I have never seen a politician with so much promise, immolate himself in the shortest amount of time ever. Even McCain and Graham took years. Someone in his staff better seek treatment for him, or themselves, quickly.
It was weird, because I’m not a hardnose when it comes to immigration, and it amazes me how far to the wrong side of me he is.
When I heard him saying that opponents must not know any illegals, because if you did, you’d want them to stay, I thought — that is a great pitch for the million or so illegals who fell INTO illegality because of the difficulty of staying on the right side of immigration law, and if that was all the bill handled, I’d be a strong supporter.
In my analogy, those would be the people who were in line with tickets, but it turns out the tickets were issued incorrectly by the vendor, so they don’t meet the correct standards. And the poor guy who had tickets for tomorrow night, but showed up the wrong day after a 10-hour drive. I’d let that person in as an exception.
But his bill simply says “every person here illegally deserves to be left alone, and welcomed with open arms”. And I don’t see how we EVER stop illegal immigration if that is an acceptable position, because no matter what we do with the boarder, in 10 years there will be another 10 million people here illegally, if not more because of this bill, and the EXACT same excuse would apply to make them legal.
The argument seems to be “yes, we need a border, and we need laws, but if anybody manages to get over the border, it would be unfair to make them leave, unless they actually commit serious crimes while they are here”.
Frankly, if I lived nearby, I would be sorely tempted to pitch a tent in Rubio’s back yard, and argue that it would unfair to move me since I’m not committing any violent crimes.
The promise was false. You need to understand that he started off by selling himself to the Cuban exile community as the son of exiles, i.e., people who fled Cuba as political refugees from the Castro tyranny.
Then, low and behold, it turns out his parents were no such thing - they left Cuba two or three years before Castro as regular immigrants.
Anyone who would lie that way - and then, when caught, say, “I don’t know when my parents came here” - has no principles of any kind and is capable of anything.