Pushback: Conservatives Unite to Oppose Marco Rubio's Amnesty

Thank goodness.

This whole play makes sense in only one scenario: That Marco Rubio is our candidate for President in 2016 and we need to give this to him to make him viable.

I'm not there yet. I'm not thinking like that. So I don't see the reason for it.

Quoting from National Review's editorial:

[B]roader reform measures must wait until credible enforcement mechanisms are in place. Those mechanisms include, at a minimum, a physically secured border and mandatory universal use of the E-Verify system, which confirms the legal status of new hires. We agree with Senator Rubio’s view that “we can’t be the only nation in the world that does not enforce its immigration laws. . . . Modernization of the legal immigration system is impossible unless we first secure the border and implement an E-Verify system.” We very much doubt that Senator Rubio will achieve meaningful border security in cooperation with Senators Schumer, Durbin, Menendez, and Bennet. The less-of-the-same version being developed in the House with the support of John Boehner and Paul Ryan almost certainly will suffer from similar defects, since it appears to be based on the same premises…

Senator Rubio, an exemplary conservative leader, is correct that our immigration system is broken. And he is correct that, at some point, we are going to have to do something about the millions of illegals already here. But he is wrong about how to go about repairing our immigration system, and wrong to think that an amnesty-and-enforcement bill at this time will end up being anything other than the unbuttered side of a half-a-loaf deal. And there is no reason to make a bad deal for fear of losing a Latino vote Republicans never had.

Marco Rubio has the right take as far as process: He's actually trying to persuade conservatives rather than delivering unto them an ex cathedra declaration cooked up between John McCain and Lindsey Graham.

And that's nice. No, really.

But the substance is still unacceptable.

posted by Ace at 03:54 PM

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