Speech #1090171645

We have been carrying that message consistently at heart now for a number of years. for me it is 4 years here in this Congress. carrying this message. I sent out a survey into my congressional district. it will be 2 years ago last March. and it went to 10.000 households randomly selected by a computer. so it would have been Democrats. Independents and Republicans scattered across the district in a random location. and it was a survey on immigration. I knew what I thought. I believe we need to enforce our immigration laws. seal our border. force all traffic to ports of entry. and birthright citizenship and the anchor babies. shut off the jobs magnet. do all those things and a lot of people go back home. I believe a lot of people do that. I believe the record is replete with statements to that effect and a number of pieces of policy that add to that overall philosophy. But the immigration survey that I sent out to the number of 10.000 randomly selected households asked a whole series of questions about immigration. That was the only subject matter. The most significant question that I asked in that survey was on a scale of 1 to 10. with 10 being the most intense. how intensively do you agree with this statement. and then the statement reads. in the survey. that we should eliminate all illegal immigration and reduce legal immigration. Reducing legal immigration is not something that I have actually called for. but. and all illegal immigration. reduce legal immigration. and how intensively do you agree with this. with 10 being the most intense. Out of 10.000 mailed. we received 1.800 and. I think the number was 96 respondents. So a number that approached 19 percent returned. which is about 3 times what your average return rate would be on that kind of a mailing. On that question. we should end all illegal immigration. and reduce legal. how intensely do you agree. 82 percent put down 10. 82 percent. Some of them must have held their pen like a dagger the way they wrote their notes and their comments on the surveys. As I went through those and read them through. 82 percent said end illegal immigration. all of it. reduce legal. By the time you added the 7. 8s. 9s to those 10s. 97 percent agreed with that statement. and only 3 percent had an opinion down on the other side of the scale. only 3 percent. I would submit that if I sent a survey out to the district with a random selection like that. and I said STEVE KING says the sun comes up in the east. do you agree or disagree. I do not believe I would get a 97 percent agreement out of my congressional district. but 97 percent want to have border control. and they want to have enforcement. That is what we tried to provide in this Congress. and we have made some significant progress. Last August 22. 1 have to back up. it was a year ago last August 22. is a little over a year ago. I hosted an immigration summit in Iowa. I started out in Des Moines with radio and a lot of print coverage and some video coverage on there. I had a host of very good speakers on the immigration issue. TOM TANCREDO came. my good friend from Arizona and powerful leader on the subject. J.D.