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Steve King Proposed Legislation To Shield Him From DREAMers

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Republicans are today wrapping up a week-long stretch of anti-immigrant hearings, one of which resulted in approval of a bill that would repeal last year’s immigration action (who needs those Latino voters, right?)

“Comprehensive mass-deportation” aside, Elise Foley noted an amendment that was ultimately rejected during the hearing: A proposal to give Capitol Police authority to arrest undocumented immigrants, specifically ones protesting in Congressional offices.

The brain behind the amendment? None other than Iowa’s Steve King.

King’s name has become synonymous with inflammatory rhetoric on just about anything, but he’s always been nice enough to save his most notorious gems for undocumented immigrants. Who can forget him calling a DREAMer and guest of the First Lady at the State of the Union a “deportable”? Or comparing them to drug mules? Or describing them as having “calves the size of cantaloupes” from hauling pot?

(Sure, his comments have caused headaches for GOP leaders, but it sure hasn’t been enough to stop them from letting him craft the party’s mass-deportation platform).

But if there’s one thing we know about DREAMers, though, is that they don’t stay silent. In fact, one visit in particular from them resulted in King whipping out his iPhone to furiously tweet that “self-professed illegal aliens” had “invaded” his D.C. office.

But it was the cantaloupe comment that ultimately led DREAMers to one of their most well-known actions to date — delivering immigrant-picked cantaloupes to King and every single member of the House who voted to end DACA. The delivery itself was no small feat — 223 House members voted with King to deport DREAMers (good thing they have strong legs).

So maybe those are all reasons why King was trying his best to block immigrants from again stepping even one cantaloupe calf inside his office at the risk of arrest and deportation. Thankfully, even in the midst of these hearings, saner minds prevailed and deemed King’s amendment irrelevant.

Of course, it could be really simple for King to stop more visits from DREAMers — he could just stop saying terrible things. Pretty sure that’s never going to happen.