Iowa Yakker: Make Undocumented Immigrants 'Property Of The State'
Credit: Media Matters
August 20, 2015

And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools. -- Elvis Costello

I hate the primary system that makes Iowa so damned influential, because it gives right-wing idiots like this such outsize power in the political process:

Influential Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson -- whose show is a frequent destination for Republican presidential candidates -- is standing by his plan to make undocumented immigrants "property of the state" if they refuse to leave the country after an allotted period of time. In comments to Media Matters, Mickelson described his plan as "constitutionally defensible, legally defensible, morally defensible, biblically defensible and historically defensible."

On his August 17 radio show, Mickelson laid out his proposal for forcing undocumented immigrants out of Iowa. According to Mickelson, he would "put up some signs" alerting undocumented immigrants that they would be forced into "compelled labor" if they did not leave before a stated deadline. He continued, "the people who are here illegally would therefore be owned by the state and become an asset of the state rather than a liability and we start inventing jobs for them to do." After a caller raised a concern that "everybody would believe it sounds like slavery," Mickelson replied, "well, what's wrong with slavery?"

Mickelson strongly defended his proposal during a Wednesday interview with Media Matters.

[...] Mickelson tweeted today that he's hosted "everyone" from the Republican presidential field on his radio program except Jeb Bush.

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