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King: Voters should ask candidates about immigration

By Charlotte Eby, Globe Gazette Des Moines Bureau
DES MOINES -- U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, is urging Iowa voters to press presidential candidates to talk about what they would do to curb illegal immigration.

The congressman from the Northwest Iowa town of Kiron hosted a forum on the issue in Des Moines Monday. King said candidates in the last two presidential campaigns failed to debate the issue and that it shouldn't be ignored again in 2008.

"This is about presidential politics; I make no bones about it," King said. "I want Iowans to understand immigration policy, and I want them to challenge the presidential candidates when they get here and ask them the hard questions."

King argued that securing the nation's borders against illegal immigrants is essential to the country's homeland security.

"It's a huge haystack of humanity, and we're looking at terrorists in that haystack, needles in the haystack, if you will," King said.

King questioned Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack's push to encourage immigration in the state as a way of filling jobs and creating a more diverse work force.

And King said he is opposed to President Bush's amnesty plan for long-time illegal workers.

Instead, King wants to construct a barrier across the country's southern border to keep Mexicans from entering the country illegally. He said at an estimated cost of $680 million, it would cost far less than housing illegal aliens in the nation's prisons and jails.

"It isn't that most of the people coming across the southern border are bad people, they're good people. And they're good people that want to help out their families for the most part, but we still have our laws. We've got to enforce our laws," King said.

King's statements on immigration have brought sharp criticism from Iowa Democrats, who accuse him of having extremist views.

"Iowans understand this is a state and a nation of immigrants, and they expect a fair immigration policy, not one based on hate and discrimination," said Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson.

King was joined at the forum by U.S. Rep. Jay Hayworth, R-Ariz., and U.S. Rep. Tom Cancredo, R-Colorado, and others who oppose illegal immigration.

Peter Gadiel, who lost his 23-year-old son in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and spoke at Monday's event, argued that if the country had enforced its immigration laws, the attacks might have been avoided.

He accused Bush and Congress of failing to provide enough resources to stopping illegal aliens from coming across the border.

"If terrorists cannot enter the U.S., they can't commit acts of terror in this country. It's a very simple concept that anybody should be able to understand," Gadiel said.

California resident Jim Gilchrist, said he was "mad as hell" the federal government wasn't stopping the flow of illegal aliens when he formed the Minutemen Project militia.

The group recruited close to 1,200 citizens, and shut down a 23-mile segment of the border to illegal immigrants, Gilchrist said. He said his group shouldn't be considered vigilantes.

"We succeeded in sealing off the border, bringing attention to this matter to the U.S. public and the media and literally stopping the illegal alien slave labor trade, the drug trade," Gilchrist said.