Rep. Steve King has refused to apologize about comments he made last year that young illegal immigrants routinely smuggle drugs into the U.S. from Mexico, telling an Iowa newspaper the statement was “objectively true.”

A nationwide firestorm erupted after the conservative Iowa Republican in July said that for every young immigrant who comes to the U.S. and becomes a valedictorian, “there’s another 100 out there that — they weigh 130 pounds, and they’ve got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert” into the U.S.