Rubio: Legalize Illegal Immigrants So They Can Fund Border Security

On Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said one reason illegal immigrants must be legalized as soon as possible is so they can help fund border security measures by paying taxes and fines. 

During an interview on “The Andrea Tantaros Show,” Rubio, as Byron York points out, first said there was no choice but to legalize at least 11 million illegal immigrants because he said the country “cannot wait another four years” to enact immigration reform.

He then said illegal immigrants needed to be registered “as soon as possible” so the fines they pay into the system help fund border security programs. 

“We need to register them as soon as possible, not just to keep the problem from getting worse, but we’re going to require them to pay a fine, and that’s the money that we are going to use to pay for the border security,” Rubio, said, according to York. “If we don’t get that fine money from the people that have violated our immigration laws, then the American taxpayer is going to have to pay for border security.”

Rubio, a prominent Republican on the Senate’s Gang of Eight with Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), said if illegal immigrants are not legalized, “we’re going to end up borrowing money like we do now for 40 cents out of every dollar, and I want to prevent that from happening.”

Immigration experts, though, note that some illegal immigrants may be able to apply for fee waivers in order to avoid fines. In addition, the IRS may have difficulty figuring out how much back taxes illegal immigrants owe. And finally, some nonprofit agencies may even receive taxpayer dollars that presumably should be used to fund some border security programs in order to help illegal immigrants pay their fines to get legalized.