Donald Trump for President Backlash: Marco Rubio Calls Trump Immigration Plan 'Absurd'
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has called Donald Trump’s immigration plan “absurd,” as he admitted to feeling more assured in winning the GOP’s nomination.
In regards to immigration, Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential front-runner, has a plan that would include a wall across the southern U.S. border, more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, penalties for individuals who overstay their visas, and swift and mandatory deportation, which Trump stated can be aided by canceling visas to foreign countries that do not accept their own criminals.
Trump's deportation plan, however, calls for the mass deportation of more than 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S.
The businessman's immigration plan has been criticized by national Latino organizations and the Democratic National Committee.
Opposition to Trump's immigration plan is apparently not a partisan opinion, as Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, voiced against the front-runner's proposals.
"His rhetoric is a little louder but if you think about where he was six months ago, his position on immigration, six months ago, was nothing like what he's saying now, and even what he's saying now is borders on the absurd," said Rubio during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." "He's going to deport all these people and then he's going to allow back in the ones that are good."
"His plan makes no sense," Rubio added.
During the interview, Rubio said he will support whoever becomes the Republican presidential candidate, although he's "comfortable" it won't be Trump and "increasingly confident" it will be himself.
Rubio has dismissed polls and betting odds that have placed him as viable challenger to the Democratic presidential candidate once November 2016 arrives. Betting odds have the Florida senator at first place in securing the Republican presidential nomination, despite current polling figures showing him behind Trump or retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. In multiple betting organizations, Rubio performed better then former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Trump, Carson, Carly Fiorina and Ted Cruz.
Rubio, however, has been criticized for his stance on immigration. He was the co-sponsor of the Senate's 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill, titled "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act" (S.744). The bill passed the Senate, but it was never picked up for debate in the House of Representatives. Since 2013, Rubio changed his tone about comprehensive immigration reform and said such reforms should be handled through separate pieces of legislation.
Last week, Rubio voted in favor of the "Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act" (S. 2146), would have punished U.S. cities and jurisdictions for not following with federal law enforcement in regards to a detained undocumented immigrant. The bill would limit or block federal grants to those jurisdictions and implement a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in jail for undocumented immigrants who re-enter the U.S. and were previously convicted of a crime.
A coalition of Latino organizations, known as the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, publicly opposed the legislation, referring to the bill "anti-immigrant."
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