Rep. Steve King: ‘Diversity is not our strength’

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said that diversity is no America’s strength in a pair of tweets Friday.

King linked to an article by the Voice of Europe Friday that quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban saying that cultures shouldn’t be mixed, arguing that it’s “against common sense.”

{mosads}King tweeted the story with the message, “Diversity is not our strength.”

“Assimilation has become a dirty word to the multiculturalist Left. Assimilation, not diversity, is our American strength,” he tweeted. 

Diversity is not our strength. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, “Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one.” https://t.co/ZlMXzcc87w

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) December 8, 2017 

Assimilation has become a dirty word to the multiculturalist Left. Assimilation, not diversity, is our American strength.

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) December 8, 2017

King, one of the most vocal critics of immigration in Congress, has made controversial statements in the past, including praise for far-right European politician Geert Wilders.

He tweeted a cartoon of Wilders plugging a hole in a wall that read “Western civilization” in March.

“Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” King wrote at the time.

The lawmaker has also defended former Maricopa Country Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court for refusing to halt his immigration patrols but later pardoned by President Trump. King said that he doesn’t agree that “profiling is wrong.”

His tweets Friday come as lawmakers are struggling with how to extend protections for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which President Trump has set to end in March.

Democrats are demanding that Congress pass a fix for “Dreamers” before the end of the year and have pushed for it to be included in a year-end government spending bill.

Trump made stronger immigration policies a cornerstone of his campaign, promising to build a wall on the Mexican border and railing against sanctuary cities, and has continued to advocate for those positions during his administration.