In an interview with Boston Herald Radio at the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform’s annual radio row event today, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, warned that undocumented immigration and “identity politics” will not only “destroy our republic” but will ultimately lead to the collapse of Western Civilization by preventing the U.S. from leading the fight against radical Islam.
“I think that if we don’t enforce immigration law and if we continue down the path of the president’s amnesty and the recruitment of people in foreign countries to come in here illegally and giving them a path to legality and eventually a path to citizenship, I think that destroys our republic,” he said.
He urged the GOP to “stick with” the anti-immigration planks in its platform, saying, “You know, identity politics I think are a mistake too. I’m just no great fan of identity politics.”
He urged the GOP to instead reach out to immigrants and Latino voters by telling them that immigration reform will prevent the U.S. from putting “the pillars of American exceptionalism back together,” thus depriving Western Civilization of a “captain” in the fight against radical Islam.
“If you look at the rest of the free world, Western Europe, for example, Australia, New Zealand, those areas of Western Civilization, they look to us to be the leader. They do not have the capability of saving this world, I should say saving Western Civilization for the world, without America,” he said.
Later in the interview, King offered a novel solution to problems with foreign student visa holders disappearing from the government’s radar: bond them like people being released from jail.
Calling it a “business proposal” based on his experience as in the construction industry when his work was guaranteed by bonds, King asked, “Why can’t we do that with these students and just say bond them into this?”
“Bond them that they’ll come and they’ll follow the law and if their visa expires, we’ll just blame this on the bonding agent,” he said. “That’s how we let people out of jail. There’s a whole system out there, there’s an industry out there, why not let that be the guarantee? And then there’s no sweat on the enforcement, you just happen to have the check and balance in place.”
King also repeated his frustration with the House GOP leadership for bucking a plan he supported to shut down the government over President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
When asked, “Why can’t we deport people?” King responded, “If we were aggressive on this, that’s how you restore the respect for the rule of law. And instead, it’s the lack of political will.”
