Failed ‘Gang of Eight’ architect Sen. Marco Rubio said on Sunday that frontrunner Donald Trump’s immigration plan to put Americans ahead of foreign workers and alien criminals “makes no sense.”
“No, 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 borders on the absurd,” Rubio said 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 insisted.
Advocates of extreme levels of immigration, including Rubio, frequently claim that enforcement of existing law is impossible. That claim complements their donors’ high-immigration, low-wage agendas.
But 8 U.S. Code § 1227 makes it clear aliens can be deported for a wide variety of violations. If they helped other aliens enter the country, commit a crime that requires a sentence longer than a year, are convicted of any drug-related sentence besides possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana, a violent domestic crime, et cetera they might as well have slapped a “Return to Sender” label on their foreheads.
Enforcement is popular, so Rubio declared during the first GOP primary debate “we need a fence” on the border. In 2013, however, Rubio himself voted against a border fence and an entry-exit tracking system for aliens holding U.S. visas during the debate over the Gang of Eight bill.
Rubio, who achieved a 2.1 GPA in high school, doesn’t seem to have read about his opponent’s immigration positions. In 2011, Trump authored Time to Get Tough, dedicating a chapter to illegal immigration.
“Too many Republicans in Washington turn a blind eye to illegal immigration because some of their business supporters want artificially cheap labor,” Trump wrote. “Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, look on illegal immigrants as another potential Democrat voting bloc eager for their big government agenda of welfare handouts, class warfare, and ‘affirmative action.’ What do taxpayers get? They get the shaft.”
Rubio appears to remain ignorant of Trump’s immigration positions articulated in his book.
As Trump wrote in 2011: “Have we suddenly become an annex of Mexico’s prison system? If so, Mexico should pay for it. I actually have a theory that Mexico is sending their absolute worst, possibly including prisoners, in order for us to bear the cost, both financial and social. This would account for the fact that there is so much crime and violence. ”
Trump echoed these complaints when announcing his run for the presidency, enraging the political class while shocking — then energizing — grassroots voters who would later propel him into a 100-day-plus frontrunner status:
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.
Rubio’s ‘Gang of Eight’ bill would have issued over 30 million green cards in a single decade, increasing the total population of the U.S. by 10 percent in a flash. Under current high levels of immigration, 10 million foreigners will be issued green cards over 10 years, as swing-states turn blue and unemployment rises.
Trump himself has ridiculed Rubio as “Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Senator.” That insult was in Trump’a detailed plan to push back against Mexican leaders strategy of encouraging their citizens to emigrate here in defiance of U.S. law.
Email Katie at kmchugh@breitbart.com.
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