Close to 20 people attended a town hall meeting with U.S. Senator Charles Grassley at Art on State in Guthrie Center Tuesday.

The event started on the topic of border security with Mexico. Grassley believes a large portion of those crossing the border illegally are between 13-17 years old and speculated that some were used for sex trafficking, drug trade and gangs such as MS13. Grassley also explained House Resolution 1, which would federalize elections, register illegal immigrants as voters. He said the bill is a “power grab” for the Democratic Party to hold control in the legislature for future years.

Another topic Grassley addressed was about the possibility of continuing federal government stimulus programs. He said of the recent $1.9 trillion bill, only about ⅓ dealt with COVID-19 relief and explained that it would be impossible to figure out exactly the number of U.S. citizens that truly needed stimulus checks and who didn’t. One of the final topics was on controlling big tech companies. Grassley said if he could he would remove Section 230 of the 1996 law that protects big tech companies from being sued when they censor information on their platforms. 

The Tuesday stop in Guthrie Center was part of Grassley’s 99-county tour.