Marco Rubio Talks Immigration Reform and Faith on EWTN

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., did an interview with Catholic network EWTN on Friday in which he shared his thoughts on immigration refom and how his religious faith guides his decision-making.

As a policymaker, I have an obligation to the United States of America as well to ensure that its safe and secure, Rubio said in the interview. And so what Im saying is, lets do both. Lets provide certainty for these folks so they can get legalized and begin to work and lets not condition that on anything but them having to pass a background check we all agree we dont want dangerous criminals here. They have to pay a fine because there has to be consequences for wrongdoing, and they have to get in line behind the people who have done it the right way because we dont want to punish those who have done it the right way. But they will get their legal status. Theyre going to get to work, theyre going to get to travel, they will no longer be illegally here, and theyre going to have certainty.

On the border side, however, we have a national security obligation to this country to ensure that we secure our borders for our own sovereignty, for our own security, and to ensure that there isnt another wave of illegal immigration in the future, Rubio continued. And I think we can balance and achieve both of these things, and I think that the final product is something that the bishops will be able to support.

Raymond Arroyo of EWTN asked Rubio how much his faith guided him on this issue.

Let me tell you, it is all rooted to some respect in my faith, and also in my personal knowledge of this issue, Rubio replied. When you ask about my faith, look, my faith tells me that God has a plan for all of us and our job is to cooperate with that plan, to have faith, to do what we believe our conscience tells us is right, and let the chips fall where they may. So at the end of the day, whats going to happen here is Gods will, thats always going to happen. And the question is whether we cooperate [with] that in the spirit of faith or do we want to go off with our plan and charter our own course and our own life. You know, thats not just the story with immigration reform, thats the story of our life. Thats truly the purpose of our life is to be the best version of ourselves that we can be, to be who God created us to be. And that requires us to have faith that if you do the right thing, Gods plan is going to work out.