Posted on Tue, Nov. 10, 2009
Rubio takes tougher stance

BY BETH REINHARD

As an underdog U.S. Senate candidate courting the GOP's conservative wing, Marco Rubio takes a hard-line position against illegal immigration: no amnesty.

But as the powerful speaker of the Florida House, presented with a slew of bills aimed at curbing illegal immigration, he didn't put a single proposal up for a vote.

``A lot of us are mad at him because he did block those bills,'' said David Caulkett, a founder of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement. ``Rubio claims to be anti-amnesty, but the question is, `Do we trust him?' .''

Rubio says he hasn't wavered in his opposition to granting citizenship to illegal immigrants but that the issue should be dealt with by the federal government, not the states. The Legislature was focused on tax and insurance reform on his watch, he said.

``We picked one or two key issues,'' Rubio said in a recent interview. ``States can't solve illegal immigration.''

Rubio's record on immigration is under scrutiny now that the issue is on his agenda and his bid against Gov. Charlie Crist for the Republican nomination is gaining ground. Immigration was nowhere to be found in the book of 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida's Future he compiled as House speaker; now it's among nine issues addressed on his campaign website.

The son of Cuban exiles born in Miami says he opposed the proposal spearheaded in 2006 by former Sen. Mel Martinez -- whose early retirement triggered Rubio's 2010 campaign -- that would have allowed illegal immigrants to work toward citizenship. Crist supported the bill.

On the campaign trail, Rubio sometimes refers to ``illegal aliens,'' a term some immigrant advocates find offensive.

``His tone has changed on the subject, and to me it's very obvious that it's for political reasons,'' said state Rep. Juan Zapata of Miami, a Crist supporter and an executive committee member of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.

LEGISLATURES

After immigration reform collapsed in Congress, state legislatures around the country clamored to fill the void. In 2008, 1,305 bills were considered and 206 were enacted around the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The half-dozen bills in the Florida House that year would have penalized farmers who hire illegal workers, required proof of citizenship to receive government benefits, encouraged police to turn in suspected illegal immigrants and allowed illegal immigrants serving time to be deported to their home countries.

As House speaker, Rubio wielded sweeping powers over whether bills fizzled or coasted to the floor for votes. The immigration-related bills were relegated to a public workshop, allowing lawmakers to hear from activists on both sides of the issue without voting. State Rep. David Rivera of Miami, a top Rubio lieutenant, gave an impassioned speech about the economic contributions of undocumented workers on Florida's economy as landscapers, maids, dishwashers and farmworkers.

``The bills didn't get at the real problem, which was employers hiring illegal immigrants,'' Rivera said Friday. ``Rubio at least brought the issue to the forefront, which is more than any other speaker has done.''

Rubio said it's unfair to blame him for the bills' failure, noting that their counterparts in the Senate also languished. After he left office, the bills continued to flounder.

``I don't have any reason to believe he personally killed the bill,'' said former state Rep. Don Brown of DeFuniak Springs, a Rubio supporter who sponsored one of the broadest immigration bills. ``Hundreds of bills get filed every year, and some of them just aren't going to get heard.''

But after hearing Rubio outline his position on illegal immigration during a recent trip to Brown's home turf in the Panhandle, the lawmaker said it was ``consistent with the terms of the bill I filed.''

Rubio advocates a national guest worker program in which immigrants can't get a job without a tamper-proof card validating their legal status. Brown's 2008 proposal, similarly tried to root out illegal immigrants by making it harder for them to get jobs. It would have required public employers and state contractors to participate in a now-voluntary federal system to verify the legal status of their workers.

While Rubio maintains the issue ``has to be dealt with squarely at the federal level,'' Brown and other lawmakers say they filed bills because the federal government has failed to solve the problem.

``I think the states could do a better job than federal government, and they have great financial incentives,'' Brown said, referring to the costs of providing illegal immigrants with emergency health care and educating their children in public schools.

`OFFENSIVE'

Brown set off a furor in 2007 when he sent an e-mail to fellow lawmakers saying ```Don't forget to pay your taxes -- 12 million illegal aliens are depending on you!'' Rubio called the message ``wrong'' and ``offensive'' at a time when the Republican Party was immersed in a national debate over whether the immigration issue was pushing away Hispanic voters.

``The Republican Party is not the anti-immigration party,'' Rubio says frequently on the campaign trail. ``It's the pro-legal immigration party.''

The sound bite reflects Rubio's carefully calculated approach: show respect for the rule of law while avoiding harsh rhetoric.

When asked about illegal immigrants taking advantage of government services, Rubio said that American citizens are also guilty of welfare abuse.

``They're God's children, but they're here illegally,'' he recently told a Republican club in northwest Florida. ``You can't round up 11 million people because we don't live in a police state. But you can't grant amnesty either because if you do, you will destroy any hope of having a legal immigration system that works. You will send a message that all you have to do is come into this country, stay here long enough and we will let you stay.''

Ana Navarro, a Rubio donor who has lobbied on immigration in Washington, said his emphasis on enforcement reflects the public's anxiety over border security.

``Every Republican has moved to the right on immigration,'' she said. ``At some point the political reality hits you in the face.''

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