Speaking earlier today, Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio supported attrition (enforcing our immigration laws in order to encourage illegal aliens to leave on their own) and made statements that seemed to indicate that he opposes amnesty (aka comprehensive immigration reform). That's definitely a far better position than that of those in his general network, such as Karl Rove and Jeb Bush. And, it makes more clear his position; it wasn't entirely obvious.
However, he still probably supports some form of major guest workers program and probably increased legal immigration. He proposed something that might become a national ID card (see this and this). And, he supported fining employers of illegal aliens; what exactly that means isn't clear since we're already doing that to some extent. Maybe he means he'd increase the penalties and actually impose them, or maybe it was just empty talk. On a less important note, he also committed what in some peoples' minds must be heresy, criticizing Ronald Reagan for signing the 1986 amnesty.
Some of his remarks are here and below:
“In 1986 Ronald Reagan granted amnesty to 3 million people,” Rubio said. “You know what happened, in addition to becoming 11 million a decade later? There were people trying to enter the country legally, who had done the paperwork, who were here legally, who were going through the process, who claimed, all of a sudden, ‘No, no no no , I’m illegal.’ Because it was easier to do the amnesty program than it was to do the legal process.”
“If you grant amnesty, the message that you’re sending is that if you come in this country and stay here long enough, we will let you stay. And no one will ever come through the legal process if you do that.”
Rubio said the U.S. must first get control of its borders and its visa system, which often allows people to enter legally but remain after their visas expire.
“Only after you deal with illegal immigration in a serious way - seal the border and the visa problem - can you then create a legal immigration system that works. That still leaves you with 11 million people that are here illegally,” Rubio said.
While criticizing amnesty for those illegals, he also rejected the idea of a massive “police-state” roundup. He suggested requiring tamper-proof residency and guest-worker cards and fining employers who don’t verify that their workers are legal. That, Rubio said, would bring the 11 million figure down “dramatically by attrition.”
Independent, in-depth coverage of immigration, politics, and media bias since 2002. Also: multiculturalism, Los Angeles, California, privacy, and occasionally celebrities and wacky humor...
If you can't find what you're looking for, see the About page or use the navigation features to the right.
Atom feed · RSS 2.0 feed · RSS 0.91 feed · WML
