Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a key Republican member of the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" which crafted the Senate's comprehensive bill on immigration reform, is joining his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives in calling for a "piecemeal" approach - with a focus on small, single-issue bills - on the issue. "We have to address that issue in a realistic way," the senator told CNN on Friday. "I think it gets easier to address that issue if we deal with some of the other issues first. I think if people have real confidence that the law is being enforced, that we are not going to have this problem again, that there is real border security - I think you buy yourself more space and flexibility in finally dealing with those who are here illegally."
The senator's turnaround puts him back in step with the Republican majority in the House, some of whom rose to power on the same Tea Party wave as Rubio and many of whom consider the legislation Rubio helped write an "amnesty" bill. House Republicans have refused to consider the Senate's bill, saying they do not trust Homeland Security to comply with provisions in the bill requiring it to establish 100 percent surveillance of the US-Mexico border and 90 percent apprehension rates of would-be authorized crossings. Meanwhile, they say, the estimated 8.3 million undocumented immigrants who would become newly eligible for legal status and a 13-year path to citizenship would not see any negative effects from the lack of compliance.
Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told Politico in an email on Monday morning that proponents of immigration reform should embrace the "piecemeal" approach on which House Republicans have insisted. "We should not allow an inability to do everything to keep us from doing something," Conant said. "At this time, the only approach that has a realistic chance of success is to focus on those aspects of reform on which there is consensus through a series of individual bills." He added, "Otherwise, this latest effort to make progress on immigration will meet the same fate as previous efforts: failure." He also noted that Rubio had originally preferred the "piecemeal" approach but agreed to lend his efforts to a comprehensive Senate bill. "Unlike many of the proponents of reform in the Democratic party, he did so despite strong opposition within his own party and at a significant and well documented political price."
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