Sunday, April 4, 2010

Marco Rubio Fails on Immigration Reform

Illegal immigration is one of the biggest issues facing Florida, but to date Marco Rubio has shown that he isn’t ready or willing to tackle this challenge.

Rubio served as the Speaker of the Florida State House but failed to move any proposal forward that would have resulted in immigration reform for the people of Florida. If Rubio can’t get something done on such an important issue at the state level, it begs the question how could he possibly do it at the federal level?

According to a comment Dave Caulkett the VP of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement left in response to a 2009 Miami Herald blog post:

“Prior to the Session the FLIMEN Political Committee received an assurance from a Rubio aide that all bills would be allowed to move. That was a lie... The trail is very clear that Speaker Rubio bottled up the bills to never move toward even a hearing. Speaker Rubio did placate Floridians by allowing a workshop but he never intended the bills to move out of committee. Speaker Rubio used his lieutenants Rivera and Zapata to smear pro-enforcement Floridians with false racial allegations.”

Marco Rubio, clearly talks out of both sides of his mouth.

Even the Miami Herald noted in and April 17, 2008 article by Laura Figueroa that Marco Rubio had conspired to stop House Bills 73, 159, 571, 577 and 821 – all of which had a component to reigning in illegal immigration - from ever seeing the light of day:

“Without the backing of House Speaker Marco Rubio, the first Cuban-American to hold the position, the bills failed to get any major play in their committees. Six weeks into the session, a three-hour workshop was held on the six House bills, but even that failed to produce its desired intent of combining the bills into one larger committee bill... "Speaker Rubio outlined the priorities of the session and this didn't fall under that list,'' said Rivera, one of Rubio's lieutenants.”

Rubio has tried to spin folks and chalk it up as a “procedural matter”, but this isn’t a reason. It’s an excuse.

Seriously, does Rubio really think that we believe him? I know I don’t. Marco Rubio might be fooling himself, but he just looks like a plain fool to me.

Immigration reform calls for decisive action; without it, our state budget and local and national economy are at risk, particularly with Florida’s unemployment at the highest it’s been since 1970. We simply can’t afford to send someone to the U.S. Senate like Marco Rubio who doesn’t have a “can do” attitude.

According to the American Constitution Society (ACS), unauthorized workers make up five percent of the U.S. workforce which means that immigration reform is a vital component to our economic recovery and future development.

Maurice Belanger, Director of Public Information for the National Immigration Forum noted in an ACS blog post that, “The Center for American Progress estimates that comprehensive immigration reform will result in a $1.5 trillion boost to the economy over a ten year period. By contrast, the economy would take a $2.6 trillion hit over ten years if we were to send all unauthorized workers packing.”

These dollar figures are significant, but hey why would Rubio care? After all, only a true fiscal conservative would think about the economic impact immigration reform would have on our state and our country.

Marco Rubio is a conservative of convenience and it is really starting to show.

That's why I'm supporting Charlie Crist. Charlie Crist has listened to the people of Florida. Crist knows that we want meaningful immigration reform and he will work to make it happen.

Charlie Crist has been in the arena fighting for Florida and he has continuously placed our state above politics. I hope that you will either volunteer to help Crist or make a donation to his campaign. The future of Florida depends on it.

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