Thread: Marco Rubio: Illegal Migrants Can Stay In America

by CHARLIE SPIERING
17 Jan 2016
938 comments

Illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States, providing they have been in the country for a long time and are not criminals, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday TV show.

From the transcript:

CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you by the way quickly on the 11 million, are you still for finding a way for them to legally stay in the United States?

MARCO RUBIO: Yeah, look. If you’re a criminal alien, no, you can’t stay. If you’re someone that hasn’t been here for a very long time, you can’t stay.

He described a “criminal alien” as a migrant who has committed a felony other than breaking the nation’s immigration laws.

MARCO RUBIO: I’ve said that before, Todd. That’s been convinced. I mean, a felon, someone who’s committed a crime, a non-immigration-related– and that’s what I’ve talked about in the past. So I do believe– I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people.

Here’s what I’ve said, though. It is very clear now more than ever that we are not going to be able to do anything on people that are [here] illegally until we first prove to people that illegal immigration is under control and America is safe. And ISIS poses a very unique threat unlike anything we have faced in the past.

Rubio’s ultimate solution to the problem with illegal immigration hasn’t changed since he first pursued the “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill in the Senate.

Although he doesn’t campaign on the idea, the Florida senator still believes that someday, if the border is secure, illegal immigrants who have been in the country for a long period of time could earn conditional residency once the border was finally secured.

Rubio insists that he learned after the failed effort to pass immigration reform with the help of Democrats, and now argues that a comprehensive approach to immigration reform would never work.

Earlier this month, Rubio argued that he was the best candidate in the presidential race to solve the problem of illegal immigration.

“No one who has ever run for president understands this issue personally better than I do and that’s why I can tell you and you should tell your friends that no one running for president is better prepared to fix it than me,” he said during a town hall in New Hampshire. “I understand this issue personally, I understand the good, the bad, and the ugly, and every aspect of it.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ay-in-america/

MARCO RUBIO: I’ve said that before, Todd. That’s been convinced. I mean, a felon, someone who’s committed a crime, a non-immigration-related– and that’s what I’ve talked about in the past. So I do believe– I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people.

That's the thing with these illegal alien advocates, they say we have to legalize most of them or deport all of them and then they go on to say, "we're not going to round up and deport all the illegals." They never mention attrition through enforcement because they don't want the general public to know there is a third option. Yes, Romney was right, you don't have to deport all of them because once you start fully enforcing the laws, which will make their life miserable, many of them will go home on their own. Once millions of them go home on their own, there will be far fewer left to round up and deport. Actually, in the end many of those left will probably be caught through the full and regular enforcement of our immigration laws. No, we don't have to legalize any of them, nor do we have to round them all up and ship them South in cattle cars!

This should take care of the problem:

- Fully enforce all immigration laws as written and deport illegals caught by federal, state, and local law enforcement.
- Halt any federal funding given to sanctuary cities. Do this and the practice will end.
- Pass an E-Verify program that will be mandatory and fully integrated within 12 months of passage.
- Secure the border following the requirement of the 2006 Secure Fence Act.
- When an illegal is caught, make it policy to seek out and deport any family that individual has residing illegally in the U.S. That will remove one of the reasons many of them return.
- End birthright citizenship.

The illegal alien problem we're having didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be fixed overnight, but attrition through enforcement will work and with a few tweaks, it'll even work faster!

by Tommy Christopher | 11:19 am, January 18th, 2016

They say that a gaffe is the act of telling the truth by accident, and in a moment of candor Sunday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida let slip his true feelings about illegal immigration. Rubio has been trying to cast himself as a born-again opponent of amnesty, but like other Republican squishes like Jeb “Act of Love” Bush, Rubio doesn’t view illegal immigration as a serious crime.

In an interview with Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, Rubio was asked if he would be willing to find a way to let undocumented immigrants remain in the U.S., and Rubio answered that he wouldn’t let “criminal aliens” stay. Chuck Todd immediately seized on the error, and a panicky Rubio rushed to repair the damage:

(Video at source link)

CHUCK TODD: Let me ask you by the way quickly on the 11 million, are you still for finding a way for them to legally stay in the United States?

MARCO RUBIO: Yeah, look. If you’re a criminal alien, no, you can’t stay. If you’re someone that hasn’t been here for a very long time, you can’t stay.

CHUCK TODD: Wait a minute. Define criminal alien–

MARCO RUBIO: I do believe we have to have a reasonable solution–

CHUCK TODD: De– define criminal alien. Isn’t anybody who’s here–

MARCO RUBIO: A felon. A felon–

CHUCK TODD: Okay, so not– ’cause some people argue–

MARCO RUBIO: Well I know some people have said that before but I believe–

CHUCK TODD: Okay, all right–

MARCO RUBIO: –the opposite. But– no, but I’ve said that before, Todd. That’s been convicted. I mean, a felon, someone who’s committed a crime, a non-immigration-related– and that’s what I’ve talked about in the past. So I do believe– I don’t think you’re gonna round up and deport 12 million people.


This might not seem like a gaffe to the average person, but the panic in Rubio’s eyes when Chuck Todd zeroed in on it tells you all you need to know about this Republican field. Rubio is selling ISIS as the reason for his conversion, but at heart, he’s still a compromise with the Democrats waiting to happen.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/gaffe...are-criminals/