{"id":18111,"date":"2013-06-04T14:36:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T18:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=18111"},"modified":"2013-06-04T14:36:25","modified_gmt":"2013-06-04T18:36:25","slug":"rubio-sending-mixed-messages-on-immigration-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/18111\/rubio-sending-mixed-messages-on-immigration-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio Sending Mixed Messages on Immigration Reform"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, will he or won\u2019t be vote for his Gang of Eight\u2019s version of comprehensive immigration reform?<\/p>\n

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is starting to sound like a politician who knows he miscalculated on the public\u2019s support<\/a> for a legalization first approach to fixing America\u2019s broken immigration system.<\/p>\n

Consider these two statements from the Florida lawmaker as quoted by The Hill<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will have to be improvements [to the Gang\u2019s bill],\u201d Rubio said [after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it without substantial changes]. \u201cBecause the good thing is the American people, the vast majority of them throughout the political spectrum, have clearly said that they are prepared to responsibly deal with those that are here illegally, but they are only willing to do so if we can take measures that ensure that this problem will never happen again in the future. And so, if we can make sure we put in place enforcement mechanisms and a guest worker program that ensures this will never happen again in the future, we\u2019re going to have responsible immigration reform. And if we don\u2019t have that, then we won\u2019t have immigration reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on Monday of this week, Rubio is sounding a different tune when explaining to a constituent why reform couldn\u2019t be piecemeal as Republicans in the House of Representatives want:<\/p>\n

\u201cI give you my word, that if this issue becomes one of those old-fashioned Washington issues where they start horse trading, one part of it for another part of it,\u201d Rubio said in a video response to a constituent\u2019s concern. \u201cIf each of these are not dealt with as separate issues even though they are dealt with in one bill, then I won\u2019t be able to support that anymore.\u201d
\n\u2026
\nThe problem with immigration though is that it is complex because it is all interwoven,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cIt\u2019s all related to each other. It\u2019s literally impossible to do one part without doing the other.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, which is it? Is immigration reform as the Gang envisions it in need of major changes to make it acceptable to the House, or is it a done deal that can\u2019t be amended?<\/p>\n

I suspect the answer for Rubio is both. The Gang\u2019s bill as-is does not secure the border first, and therefore \u2013 among many other serious problems<\/a> \u2013 will be dead on arrival when it hits the House, as it should be. The problem for Rubio, though, is that he is one of the Gang members, making him a co-author of everything that\u2019s in the bill.\u00a0 To walk away from it now, without any big changes, would indicate that his real problem with the bill is that it\u2019s not popular. What conservatives want instead is for him to oppose it because, as written, it\u2019s wrong on the merits.<\/p>\n

Personally, I like Marco Rubio and hope he can find an honorable way to disassociate himself from the Gang of Eight, so that he can be a Senate champion for immigration reform that puts security and enforcement before amnesty.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be tough, but it\u2019s worth the effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, will he or won\u2019t be vote for his Gang of Eight\u2019s version of comprehensive immigration reform? U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) is starting to sound like a politician who knows he miscalculated on the public\u2019s support for a legalization first approach to fixing America\u2019s broken immigration system. Consider these two statements from the Florida […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3887,1464,4100,3949,981,352,1447,826,38],"class_list":["post-18111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-3887","tag-border","tag-gang-of-eight","tag-house","tag-immigration","tag-marco-rubio","tag-reform","tag-security","tag-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18111"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18119,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18111\/revisions\/18119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}