Democrats and advocates are stepping up the pressure to get House Republicans to move on immigration reform after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) announced in a statement Monday that he does not think the bill he helped draft and pass through the Senate should be combined with House-passed legislation.
The reason, according to Rubio’s spokesman Alex Conant, is that he — not wrongly — thinks the “gang of eight” bill is opposed by majority of Republicans in the House and has always favored a piecemeal approach. His spokesman said that Rubio wants to now zero in on areas of immigration reform where Republicans and Democrats on both sides of the Capitol could agree. He is now calling for reform bills that are less sweeping than the comprehensive legislation he authored this year with a bipartisan group of senators.
However, on Sunday, the day before his statement was released, Rubio suggested that President Obama’s refusal to compromise with Republicans on Obamacare to re-open the government and raise the nation’s debt ceiling has jeopardized the chances of passing comprehensive immigration reform. He agreed with opponents who warned that the Obama Administration would simply fail to enforce border security or other aspects of a bill he disagrees with.
“The president has undermined this effort, absolutely, because of the way he has behaved over the last three weeks,” Rubio added. “This notion that they’re going to get in a room and negotiate a deal with the president on immigration is much more difficult to do…because of the way the president has behaved towards his opponents over the last three weeks.”
Recent Comments