Iowa Rep. Steve King Says if House Takes Vote on Immigration Reform ‘This Place Will Blow Up’

Republicans often claim that their blatant obstruction in Congress is just the result of them “listening to the voice of the American people.”  A claim I've frequently bashed considering the American people overwhelmingly support universal background checks on gun purchases and raising the minimum wage, among a host of other issues Congress continues to disregard.

One of those other issues the vast majority of Americans support is sensible immigration reform.  In fact, last year the Senate sent a bipartisan immigration bill to the House that President Obama would have signed into law.  Just one problem – the House refused to bring the bill up for a vote (because it would have most likely passed), essentially killing it.

Iowa Rep. Steve King, a man who’s known for his anti-immigrant beliefs, recently threatened that if the House were to take up immigration reform, it would basically cause mass chaos.

King said, “If it happens, this place will blow up.  If they try to bring some kind of amnesty or a provision that convinces close to a majority of Republicans that it is a sleight of hand amnesty, this place will blow up and there will be a crisis like we have not seen in years in the House of Representatives.”

Again, immigration reform is an issue the vast majority of the American people support.

This is the problem with Republicans controlling the House, they’re not representing the vast majority of Americans.  And that’s not a talking point, that’s just a fact.  In 2012, Democrats won the popular vote in the House of Representatives by 1.5 million votes, yet thanks to gerrymandering Republicans remained in control.  So right now, as it relates to what the House of Representatives is supposed to represent, the minority of Americans are being represented over the majority.

So when someone like Steve King says that chaos will ensue if immigration reform is taken up in the House, he’s ignoring the desires of the vast majority of Americans for the bigoted and minority opinions of the most radically right-wing among us.

Then again, this is the guy who once said that most Mexican immigrants were drug mules with “calves the size of cantaloupes,” so it’s not as if he’s the utmost authority on discussing common sense immigration reform.

He’d actually need to have the ability to use common sense to do that.  Something Steve King clearly lacks.