On Monday night, Rand Paul was with Steve King — the member of Congress who championed last week’s bill to strip protections from young unauthorized immigrants so they would be vulnerable to deportation again — at a fundraiser in Okoboji, Iowa. The two were approached by advocate Erika Andiola — one of the immigrants King was trying to deport. Paul made a quick getaway, while King struggled to tell Andiola that he passed a bill allowing her to be deported because of drug smugglers:
Steve King led the charge to deport DREAMers — here’s what happens when he meets one
A few points of note:
King’s first reaction is that the only reason Andiola might not agree with him is if she doesn’t understand English. He keeps repeating “You speak English very well, so you understand what I’m saying.”
This isn’t the first time that King has claimed that most DREAMers are smuggling drugs. Last year, he said that “for every (DREAMer) who is a valedictorian, there’s another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they have calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
At the beginning of the interaction, Andiola hands King her DACA card — the card that represents the program protecting her from deportation, and the program King has been fighting so hard to end. Even though he helped insist last week that the House bill end DACA protections even for immigrants who already have them, when given the chance to actually rip up the card, King doesn’t take it.
And as a bonus, via NYMag, look at Rand Paul go:
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