Marco Rubio goes back to the drawing board on immigration after the new President Obama policy
President Obama’s decision to relax immigration rules for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants is a “short-term solution” that is “problematic” in the long run, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in an interview with ABC News.
Caricature by donkeyhotey, donkeyhotey.wordpress.com
“These young people, they need a long-term solution, one that is balanced and does not encourage illegal immigration, but accommodates their situation,” the son of Cuban immigrants said in the interview that will air tonight on “World News With Diane Sawyer.”
“My biggest fear is that by doing it in this way, by doing it by executive order, by ignoring the Congress, it’s going to make it very hard to get something done that is permanent and that’s really where the solution lies on this issue,” he said.
CNN covered the statement by Rubio spokesman, Alex Conant.
“We’re re-evaluating our plans. The president’s announcement took away our momentum and made the politics a lot tougher.”
Rubio has been working for months on his own immigration proposal, similar to the DREAM Act which did not pass in Congress.
When the junior senator from Florida heard the White House’s announcement Friday, he had one question, “Why wouldn’t someone [from the White House] call me?”
The Obama administration’s directive will specifically allow people younger than 30 who came to the United States before age 16, pose no criminal or security threat and were successful students or served in the military to apply for a two-year deferral from deportation.
Conant said politically different sides had been “working behind scenes for our approach and there was an openness to it and the president has thrown a grenade into discussions.”
