Monday, July 29, 2013

Grijalva: House Leadership Should Kick Congressman Steve King Off Judiciary Committee If They're Serious About Immigration Reform

Posted By on Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 2:00 PM

Southern Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva responded last week to Iowa Congressman Steve King's assertion that many of the potential DREAM Act kids are actually drug mules who have "calves the size of cantaloupes" from hauling all that weed across the border:

I appreciate the Speaker, Mr. Cantor and others who have repudiated what Steve King said. I think that's important. But the point is that this is a pathological habit and a performance on the part of Steve King. He's done it before. He's made commentaries as offensive, if not more offensive, on other instances, and it's been an attitude about seeing immigrants and to some extent, maybe, the Latino community as some sort of threat. And he applies his agenda that way. I think the leadership of the Republican Party should seriously consider removing him from Judiciary. That is the committee from which some sort of movement on immigration reform is going to emanate, and they should put somebody in there from their party who wants to get something done, as opposed to somebody who is in there to effectively sabotage any effort to get immigration reform done."

New York magazine's Jonathan Chait sizes up King's appearance on the House floor last week to defend his accusations about kids smuggling drugs across the border. ICYMI: Former state lawmaker Frank Antenori defended King on last week's AZ Illustrated Politics and boasted that he, too, once had calves the size of cantaloupes.