White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the rancorous Republican presidential debate Thursday night resembled a “Texas demolition derby,” and said the White House has worries about the candidates’ views on deporting children born to illegal immigrants.
President Obama’s press secretary said he was surprised that all of the GOP White House hopefuls now appear to agree on rescinding Obama’s executive action that protects children of people living in the country illegally, known as “dreamers,” from being deported.
Such a move, he said, would push those people off the tax rolls and back into the “shadows.”
“With all the shouting last night, I’m surprised there was not more shouting about this,” he told reporters traveling with Obama to Jacksonville, Fla. Friday. Although Earnest did not mention Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., by name, the comment appeared clearly aimed at him.
During Thursday’s fierce GOP debate in Houston, Rubio defended his pledge to cancel Obama’s actions allowing dreamers to remain in the United States and to have work permits.
Addressing remarks the Florida Republican made in Spanish in a recent interview with Telemundo, Rubio said he never changed his position on the issue.
He said the program has to “end at some point,” but noted that it “wouldn’t be fair” to cancel the program precipitously. Instead, he said that the program should be shut down to new applicants and people enrolled in the program shouldn’t be allowed to renew their applications.
Rubio vowed to eliminate it if elected president, and said it’s unconstitutional.
