Senator Marco Rubio has been one of the most active legislators in the debate over immigration reform in the United States, helping to shepherd the sweeping immigration overhaul measure through the Senate back in June. However, in recent times he appears to have made something of an about-face and has begun backing away from the strategy of comprehensive reform that he helped to craft.
Rubio was among the Gang of Eight Senators that helped to craft a compromise between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate that could have seen an overhaul of the United States’ immigration laws had they also been approved by the House of Representatives. However, the bill has stalled in that chamber, which believes that approaching reform one issue at a time would be a better option.
Rubio’s involvement in the Senate compromise saw him receive a steep fall in support from the loose coalition of highly conservative voters often referred to as the Tea Party and now that Republicans in the House have all but killed the Senate bill, Rubio has altered his initial stance, claiming that he is now in agreement with the approach taken by his House colleagues.
The change has only resulted in his motives being questioned even more, however, with his former conservative backers unwilling to forgive him for his former support of a comprehensive approach and offering a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants. Moderates are now beginning to go sour on him because of his flip-flopping on the immigration issue.