opposed legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship or some sort of legal residency status for immigrants who’ve entered the country illegally.
This past week, King sparked controversy by commenting on Canadian politics. King tweeted his endorsement of Faith Goldy, who’s running for mayor of Toronto. The election is next week.
“I support her because she won’t back up, she takes a stand and she holds it and she has been badly abused by the establishment in Toronto,” King says.
King’s tweet, calling Faith Goldy “pro-Western Civilization” has drawn more than a thousand critical comments describing Goldy as a white nationalist and citing her comment that Canada is undergoing a “white genocide.”
King says Goldy is “a legitimate candidate” whose advertising wasn’t aired and who was not invited to debate the other two candidates running for mayor of Toronto.
“She has been completely muzzled,” King says, “and when I see that happen, I know that freedom has been damaged dramatically.”
King’s Democratic opponent, J.D. Sholten of Sioux City, says “once again, Steve King spends more time supporting far-right leaders in other countries than he does focusing on the needs of the people of our district.”