News

ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos (Jonathan Karl in for George Stephanopoulos)
April 14, 2013
Full Interview: http://youtu.be/QbJQuoTAaCE

RUBIO: THIS MUST BE A TRANSPARENT AND OPEN DEBATE

Rubio: “I’m looking forward to the other 92 senators weighing in because I think they’re going to make it better. There are eight of us that have worked on this, and we’ve worked very hard. But there are 92 other people with their own ideas. I’ve tried to incorporate as many of their ideas as possible given the bills they’ve filed in the past. If some of them have submitted letters that have outlined concerns, and we have answers for all of those concerns. I look forward to how they can improve this bill and this product. As far as the Republican Party is concerned, I just want the Republican Party to be what it’s always been. I want the conservative movement to be what it’s always been about. And that is solving problems in a way that true to our values and the principles of the greatest nation on Earth. Immigration is a problem. Even if we didn’t have a single illegal immigrant in the United States, we’d have to do immigration reform because our legal immigration system is broken. Immigration is a problem because our laws are not enforced. They are not enforced. We have no way to track people that are overstaying their visas. We have no way to keep people from taking jobs from Americans. And we have not secured our border, leading not just to an immigration problem, but to a national security, sovereignty, and humanitarian problem on the border. And this bill, hopefully, achieves progress an all three of those fronts. I just hope that I can convince people that leaving things the way they are now is much worse than approaching it the way we’ve outlined.”

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CNN’s State of the Union With Candy Crowley
April 14, 2013
Full Interview: http://youtu.be/9U-qCw-G4GI

RUBIO: OPEN AMENDMENT PROCESS CAN HELP IMPROVE BILL

Rubio:  “First of all, that’s my preference too, is to have done that in individual bills. I’ve argued that in the past. That’s not the direction the Senate was headed. So, I made a decision to try and influence the direction we were headed. But here’s what I’m pleased about: even though it is one bill, it is divided up into segments, just like Senator Lee has advocated for, and so have I. And the fact of the matter is through our negotiations, we’ve been able to keep these segments separate from each other. In essence, we haven’t had to trade less border security in exchange for a modernized system. We haven’t had to make these trade-offs, now hopefully that doesn’t happen during the amendment process. This is going to be a lengthy process. For example, if things go according to plan, people are going to have three to four weeks to read this bill and analyze it before the first mark-up session, the first amendment process begins at the committee level. We’re looking forward to see what suggestions our colleague have to make the product better. But, so far, what’s been promising about the effort is that though it is one bill, it is actually one bill divided up into pieces: the modernization piece, this enforcement piece, and what to do with those who are undocumented. And we have been able to deal with each on their own merits, not having to make trades in order to get something good in exchange for four things that are bad. And as long as the product stays that way, it will be defensible. Unfortunately, if it goes in the opposite direction, it will be very difficult then to support it.”