Goodwill trip to Mexico turns bad

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A U.S. congressman visiting Mexico this week sharply criticized his hosts for allowing so many of their citizens to migrate to the U.S. and said Mexican officials had no incentive to stop the flow of people.

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a staunch conservative on immigration issues, was discussing his tour to Mexico to examine migration issues Monday with CNN host Lou Dobbs, also a fierce critic of illegal immigration. King noted that Mexico gained $25 billion to $30 billion a year in remittances sent by immigrant workers in the U.S. He also told Dobbs that of an estimated $65 billion in illegal drugs that entered the U.S. from Mexico, ‘somewhere between $13 billion and $48 billion of that finds its way back to Mexico. The incentives in Mexico for them to help us with this really aren’t there.’

Dobbs commented that Mexicans didn’t find it ‘offensive to export poverty and 20% of their population to the United States.’ King agreed. ‘It’s no way to run a country,’ he said.

Oddly enough, King said the trip, which he made with other representatives, including California Democrats Lois Capps and Zoe Lofgren, was meant to ‘expand our relations with Mexico.’

Posted by Nicole Gaouette in Washington

Photo: Sen. Steve King (R-Iowa) Credit: Saul Loeb AFP/Getty Images