Marco Rubio on Immigration: GOP Presidential Candidate Talks Immigration, Trump's Mass Deportation Plan
Following the fourth Republican presidential debate on Tuesday night, 2016 hopeful Marco Rubio clarified his position on immigration while making his media rounds on several morning news programs.
The Florida senator explained his hardline stance on immigration on three different programs Wednesday morning, where he talked about deporting parents and left little hope to those waiting for a pathway to citizenship.
While speaking on CBS This Morning, Rubio slam President Barack Obama's immigration executive actions to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, even those who are the parents of U.S.-born children.
"I don't oppose deporting people that are criminals, and I don't oppose deporting people that haven't been in this country for a very long time," said the freshman senator, reports CBS News.
Rubio went as far as to say that he would not allow undocumented parents whose children are legal U.S. residents to remain in the country if he is president.
"This is tough issue here because you're talking about human beings and real lives," Rubio said. "The flip side is you're talking about the law. This country has the right to have immigration laws and it needs to enforce those laws or you don't have laws. No one has a right to illegally immigrate to the United States."
He also reiterated his opposition to Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program.
"It's unconstitutional," said Rubio. "It's the wrong way to do this. And quite frankly, we need to begin to enforce immigration laws in this country."
Meanwhile, when speaking on ABC's Good Morning America, Rubio managed to dodge questions about Donald Trump's mass deportation plan and instead emphasized the country's need for more border security. When ABC's George Stephanopoulos pressed him for an opinion on Trump's call to deport millions of immigrants, Rubio responded by reciting talking points from his own plan.
"First of all, my position on this plan is well stated," he said. "We have to deal with immigration in three steps. We can't do it all at once. We tried to do that in 2013. And the American people just don't trust the federal government. So we have to begin by proving to people that illegal immigration numbers are down significantly. The second step would be to modernize our legal immigration system, so that it's merit based. And after we do those two things, we have to responsibly -- but realistically -- deal with people that are here illegally."
He added that "if you're a criminal, if you haven't been here very long, you can't stay. For everyone else, you have to pass a background check, learn English, pay a fine, start paying taxes, and you get a work permit. And that's all you'll have for at least 10 years. I think this is the way forward."
Likewise, Rubio told NPR he would only consider allowing people to apply for a green cards after a decade. He also talked about the importanace of beefing up security on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Democratic National Committee spokesman Christina Freundlich, in a statement obtained by Latin Post, said, "Rubio is offering no solutions to provide relief for our country's immigrants. Instead, he is trying to win over Trump supporters while turning his back on families that have a similar story to his own."
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