Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first time that House Republicans gave Steve King a vote to deport DREAMers. Trying to end DACA is pretty heinous — and it’s just one of the many extremist reasons why King has made headlines over the years. From the time that King called immigration a “slow motion Holocaust” to last summer’s infamous comment comparing DREAMers to drug smugglers with “calves the size of cantaloupes,” below is a short history of Steve King’s worst offenses in opposing immigration reform. We’re not even including his support of dog fighting, or birtherism, or secessionism. So why is the House GOP allowing him to call the shots again?
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2003 |
Rep. Steve King is elected and comes to Washington. He is embraced by anti-immigrant hate group FAIR. |
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2004 |
10.4 million Latino and Asian voters turn out (2.4 million increase since 2000); 39% of Latino voters and 44% of APIA voters support R |
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2006 |
King suggests electrifying the border fence to keep immigrants out because “we do this with livestock all the time,” and describes unauthorized immigration as a “slow motion holocaust.” |
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2007 |
King’s anti-immigrant policies earn him the position of Ranking Member of House Immigration Subcommittee. |
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2008 |
Before the 2008 election, Rep. King says that if Barack Obama is elected president, al-Qaeda will be “dancing in the streets.” He describes the military-style raid on Postville, Iowa meatpacking plant and arrests of nearly 400 immigrant workers as a “step in the right direction” |
13.1 million Latino and Asian voters turn out (2.7 million increase since 2004); 25% of Latino voters and 35% of APIA voters support R |
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2009 |
King calls the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus “separatist groups.” |
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2010 |
King says police won’t have to use racial profiling to implement AZ anti-immigration law, because they can use their “sixth sense.” |
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2011 |
After Republicans take back the House, King is in line to become Chair of the Immigration Subcommittee. Instead he is named “vice-chair,” a made-up position designed to “handle” him without hurting the GOP’s image too much. Needless to say, it didn’t work. |
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2012 |
King compares immigrants to dogs, and claims this is a compliment. He threatens to sue DHS after the Administration agrees to stop deporting DREAMers/creates DACA. King campaigns with Mitt Romney and helps him lose the election. |
15.1 million Latino and Asian voters turn out (2 million increase since 2008); 23% of Latino voters and 26% of APIA voters support R |
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2013 |
King passes an amendment on the House floor to end DACA, with support from all but seven Republicans. He claims that DREAMers are drug-runners with calves the size of cantaloupes, triggering a mountain of evidence to the contrary and an education on the real connection between immigrants and cantaloupes. He also holds a rally that no one attends – but still gets the run of the House floor. |
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2014 |
King says that DREAMers who want to enlist in the military should instead be offered a “bus to Tijuana.” He passes other amendments on the House floor attacking DACA and immigration discretion, again with support from most Republicans. |
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2016 |
Who knows what King will say or do next? |
An estimated 16 million Latinos and 5 million Asian Americans will vote in the 2016 election. |
More on Steve King
More from AV: http://americasvoice.org/blog/rep-steve-king-r-ia-vice-chair-of-house-immigration-subcommittee-compares-immigrants-to-dogs/
Mother Jones retrospective: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/07/steve-king-most-outrageous-immigration-rhetoric
