Iowa Rep. Steve King Thinks Most Payments Sent to Mexico Are ‘Laundered Drug Money’

Congressman Steve King (R-IA) responded positively to Donald Trump‘s proposal to fund his border wall by blocking any payments by immigrants in America sending funds back to their home countries. King averred that most of that money was just “laundered drug money.”

Speaking to Steve Malzberg on Newsmax, King said of Trump’s proposition: “Let’s let that dialogue go and see how that works.”

Regarding money sent by immigrants in America back to Mexico, South America, and Central America, King said, “I suspect a good chunk of it is laundered drug money.” He added that there had been virtually “no effort” to interdict the money flowing out of America, which he said was going straight into the hands of drug cartels.

In a press conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama blasted Trump’s proposal as absurd. “The notion that we are going to track every Western Union bit of money that is being sent to Mexico, good luck with that,” he said.

“I’d like to see Donald Trump go a little further with this dialogue and see what we might be able to get done,” King said.

The congressman from Iowa was one of Sen. Ted Cruz‘s most prominent early backers and has demonstrated some antipathy for the current GOP frontrunner, even accusing Sarah Palin of being bought off by his campaign. But he’s also a staunch conservative on immigration, making pilgrimages to the border with Michele Bachmann and accusing immigrants of turning the U.S. into a third-world country.

[h/t and video courtesy of Right Wing Watch]