Rubio says he understands why conservatives are skeptical of immigration reform. Rubio: No 'parades' for me

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is defending his participation in the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill efforts, saying he knows it won’t win him any “parades” among conservatives, but it’s necessary.

Speaking Wednesday night with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Rubio said he understands why conservatives are skeptical of immigration reform.


“Look, it’s obvious I didn’t do this for political gain. This is not something that’s going to gain me any parades. People are frustrated, and I do understand it. What I hope they understand is that I studied this issue carefully for almost two years and I concluded that what we have in place right now is a disaster,” Rubio said.

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Saying that border security will be key to an immigration reform package, Rubio said an amendment he hopes will be introduced Thursday will ensure that those issues will be dealt with before any permanent legal residency measures.

Rubio has been getting flak from both conservatives and liberals for his participation in the Gang of Eight talks, and has not appeared publicly with his colleagues in the group since April.

Rubio said that given failures by the government in the past, he sees why conservatives aren’t happy with immigration reform efforts.

“I think conservatives have a right to be skeptical about this. The federal government under both Republicans and Democrats in the past has failed to enforce our immigration laws. That’s why we have 11 million people here that are illegally here,” Rubio said.

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Still, Rubio said, keeping the status quo would be worse, describing it as “de facto amnesty.”

“If we don’t deal with this problem, and particularly with the border security but also identifying these people that are living in our country and start getting them to pay taxes and consequences for having violated our laws, we’re going to leave in place a disaster, a de facto amnesty disaster,” Rubio said.

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