He spoke in Omaha, where woman died from attack
Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King said at a rally in Nebraska on Friday that thousands of Americans have been killed by people who are in the United States illegally.
King said a former immigration official once told him the number of deaths is likely “in multiples of the victims of Sept. 11.” He added: “Now that hits home, doesn’t it? … Three thousand times something.”
ByJennifer Jacobs
Sep. 19, 2013
The rally in Omaha was meant to support victims of crimes, including Louise Sollowin, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
Sollowin, 93, was raped and beaten in her Omaha home in July. She later died.
Police have charged Sergio Martinez-Perez, a 19-year-old Mexican native who is in the country illegally.
Democrat Jim Mowrer, a military veteran who is seeking to oust King from office in the 2014 election, criticized King Wednesday for his comments.
“Rather than do his job and get a farm bill passed, it looks like Congressman King is making inflammatory statements about Sept. 11 in order to create a few more headlines for himself,” Mowrer told The Des Moines Register in a statement. “Most Iowans can discuss immigration without invoking 9/11, and if Congressman King feels the need to play politics with 9/11, maybe it’s a sign that after 10 years in Washington, he’s lost touch with Iowa values.”
King said he’s now in his 11th year in Congress and during that time, two of his staffers have been victims of car accidents caused by drivers with no license or insurance who he said were illegal immigrants.
He asked staff members to print stories of lives lost or people harmed, and they found many stories, including ones about young girls raped or molested, someone killed in a drunken-driving crash, and a murder.
“Obama, how much blood has to be spilled before you defend our border?” he said at the rally.
It’s King’s second remark about illegal immigrants that critics have fingered as inflammatory in the past eight weeks.
In July, he said that for every illegal immigrant child who’s a valedictorian, “there’s another 100 out there who weigh 130 pounds and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”
King stood by his comments, which fueled national news coverage and jokes on TV talk shows.
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