PETER COOK, BLOOMBERG: How about immigration? It wasnt in your speech. I know youve talked a lot about it the last couple years, perhaps at your political peril. Do you still believe, as President Obama does, that this could be one of the single most important growth engines for the U.S. economy, comprehensive immigration reform? SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): I do, and the speech didnt mention it because the speech was designed to unveil new ideas, things I hadnt talked about in the past. So, when I talk about a global competition, were not just in global competition for investment. Were in global competition for talent. So, think about it this way. If the number one pick in the NBA Draft next year is from another country, there is no way in the world that persons going to have an immigration problem. Weve never deported a 7-foot-2 center. Weve never deported the best point guard in America. Weve never done that. If we wouldnt do that in sports, why would we do that to our economy? So, we need to have an immigration system that is reformed so that it values the ability to contribute to our economy over what its currently based upon, which is family reunification. Theres still going to be an element of that, but I think it has to be primarily about building our economy and bringing people here that can contribute and help build our economy. I certainly think we have to improve the ways in which we enforce our immigration laws, and we do have a problem with 12 million human beings that live in the U.S. illegally, and that has to be addressed. Were not going to round up and deport 12 million people. I think the debate is not even about that anymore. The debate is about what should the consequences be for having violated our immigration laws. What is the process by which you integrate these people fully into the American society and prevent this from happening again in the future, and thats whats proved politically difficult. COOK: Do you think it happens this year, and do you have any regrets at all that you were playing point man, for lack of a better term? RUBIO: No, I dont have any regrets. My only regret on immigration reform is we couldnt arrive at a solution that brought on board more people, so that we could actually get it done. I think its going to be very difficult now to do anything comprehensive in Washington. People dont like to hear this, but its true given the lack of trust in this president that particularly Republicans have. The argument that we continue to hear is, youre going to go ahead and do the legalization, but thats going to be linked to enforcement, but then the president is going to pick and choose which parts of the enforcement he moves forward on and which ones he doesnt, and were going to end up with all of the legalization and only half or none of the enforcement. COOK: How about Sen. Schumers idea that you just extend this past this presidents term? RUBIO: Yeah, thats not a serious proposal because in the interim what youre doing is youre leaving the problem unsolved for two and a half years. So, I think I have a better proposal, and my proposal is theres a bunch of things about immigration upon which there is not political controversy. Why dont we start doing those things? Why dont we modernize our legal immigration system? Why dont we improve our enforcement mechanisms? I think if we started to do that you would create momentum, and I think you would create the political space and confidence we need to ultimately finish the job.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 18:56:37 +0000
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