Senator Rubio's Immigration Effort

Florida’s Republican Senator Marco Rubio is taking the immigration issue to a level not seen in American politics before.
His idea - to propose an alternative to the Dream Act that would legalize certain young people who came to the US while they were children and grant non-immigrant visas so qualified young people could remain in the United States for college or to serve in the military - has not yet become a bill in the Senate, but his approach to drafting it is certainly out of the box for a GOP Senator.
Rubio asked for the help of Gaby Pacheco, a 27-year-old immigrant activist who did not rule out working with Senator Rubio.
Just hours after Pacheco had been approached by Rubio, she was called by the White House, along with other activists, to meet with President Obama’s top advisors on immigration issues. They were told to beware of the GOP and Rubio. Pacheco’s answer: “We’re not married to the Democratic or Republican parties....We’re going to push what’s best for the community.”
These events illustrate how the new effort by Rubio has changed the immigration debate in Washington, exposing the strains in both parties as Obama and the GOP try to master the issue that could sway the crucial Hispanic vote in November.
In recent weeks, Rubio has quietly approached other immigrant advocates who are usually White House allies but who are frustrated with some of the President’s policies.
Some of the activists say they are open to Rubio’s effort, even though it would not include a citizenship path provision like that in the Democratic-backed Dream Act because Rubio’s idea would at least provide current relief to people who risk being deported.
The dilemma is real for President Obama. If he continues to treat Senator Rubio’s efforts as merely trying to paper over the GOP’s primary debates on illegal immigrants that tarnished the party’s image with Hispanics, Obama runs the risk of alienating the very group he hopes to have in his corner come November.
The President has painted himself as the best friend the Hispanic community has, yet his bill is going nowhere and his administration has deported more than 1 million illegal immigrants, while the Hispanic community is being courted by GOP Senator Rubio, one of their own, to help in crafting a bill that would give them relief and make the GOP look a whole lot better in their eyes.
Granted the Dream Act is stalled in the House where GOP members do not agree with its “path to citizenship” provision, but the GOP may put the Rubio bill on the table before November and ask Democrats in the Senate to compromise so that some forward movement on this difficult issue can be made.
That would put the White House and Obama in a tough spot - refuse Rubio’s compromise and look like the party that opposes immigration reform, or sign and be painted as unable to do anything on their own, relying on the GOP House for leadership. Not a happy position for an incumbent Democratic President in an election year.
For now, the White House is saying that it is impossible to fully judge Rubio’s plan until it is submitted in writing as a bill.
But, it is not just the President who has a problem. GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney took very conservative positions on illegal immigration in his primary battles in order win conservative GOP votes. Now, he will have to decide whether to risk agreeing with Rubio’s approach and chance alienating these GOP voters or refuse Rubio’s ideas and seem to be against an election issue critical for the Hispanic community.
Romney has acknowledged the Rubio effort, saying “I’m taking a look at his proposal....It has many features to commend it, but it’s something that we’re studying.”
Meanwhile, Rubio is talking to conservative GOP voters and media leaders to ask that they hold off on attacking his ideas until he can present a finished product in the form of a bill.
Conservatives have blasted Rubio’s idea as an amnesty, while some Democrats have dismissed the effort by Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who was elected to the US Senate in 2010 as a Tea Party conservative after taking conservative positions on illegal immigration, saying that he is trying to create a second class of Americans, permitted to live in the United States but unable to achieve full citizenship.
But, Rubio’s effort seems to be driving a wedge between Obama and his unhappy Hispanic supporters.
Rubio has conferred with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including Illinois Democrat Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, a vocal critic of Obama’s deportation policies and Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, one of the country’s important Hispanic advocacy groups. “It’s clear that there wouldn’t be an effort to be talking about this right now if it weren’t for Senator Rubio engaging on this,” Murguia said.
Rubio’s outreach to Pacheco, brought to the United States illegally when she was 8, and other young undocumented immigrants, came after they had been unsuccessfully asking for months to meet with Obama. The Senator called Pacheco on her cell phone and they talked for half an hour. He later met with an activist group at Miami-Dade College. “He said, ‘If you feel at any point that this is something you guys cannot support, let me know,’ ” according to Pacheco.
The President meanwhile, has had some rough going in recent weeks, including tense encounters between top White House aides and Hispanic leaders, who are asking that the President sign an executive order preventing the deportations of anyone who would qualify for the Dream Act path to citizenship. In one meeting between Congressional Hispanic Caucus members and White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz, California Democrat Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard grew so frustrated that she walked out, according to sources familiar with the encounter.
The White House has told Hispanic activists that Rubio has not demonstrated he could win support from fellow Republicans and that the President would push an immigration plan next year if re-elected.
But Pacheco, who is still undocumented after graduating from college, said Obama should see the situation as more urgent. “We’re at a point of desperation, at a point where we cannot continue to live the way we’ve been living,” she said.
As for Senator Rubio, one thing seems clear. He actually understands what being a US Senator is all about - taking on tough issues, talking to everyone about them, finding compromises and selling them to key players and the public.