Thread: Senator Rubio: No Amnesty, No DREAM Act in a Romney Administration

Senator Rubio: No Amnesty, No DREAM Act in a Romney Administration

On Sunday, Senator Marco Rubio appeared on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer providing a glimpse of what he may say in his address at the Republican National Convention where he will be introducing Mitt Romney later this week.

When asked by Shieffer what Romney may do with the policy directive that was announced by the Obama administration back in June known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Rubio offered this:
“Well, I can’t speak for Governor Romney. In my opinion here– here’s my problem with it. First of all, to identify what the goal is. The goal is to help and accommodate these young people who find themselves here without documents, through no fault of their own, they were brought here as children, have grown up their entire lives and have so much to contribute to our future to help accommodate them but to do so in a way that doesn’t encourage or reward illegal immigration in the future.

And that’s a difficult balancing act and we were working on something like that. And, unfortunately, the President, rather than helping us work on it, actually instructed some DREAM Act advocates to not work with us. I mean this was documented I believe in The Washington Post that– that he met with the activists and said do not or his– White House did, do not work with them on the solution. Instead they’ve come up with a stopgap solution. Let me tell you. We will never solve our broken legal immigration system and we will never be able to compassionately deal with the people in this country who are here in undocumented status as long as this issue is a political volleyball tossed between two parties who use it against each other to raise money and gain votes.”

Then when asked if Romney owes it to the American people to tell them what he’s going to do on immigration issue as a follow up to the initial question about the administration’s directive, Rubio then said:

“Well, I think what the Governor has basically said is what he’s– he starts by telling them what he’s not going to do. That we’re not going to do twelve million people amnesty. The DREAM Act as it’s currently structured I do not support, neither does the Governor, neither do many Americans. What he does support is a legal immigration system that works. He has detailed that. He has detailed what he would do to help ensure that we keep our best and our brightest, how he help keep families together here in the United States. How we– how we, you know, a million people a year immigrate here legally. We should celebrate that. The fact that a million people a year permanently immigrate to the United States legally every year, no other in the count– no other country in the world even comes close.”

And these statements aren’t very different from what Romney has already said on his website and in debates earlier this year, but it shows that Romney has not really moved to the center or toward a space that would attract more Latino votes. And Rubio did not indicate whether Romney would do rescind the DACA directive.

Ironically, Rubio had been proposing legislation that was similar to what the administration ended up doing that would have given “temporary relief from deportation without a special pathway to citizenship” and would have provided temporary legal status to these young people. Rubio’s proposal would not have provided a pathway to citizenship. The original DREAM Act, as proposed by Senator Durbin, would have provided an eventual path to citizenship — that original policy is overwhelmingly more popular with Latino voters than the Rubio plan.

In saying that Romney is not going to do an amnesty for the approximately 11 – 12 million undocumented people who are already here in the US, Rubio may have left the door open for more deportations. President Obama’s Department of Homeland Security has already broken records for deportations. In fiscal 2011, almost 400,000 people were deported. Yet the Romney website does say that it would “address the 11 million illegal immigrants in America in a civil and resolute manner that respects the rule of law” without detailing what that civil and resolute manner would be.

Senator Rubio: No Amnesty, No DREAM Act in a Romney AdministrationPolitical News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View | Political News and Opinion from a Multicultural Point of View

And, unfortunately, the President, rather than helping us work on it, actually instructed some DREAM Act advocates to not work with us. I mean this was documented I believe in The Washington Post that– that he met with the activists and said do not or his– White House did, do not work with them on the solution. Instead they’ve come up with a stopgap solution.

The White House is really putting up a dirty fight against "change". JMO

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