With Democrats in the Senate expected to face a major challenge to keep the chamber out of the GOPs hands, especially with Democratic incumbents representing states that usually go Republican in presidential elections facing voters, the White House announced over the weekend that Obama would not touch immigration until after the elections. Back in June, at a media event in the Rose Garden, Obama said he would ignore Congress and use executive power to push immigration reform before the end of the summer.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a potential 2016 presidential candidate who supported immigration reform as one of the Senates Gang of Eight, was asked about the matter on Sunday morning when he appeared on Face the Nation on CBS.
Let me ask you just a little bit about the president's statements over the week on immigration, Bob Schieffer from CBS said to Rubio. He was planning on taking executive action on immigration reform because he said the Congress wouldn't do anything.Then we were told yesterday that the president has decided, in fact, he will put off any executive action until after the election. White House aides who were briefing reporters on this made no bones about it. They said they were doing this because Democrats, some of them in very tight Senate races, Democratic Senate candidates felt it was going to hurt their chances for re-election. The president says it's not politics that is behind it, but what do you -- what do you make of all this?
"It's definitely politics, Rubio said. But let me say this. I think that we have to deal with immigration. We have a broken enforcement system on immigration. We have a legal immigration system that's outdated and needs to be modernized so we can win the global competition for talent. We have millions of people living in this country illegally, many of whom have been here for a decade or longer. We need to find a reasonable but responsible way of incorporating them into American life.
Rubio also weighed in on the Gang of Eights efforts to push immigration reform last year. While their proposal passed the Democratic-controlled Senate, the companion legislation in the GOP-led U.S. House was not brought to the floor.
Last year we tried to do that through a one-size-fits-all comprehensive approach; it didn't work. We don't have the support for that, Rubio admitted. The only way we're going to be able to address it -- and I believe we should -- is through a sequence of bills that begins by proving to people that illegal immigration is under control, modernizing our legal immigration system and then dealing with those who are here illegally.
Rubio said Obama would only hurt immigration reform if he decides to use executive orders to advance it.
If the president takes executive action he will make achieving that -- which won't be easy -- even harder, Rubio said. So I'm glad he's not going to do it, but I'm disappointed he intends to do it anyway after the election, because what he's basically saying is he doesn't want to be held accountable by the electorate in the midterm elections for an action that he knows is unpopular because the American people don't want to do anything on immigration until they know that the border and the illegal immigration system is secure.
But if Rubio expressed his displeasure with Obama on the matter, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the White House was acting wisely.
"Correct decision by the president, Nelson insisted on Saturday. There's no way anybody was going to listen to an informed debate on immigration while House Republicans are scared of tea party members before the election."
In the meantime, the issue was added to the mix in South Florida as freshman U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., faces a major challenge from Miami-Dade School Board member Carlos Curbelo in what is seen as one of the most competitive congressional races in the nation.
Garcia noted on Saturday he was disappointed in Obamas decision but blamed U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the GOP leadership for not pushing the issue.
Disappointed by administration's failure to take bold, immediate action," Garcia insisted on Saturday. We can get it done, if Speaker Boehner allows."
Garcia urged supporters to sign a petition he is promoting to support comprehensive immigration reform.
Curbelo slammed Obama for his decision, claiming it was being done to help Democrats like Garcia who are expecting close elections in November.
President Obama has proven once again that he is unwilling to invest political capital to achieve immigration reform within the constitutional framework, Curbelo said on Saturday. For him, it is more important to protect the political interests of vulnerable Democrats like Joe Garcia whose campaign remains under FBI investigation for election fraud.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
