Steve King To Talk Immigration Reform In Several States On 'Stop Amnesty Tour'

The leaders of the Republican Party are trying to shunt Steve King (R-Iowa) off to the margins of their party's debate on immigration. But the Iowa representative doesn't want to give up the stage. In the middle of the Congressional August recess, King is latching onto a series of rallies put on by a coalition of conservative groups and dubbed the "Stop Amnesty Tour". The Tour will be stopping at several states across the union - Politico reports plans haven't been finalized yet, but among the sites are Harrisburg, Pa.; Dallas, Texas; Toledo, Ohio; and South Carolina - and King is trying to show up to talk immigration at as many of them as possible.

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On Monday night, King spoke to about 60 people at a rally in Richmond, Virginia for nearly half an hour, according to Politico, during which he argued that Latin American immigrants moving north into the United States would bring violence from their societies with them. "Now think what that is," he said. "If you bring people from a violent civilization into a less-violent civilization, you're going to have more violence right? It's like pouring hot water into cold water, does it raise the temperature or not?"

The Iowa congressman saw himself denounced by the leaders of his party after making inflammatory comments on young undocumented immigrants brought to the country illegally as children by their parents in an July interview with Newsmax.

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"For everyone who's a valedictorian," he said then, "there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and they've got calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert. Those people would be legalized with the same act."

House Speaker John Boehner called those comments "hateful" and "deeply offensive and wrong". House Majority Leader Eric Cantor issued a statement saying he "strongly disagreed" with the characterization and found the comments "inexcusable". And they have declined over the August recess to discuss King's role in debates over immigration reform.

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King has defended those remarks, and they may have even put wind in the sails of his campaigning against immigration reform. According to Politico, he's been leading weekly meetings of House Republicans for whom the idea of legalization measures for the undocumented is a nonstarter. It's uncertain how big this group truly is, or whether or not it will be able to kill any legislation which would offer legal status.

"A year ago, almost everybody in my conference agreed with me," King told Politico when asked about his marginalization by GOP leaders. "There's been no spell cast over me. "