Zuckerberg group attacks Steve King on immigration

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-immigration super-PAC is launching ads attacking Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) for his latest controversial comments about immigrants.

{mosads}The ad is the FWD.us’s first major foray into the 2014 elections.

“Instead of supporting our military, Steve King, a Republican member of Congress, insults the brave soldiers who are immigrants and those who would proudly serve,” the ad’s narrator says. “Instead of supporting immigrants who want to serve, he’d deport them. Steve King’s attacks on American soldiers and military is [sic] wrong.”

The ad puts up text of King’s latest controversial remark on immigrants.

“We’re not going to take your oath into the military, but we’re going to take your deposition and we have a bus for you to Tijuana,” he said earlier this month.

Another ad features an illegal immigrant brought to America as a baby who wants to serve in the military, juxtaposed with text of King’s comment.

The ads are running on broadcast TV in Iowa and are also part of an online campaign.

“Rep. Steve King and his anti-immigrant allies want to deport over 11 million people, and by claiming ‘I think [Congress] blows up’ if a military DREAMer provision is even considered, he demonstrates that they’re willing to use threats over Congressional procedure to block every conceivable path to even the least controversial aspects of immigration reform,” FWD.us Executive Director Todd Schulte said in a statement.

The group plans to push politicians on both sides of the aisle to back immigration reform, which appears all but dead in the House this year.

King fired back against the ad.

“I am under attack by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg because I am one of the few who will stand up and tell the truth about amnesty,” said King. “He wants amnesty because it would benefit his multi-billion dollar corporation, but I’m fighting to preserve the Rule of Law. Why would we reward people for breaking our laws? Rewarding law breakers produces more law breakers. Our Nation’s military is full of dedicated men and women and to disrespect them by rewarding illegal aliens with citizenship is an insult.”

King is no stranger to controversial remarks about immigrants. He said last year many children of illegal immigrants have “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.”

The firebrand congressman is in a potentially competitive race with a former campaign staffer for Vice President Joe Biden, but his district leans Republican and he easily defeated a well-financed challenger last election cycle.

This post was updated at 4:35 p.m.