Thread: An Immigration Compromise - WSJ.com

Gigot: Welcome to "The Journal Editorial Report." I'm Paul Gigot.
Well, as campaign season heats up, hope for bipartisan compromise on pretty much anything goes out the window. But Republican Sen. Marco Rubio wants to break the gridlock on one of the most divisive issues in Washington, immigration reform. The Florida freshman is working on an alternative to the Democratic-backed Dream Act, and I asked him earlier what kind of progress he's making on Capitol Hill.

Rubio: The first thing to recognize is we do have an illegal immigration problem, and people are rightfully frustrated by it, and that's why I support security and enforcement--either a fine or things of that nature. On the other hand, we do have some people in this country that are in a very unique position. And so the first step I'm trying to make is to deal with children, basically, that were brought here at a very young age, through no fault of their own, find themselves here undocumented.

Gigot: This is a compromise on the so-called Dream Act.

Rubio: Right, which is designed to help kids who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in the circumstances that they're in. All I'm trying to do is help these kids do right what their parents did wrong.

Gigot: So if they serve in the military or go to college, they would be put on a path to citizenship.

Rubio: Well, the way we're envisioning it is, if you graduate from high school--and obviously there's a military component to it, but that's not very controversial--but the part I think we'll have the most debate is, if you graduate from high school and you haven't committed any felonies and you've been here for a certain period of time and entered before a certain age, we will give you a nonimmigrant visa in order to--basically allows you to stay in this country legally so you can--

Gigot: A form of a green card?

Rubio: No, it's not a green card. It's a nonimmigrant visa, which is what we give--like a student visa, and it allows you to stay in the United States and complete your studies. After some period of time in the future, after you've been here--we're still debating how long that should be--at that point, you would be like any other nonimmigrant visa holder in the country. You would be allowed, if you want to, to apply for a green card, but you'd have to do it through the existing system, not through some special path, because that's the complaint about amnesty.

Gigot: But I want to ask you about amnesty, because--what would be your response to those who say, "Look, anybody who is illegally here, who doesn't first have to return to their country of origin and wait in line like everybody else, is being given a form of amnesty if they're allowed to stay here on get on the path of citizenship"?

Rubio: I think there's a difference that we've long recognized in this country, for example in the case of refugees, between the people who have chosen to break the law and be here illegally, and those who were either brought here by their parents or by circumstances. And these kids didn't know--when you're 12 years old, when you're 8 years old, you don't choose to come to this country illegally. Many of these don't even know they're undocumented until they graduate and try to go to college, and no one's ever told them that. So obviously this doesn't apply to people who as adults came to this country, or as older teenagers came to this country--

Gigot: They would have to be minors when they--

Rubio: They would have to minors when the entered. They would have to have lived here consecutively for a significant period of time, invested in our society, graduate from their high schools, not have any criminal record, and then all you get is a nonimmigrant visa, that eventually in the future, at some point, you would be allowed to apply for a green card, but you would have to apply through the existing, normal process, not a special pathway.

Gigot: All right now, this is going a fair ways, at least in my estimation, to what the White House has asked for with the Dream Act, and yet they're resisting your compromise. I think they've actually stated, at least a senior aide has, that they don't like what you're doing. Why?

Rubio: I think there's some politics involved, no doubt to the shock of many who may be watching this program.

Gigot: You mean that they want to use the Dream Act politically in the election?

Rubio: I think there's some--I don't want to say all, but there are people in the Democratic Party that I think legitimately want to help these kids. There are some that were counting on this issue to use on the campaign and to use against Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, and I don't think they want there to be a reasonable Republican alternative, because it takes away that argument. But I think we have plenty of other issues to debate. I think this is one that we should take off the table and try to solve. And I hope--certainly in the last few days, I've heard more promising tones from many of my Democratic colleagues and a willingness to work together to find a solution for the kids

An Immigration Compromise - WSJ.com