Sen. Marco Rubio on Sunday reaffirmed his support for immigration reform, but rejected the comprehensive, “gang of eight” approach he spearheaded just last year.
The Florida Republican, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has been criticized by Democrats for abandoning the policies in the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform bill that he helped shepherd through the Senate in June of 2013. The bill included a pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S., and Rubio took heat from the conservative base for supporting that and other policies found in the “gang of eight” bill.
But Rubio has always maintained that he never dropped his support for the key elements that legislation. Rather, the Republican has said, he changed his legislative approach to accomplishing his goals as it became clear that there wasn’t the will in Congress, or the support among voters, for a comprehensive bill that didn’t first prioritize border security before moving on to address the problem of illegal immigrant residents.
In an interview with Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Rubio laid out his adjusted approach to immigration reform, while warning that it will be near impossible to accomplish anything if President Obama moves after the election to unilaterally to legalize undocumented immigrants, as he is promising to do.
“I think we have to deal with immigration. We have a broken enforcement system on immigration. We have a legal immigration system that’s outdated and needs to be modernized so we can win the global competition for talent.
“We have millions of people in this country illegally, many of whom have been here for a decade or longer. We need to find a way to find a reasonable but responsible way of incorporating them into American life. Last year we tried to do that through a one-size-fits-all, comprehensive approach; it didn’t work,” Rubio said. “The only way we’re going to be able to address it — and I believe we should — is through a sequence of bills that begins by proving to people that illegal immigration is under control, modernizing our legal immigration system, and then dealing with those who are here illegally.”
Added Rubio: “If the president takes executive action, he will make achieving that — which won’t be easy — even harder. So I’m glad he’s not going to do it. But I’m disappointed he intends to do it anyway after the election, because what he’s basically saying is, he doesn’t want to be held accountable by the electorate in the midterm elections.”
