Republican Rep. Steve King responded to Pope Francis’s call for the U.S. not to turn its back on refugees Thursday, saying that a flood of migrants could “sink the lifeboat” that is America.
“One thing that the Catholic church seems to miss is the importance of the nation state, the sovereignty,” King said on CNN Thursday. “And if you’re going to protect the rule of law, you have to have borders and have to have the nation state.” (RELATED: Pope Francis Urges US Not To Turn Its Back On Refugees)
“But I absolutely agree with the church’s position to respect the dignity of every human person,” King continued. “The language that he uses really focuses on that, and we should encourage and provide opportunities. But by the same token, if we open up our borders, eventually we sink the lifeboat that is America.
“And that next phase of the practicality of this wasn’t addressed in his speech.”
Pope Francis urged Congress to use the Golden Rule when considering the refugee crisis. “We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation,” he said in his address.
Although the U.S. makes up less than 5 percent of the global population, it takes in one in five of the world’s migrants. No other country has taken in more than one-twentieth of the world’s migrant population. (RELATED: US Hosts SIX TIMES More Migrants Than All Of Latin America)
The U.S. takes in about 70,000 refugees a year, but this week Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. will take in an extra 45,000 refugees over the next two years in response to the crisis. At least 10,000 of them will be from Syria.
The foreign-born population of the U.S. has hit an all-time high of more than 42 million.
“If i had written this speech, as i was kind of joking in a way, it would have been sharper, it would have been more definitive,” King added. “And it’s a good thing I didn’t. I’m glad he did. And I’m relieved that he gave the kind of speech that makes everybody feel good about our faith, about our Christianity, about our country.”
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