Run for the Border, Steve King's Coming!

[pampango]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/11/steve-king-immigration-committee

Rep. Steve King has compared border-crossers to livestock, asserted that President Obama "favors the black person," and described illegal immigration as a "slow-motion terrorist attack." Last summer, the Iowa Republican proclaimed that he would support amnesty for illegal immigrants under just one condition—that "every time we give amnesty for an illegal alien, we deport a liberal." Since Tom Tancredo left office in 2008, King has risen to take his place as the right's biggest anti-immigration flamethrower. Now he's preparing to wage an even bigger assault under Republican-controlled House. King is very likely to become the next chair of the House Judiciary's subcommittee on immigration, working together with Judiciary's incoming chairman, Lamar Smith—another immigration hawk who's vowed to put a crackdown at the top of his agenda.

Echoing Rep. Darrell Issa's impending assault on the Obama administration—promising to hold over 200 hearings as chair of the House Oversight Committee—King plans to grill the Obama administration about its immigration enforcement policy, telling Politico that he wants to bring Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano before the committee, among others.

Immigration advocates say that King simply intends to create more rabble-rousing political theater and inflame the masses—particularly as nearly all of his proposals stand little chance of passing the House, let alone the Senate or the president's desk. "A lot of it is theatrics, really using the bully pulpit of committee majority position to push these things out there and stir things up. It wouldn't necessarily result in legislative ," says Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center. She adds that the oversight hearings are meant to hammer home the message that "Obama has failed to enforce the law" on immigration—even though the current administration is deporting even more immigrants than under Bush, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security.

Moreover, despite the impending congressional gridlock, there's one arena in which Republicans could score a legislative victory. Giovagnoli says that she expects a bill requiring employers to verify the citizenship of their workers could stand a chance in the next Congress. King and Smith have both pushed for mandatory use of E-Verify—a citizenship verification system that's already in use at the state and federal level—and Blue Dog Democrats like Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) have supported such proposals in the past.

Given how far right Obama has already moved on immigration during his presidency—pushing a bill to ramp up border enforcement without making concessions to the other side—liberal advocates will need to stand firm if they want to keep the administration from going even further under a GOP House. Their conservative counterparts are already gearing up for the push. When the Republicans take power in the House, says Dane, "We're going to hold their feet to the fire."