I thought Representative Steve King’s faction of the House Republican caucus had decisively won the war against comprehensive immigration reform in this Congress. But House leaders are trying to nudge Republicans toward moving on the issue before the midterm elections.

Just like last year, King is ready to stand and fight. In recent days, he’s been working conservative public opinion on several fronts.  

Inside Washington, King is trying to connect conservative opinion leaders with policy-makers. Molly K. Hooper reported for The Hill,

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a vocal critic of the Senate-passed immigration bill, hosted a breakfast last Wednesday morning [January 30] with Sean Hannity of Fox News.

King said that Hannity’s appearance at a Conservative Opportunity Society breakfast “energized a lot of conservatives” to speak out against immigration reform.

“I haven’t worked to orchestrate a message through the conservative talk show people other than having Sean speak … strategically the effort was to get as many people informed as possible in a low-key way,” King added.

Here in Iowa, conservative talk radio hosts are solidly behind King. Syndicated radio host Steve Deace routinely rails against “Scamnesty” and just featured the issue on last night’s show. WHO radio’s drive-time personality Simon Conway (himself a naturalized U.S. citizen) warned this week,

Once again Republican leadership is about to embrace Amnesty for illegal immigrants. Of course, they won’t call it amnesty, but that is exactly what it is.

They believe – wrongly – that this piece of brilliance is going to deliver them an increased majority in the House, control of the US Senate and ultimately, the White House in 2016. All those hopes are wrong. […]

If the GOP embraces amnesty then a big chunk of their base will again stay home. And if they expect to be rewarded somehow by the immigrant community, they are wrong there too.

When House leaders brought up immigration reform at a three-day retreat with Republicans last week, King took to his twitter feed:

The second to last tweet refers to King’s editorial for the Washington Times, a widely-read newspaper in conservative circles. Here are the closing paragraphs:

We have smart Republicans who have embraced a veritable cornucopia of false premises, promulgated by Democrats whose desire is to expand their political power. Stark evidence is wrapped up in a single statement by President Obama to House Republicans: “If you are ever going to win another national election, you must pass comprehensive immigration reform. I’m trying to help you.”

I have provided a list of 13 unlucky, false premises. There are many more. No matter how smart we are, any single false premise invariably leads to false conclusions just like a bad number in one cell in a spreadsheet.

It is impossible for the brightest minds to be confined within the boundaries of so many flawed presumptions and to emerge with even their stated goals. It is especially difficult when the mesmerizing money of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and George Soros scrambles the thinking of those who know so much that isn’t so.

King may be wrong about most things, including immigration policy, but I wouldn’t bet against his winning the day in the House Republican caucus. He and his allies slowed the momentum behind immigration reform after the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill last summer. King’s got a personal score to settle with House Speaker John Boehner as well.