Jan. 11, 2014 10:32 PM
Written by View from the Ledge

WASHINGTON — It turns out Marco Rubio wasn’t a fan of the comprehensive immigration reform bill he was busy championing last year.

The measure, which the Democrat-controlled Senate overwhelmingly passed in June, would beef up border security, tighten workplace verification and provide immigrants in the U.S. illegally a chance to gain citizenship.

It’s all but dead in the House, where Republican leaders say they won’t even consider a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants until security-related changes are enacted and verified.

An original co-sponsor of the Senate bill who often defended it on conservative talk radio shows, Rubio says he backs the House’s piecemeal approach. And always did.

“My preference always was from the beginning to do it sequentially because I thought it would reach a better result,” the freshman senator from West Miami told reporters Thursday.

Then why get behind a comprehensive approach, he was asked.

“The way the Senate was going to move forward on this issue was by doing it in one piece of legislation,” he said. “So I had a decision to make. I could either make speeches about immigration reform or I could try to actually influence what the Senate passed and that’s what I attempted to do. And I think there are many elements of the Senate bill that could ultimately create a framework for the sequential approach.”

Immigration advocates and many Democrats oppose a piecemeal approach. They say passing security improvements first would give those who oppose legal status for immigrants no incentive to back a path to citizenship.

Critics of immigration reform say if Congress passed a comprehensive bill, the Obama administration would water down or ignore many of the security provisions while giving illegal immigrants a route to citizenship.

Rubio, who’s been criticized by tea party groups that don’t like the Senate bill, backs a path to citizenship provided it doesn’t give an unfair advantage to those here illegally over those who have patiently followed the rules.

Rubio touched on several other issues during his reporter roundtable including:

The minimum wage. Rubio opposes a Democratic proposal to raise the federal minimum from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour partly because he said its cost to businesses would depress job creation.

The National Security Agency’s surveillance program. Rubio, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, defends the government surveillance program attacked by critics who say it has over-reached by spying on U.S. citizens and world leaders.

— Ledyard King writes for the Gannett Washington bureau

http://www.news-press.com/article/20...on-reform-bill