Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said he dropped his comprehensive immigration reform legislation that included a pathway to citizenship for millions for the simple reason that it could not get through Congress — and the odds for a similar bill are even worse now.
“It’s not that we bailed, it’s that we did not have the votes to pass it. We have less votes for comprehensive immigration reform today than we did two years ago when that passed,” Rubio, a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, told Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in an interview airing Sunday.
He attributed the decline to three things: The last election, which saw the defeat of former House Majority Eric Cantor, R-Va., at least in part because Republican primary voters believed he was too supportive of the reform bill; President Obama’s executive action telling the to not enforce laws against an estimated five million immigrants; and the surge of border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Rubio took a risk with his party in 2013 sponsoring a comprehensive reform bill that would have allowed existing illegal immigrants to become citizens. The bill passed the Senate but was not voted on in the House due mainly to objections from conservative Republicans, who objected that it did not contain a “border security first” provision.
The senator subsequently took a harder line himself on immigration and has distanced himself from his own legislation. He denied to Wallace that this amounted to a flip-flip, characterizing it instead as a simple acknowledgement of the political realities of the moment.
“I still talk about it on the campaign trail… The problem is we cannot do it in one piece of legislation. The votes are just not there,” Rubio said. Voters want an assurance that “future waves of immigration” will be under control first, he said.
