Rubio tries to claim middle ground on immigration

Rubio tries to claim middle ground on immigration


By Stephen Dinan
-
The Washington Times
Friday, June 22, 2012

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — In a stern address seeking to reclaim elusive middle ground on immigration, Sen. Marco Rubio told Hispanic leaders on Friday that they need to elevate the issue beyond the political firestorm of the presidential campaign and instead work to rebuild trust with voters.

Mr. Rubio, a freshman senator from Florida who is considered a rising star in Florida politics, criticized those in his own party who he said he’s seen turn the issue “into panic, and turn that panic into fear and anger, and turn that anger into votes and money.”

But he said Democrats also treat the issue one-sidedly, rejecting legitimate concerns over illegal immigration by calling their adversaries anti-immigrant.
“As long as this issue of immigration is a political ping pong that each sides uses to win elections and influence votes, I’m telling you, it won’t get solved. Because there are too many people that have concluded that this issue unresolved is more powerful. They want it to stay unresolved,” Mr. Rubio said in an address to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), which is holding a conference at Disney World.

Mr. Rubio said he’d tried to work on a version of the Dream Act — legislation that would grant legal status to illegal immigrant students and young adults. While Democratic versions would grant a full path to citizenship to those illegal immigrants, Mr. Rubio had talked about a lesser status that would make them legal but not allow them to be the chain for sponsoring other family members.
He said he found Republicans still too bruised from the last major immigration fight in 2007 to work with him, and found Democrats too unwilling to compromise on their demand for broad citizenship rights.

“I was accused of supporting apartheid,” he said. “Of course a few months later the president takes a similar idea and implements it through executive action, and now it’s the greatest idea in the world. I don’t care who get the credit — I don’t — but it exposes the fact that this issue is all about politics for some people.”

Mr. Rubio was referring to President Obama’s decision last week to stop deporting those who would have been eligible for Democrats’ Dream Act had the legislation passed. Mr. Obama’s move doesn’t confer legal permanent status, but does potentially grant up to 2 million illegal immigrants temporary legal status.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to address the NALEO conference later Friday, and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke on Thursday, saying he would focus on border security and improving the legal immigration system.

For his part Mr. Rubio sounded a similar tone on Friday, saying that tackling border security and reforming the legal immigration system are keys to rebuilding trust with voters.

But he went further, saying that those children who would have qualified for the Dream Act do deserve special consideration. As for the rest of the potentially 10 million illegal immigrants, Mr. Rubio said that solution hasn’t been found yet.
“I know we’re not going to round up and deport 12 million people. I know we’re not going to grant amnesty to 12 million people. Somewhere between those two ideas is the solution,” he said. “I promise you it will get easier to find if we have an immigration system that works.”

Mr. Rubio began his speech speaking in Spanish and then, when he switched to English, joked that he had just told everyone how he’d saved a bunch of money on his car insurance — a quip based on the ubiquitous GEICO commercials.

After he was done, one of the NALEO officials took the podium and assured the audience that State Farm, not GEICO, was a sponsor of the conference.

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Rubio tries to claim middle ground on immigration - Washington Times



Insurance companies, how convenient. Now if they can just get them legal and licensed, they will be able to collect a fortune in premiums. I am sure they will be remembered as the company that was "supportive".

I watched Rubio on Hannity last night and all I heard was how he was going to be the first Hispanic President.

As Speaker of the House in Florida, he actively blocked bills that would have controlled illegal immigration. I wonder if he would have done that if the majority of the illegals were French Canadians.

I am pretty fed up with this ethnic tribal stuff. He talked about how his family came to this country and how poor they were. But they WORKED to give him a stable home. and Every group of immigrants that have come to this country have either had to make it or die.

This current crop are living off of the public trough and most folks have no respect for their fraud and lack of character. I think the majority of all of these Dreamers got a free ride on the taxpayers most of their lives here and now they think they are owed more. JMO,NM

Sounded to me like he was trying to align his positons with Romney's to improve his VP possiblily. If he's gunning for President, and Romney selects him and they get elected, have we got enough secret service agents?