Congress should approach immigration reform in stages rather than in one big package that “never” will attract enough votes in the House, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said today, backing further away from the “comprehensive” Senate bill he helped pass last year.
“We’re not debating what to do. We’re debating how to do it,” Rubio told host Chris Wallace, who said he had “flipped” on the issue. “We will never have the votes necessary to pass one bill with all those things. It just won’t happen. So, our choices are: We can continue to beat our heads against the wall and try a process for which we will never have the support, or we can try another way that we could perhaps make progress on.”
Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, took criticism from conservatives after co-authoring the sweeping Senate package, which they characterized as amnesty for illegal immigrants and pledged to fend off in the House.
Rubio, speaking from Iowa, also told Wallace that ambiguity in U.S. law as well as violence in Central America contributed to the current border crisis. “It’s serving as a lure,” he said.
>>> Related: Conservatives Curb Obama’s Deportation Delays as Part of Border Deal