During an interview with anchor Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) suggested that the government must secure the border before considering any immigration reform to address the current crisis.
“Given everything that’s going on now, especially, the only way we’re ever going to make progress on this issue is to first deal with illegal immigration, secure the border, win people’s confidence that in reality this problem is under control,” asserted Rubio.
Ironically, Rubio was one of the individuals who authored a comprehensive immigration reform proposal that passed in the Senate last year.
Chris Wallace, as a result, questioned Rubio on why he has taken a “step back” on the issue, asserting that the senator went from touting comprehensive immigration reform to recommending the problem be solved in stages. The Fox News host suggested that the Florida senator changed his mind after he “took a hit in the polls” following the passage of his immigration reform proposal.
“When I got involved in this issue, I knew how difficult it was politically,” answered Rubio. “But I ran for office to make a difference and this is an issue that not only did I believe I could be a part of making a difference in, I believe it’s one the country needs to confront and solve for the good of America. I don’t know what it means politically for me or anybody else, but that’s not my job.”
“I didn’t get elected to maintain good poll numbers nationally; I got elected to address and solve problems,” he added.
Rubio called Wallace’s claim that he “flipped” on the immigration issue inaccurate.
“We’re talking about two separate things,” Rubio told Wallace. “We’re not talking about what to do. I’ve just outline to you what to do. We have to do those three things: security, reform of modernizing the legal system and then address the people here. So, we’re not debating what to do. We’re debating how to do it.”
The Florida senator said bluntly that Congress will never agree on a comprehensive plan to fix the country’s immigration policy.
“We will never have the votes necessary to pass one bill with all those things,” explained Rubio. “It just won’t happen. So, our choices are, we can either continue to beat our heads against the wall and try a process for which we’ll never have the support, or we can try another way that perhaps we can make progress on.”
Like Rubio, Texas Governor Rick Perry also encouraged the federal government to secure the border Sunday because it’s “what the American people want.”
