Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).
Image AP

Mention Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) to most Democrats and advocates of immigration reform and it'll usually be met with scorn. Republican Party leadership hasn't looked too favorably upon him lately, either - his latest comments suggesting that most DREAMers are drug mules has been denounced by nearly every senior GOP member - but despite his penchant for whipping up controversy, he's often viewed as a voice of the rural, largely white heartland where his district lies. A new poll from the American Action Network suggests differently.

The pro-immigration reform American Action Network, which describes itself as an "'action tank' dedicated to creating, encouraging and promoting center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security", polled voters in the Fourth Congressional District of Iowa, which King represents, on June 24-27.

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They found that seven in ten of them (69 percent) favored or supported generic "comprehensive immigration reform" (King thinks it should be done with small, single-issue bills instead). 68 percent favor an earned pathway to legal status without citizenship for the undocumented, including 70 percent of district Republicans; 65 percent favored an earned pathway to citizenship, including 51 percent of district Republicans. King believes any form of legalization measures for any of the undocumented is "amnesty" which endangers the rule of law unless the border is secured to his liking - in 2010 he gave a speech in which he spoke of telling GOP strategist Karl Rove, "Karl, if you give me $6 million a mile, there will not be a cockroach [that will] get across my mile. I guarantee it!".

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Voters in the Fourth Congressional District appear to support the Senate's immigration reform bill, which King and many other House Republicans have fought tooth and nail. When informed of the main tenets of the Senate bill, 79 percent indicated they would favor the proposal, with 18 percent opposing. 60 percent (and 54 percent of Republicans) said they didn't think it was "amnesty". And on the issue of young undocumented people, voters in King's district were very much in support of giving them permanent resident status if they served in the military and had no criminal record. That includes 75 percent of those who said they were "very conservative".

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King seems to stand with his district's voters on one point: dislike for President Barack Obama. When asked if they thought that "passing this immigration reform legislation would stop President Obama from being able to pick and choose what immigration laws he wants to enforce, like he does", 58 percent of all voters agreed. 71 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of those who identified as "very conservative" did, too.

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