(CNN)Rep. Steve King, Republican of Iowa, said Friday that he does not want Somali Muslims working in his home district's meat-packing plants for fear that they think consumers will go "to hell for eating pork chops."
In a conversation with Breitbart Radio on Friday about the latest immigration legislation, King shared anecdotes about immigrant food processing workers in his home district.
King claims that he spoke to Rep. Keith Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat who is also the one of only two Muslim members of Congress, about the employment of Somali Muslims in the factories around his house, calling Ellison "the lead Muslim in Congress." According to King, Ellison said that Somali Muslims must go to the Imam for "special dispensation" to handle pork.
Ellison's office declined to comment.
"The rationale is that if infidels are eating this pork, they aren't eating it, so as long as they're preparing this pork for infidels, it helps send 'em to hell and it'll make Allah happy," he said on the radio. "I don't want people doing my pork that won't eat it. Let alone hope I'll go to hell for eating pork chops."
According to an analysis done for the Des Moines Register by Liesl Eathington of Iowa State University, the percentage of workers in those plants of Somali origin make up less than one-third of 1% of the total number of workers.
King is known for his anti-immigration stances, saying that "we can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies." King has also said he wants "an America so homogeneous that we look the same."
As a congressman from an Iowa district with a high concentration of meat-packing plants and pork packaging, King has made public comments about the pork industry before. Last week, King tweeted out an article about a Sweden soccer tournament that wiped pork from the menu.
"Sweden has capitulated to halal," he wrote.
