Rep. Gosar stands by contentious DACA posts to Facebook
Jan 25, 2018, 9:13 AM | Updated: Sep 29, 2022, 10:07 am
(Instagram Photo)
(Instagram Photo)
PHOENIX — Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar is standing by several controversial memes he recently posted that highlight criminal activity of immigrants living in the state.
One of the Facebook posts claimed 30 percent of undocumented immigrants eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals had committed almost 30 percent of kidnappings in Arizona.
The DACA legislation crafted by Republican Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) and Democrat Dick Durbin (Illinois), “put forward are talking exactly about these DACA-aged. … You have to be very, very careful when looking at this,” Gosar said Thursday on KTAR 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.
Another meme stated that 14 percent of sexual assaults in Arizona were committed by DACA-aged immigrants.
The Republican from Prescott said the memes were a way to get out the information.
“We’re trying to make sure people have full knowledge what we’re talking about in regards to DACA,” he told KTAR 92.3 FM’s Chad Benson Show on Wednesday night.
The numbers came from the conservative Crime Prevention Research Center and were published Jan. 11. Author John Lott said the data was based on Arizona Department of Corrections statistics.
President Donald Trump has said repeatedly there would be path to citizenship for some Dreamers.
“There were individuals that came into this country, brought here by their parents, so we have no screenings. When you have John Lott doing an evaluation of the data, the data is a little bit scary compared to the normal data,” Gosar said on Benson’s show.
“What’s happening is you have to look at these Dreamers all the way across this board, not just the ones that actually applied. The courts will actually imply that maybe someone didn’t get a fair shake … so they would be eligible.
“You can’t just look at the [700,000-800,00] that people are trying to lead you to look at. You have to look at the potentially eligible 3.2 million individuals. That is problematic.”
The series of memes, some shown below, were posted Monday.
