Nearly two weeks after Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, challenged Sen. Charles E. Schumer and other Senate Democrats to a “duel,” the New York Democrat returned the favor on the Senate floor, calling King the “wizard of Oz” on immigration.  

“Steve King is much like the Wizard of Oz when it comes to immigration,” Schumer said during a 10-minute floor speech Wednesday. “He is pulling the levers behind the screen to make it seem he has the power. [The] Republican Party will learn sooner or later, like Dorothy did in the ‘Wizard of Oz,’ that actually King works by fear and he doesn’t have the power, that the wizard’s power is overstated. He can’t really do very much. And the only way to get back home and do something real is in ourselves.”  

King, who was criticized for remarks he made last year about immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents, has been a vocal House critic of immigration legislation that passed the Senate last June.  

President Barack Obama last month said he would wait until the end of the summer to reduce deportations, to give House Republicans more time to act on immigration.  

“We have less than eight weeks to go to get something passed — there is still no serious proposal from Republicans,” Schumer said on the floor in support of Obama’s announcement. “If the House fails to act during this window, the President would be more than justified in acting anytime after summer is over.”  

However, in an interview this week with CQ Roll Call, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican proponent of legislation to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws , said the White House threatening to take unilateral action added “fuel to the fire .”