Florida senator and potential Republican Party presidential candidate Marco Rubio says that he is still in favor of immigration reform; however, he says that a piecemeal legislative approach is the only way forward, as comprehensive reform will be unable to garner the votes required.
On Fox News Sunday Rubio claimed that Congress would now see even less votes in favor of passing a bill for comprehensive immigration reform than was the case in 2013, when he collaborated with Democrats in the Senate to pass a bill that incorporated offering undocumented immigrants a pathway to US citizenship. The measure later collapsed in the House of Representatives and resulted in much criticism of Rubio, who is himself the son of Cuban immigrants, for his involvement.
Rubio now claims that a piecemeal approach is the only way to achieve immigration reform. “I still believe we need to do immigration reform,” Rubio claims. “The problem is we can’t do it in one big piece of legislation. The votes aren’t there.” Rubio is among half a dozen Republicans seeking to get the party’s nomination to run for president next year, with others expected to join the race shortly.
Since changing his approach to immigration reform, some critics have accused Rubio of playing politics to win favor with conservatives; however, Rubio insists that his attitude simply reflects today’s political reality. “The context in which we are having this debate is much different,” he claims.