California Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is ripping Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and other Republicans for facilitating the Democratic approach to immigration reform and deceiving the American people about what’s in the legislation.
Rubio stated repeatedly in recent weeks that effective border security was essential to getting his vote for the final version, despite his role in drafting the original bill. Earlier this week, however, Rubio told a Univision audience, in Spanish, that the effort to legalize the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S. was the top priority.
Let’s be clear,” Rubio said. “Nobody is talking about preventing the legalization. The legalization is going to happen. That means the following will happen: First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border. And then comes the process of permanent residence.”
Rohrabacher is not impressed.
“Rubio is so mixed up and so confused. I think he has given up his rightful place to advise any of us in Washington what to do and he’s given up any right to be trusted by the American people,” said Rohrabacher.
Rubio tried to clarify his comments by saying that effective border security would be need to trigger permanent legal status or citizenship on current illegals, but that temporary legal status would be conferred as soon as the bill is passed.
“This is just a lot of weasel words that Rubio and these people are throwing in. They’re going to legalize the status of people here illegally. Once they do that, that is an amnesty. And once they do that, there will be no border security improvements. It’ll all be a facade,” said Rohrabacher, who says this bill would only attract tens of millions more illegal immigrants.
Also this week, the Senate voted down an amendment to the immigration bill by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley that would require border security to be in place before any legal status is given to illegals. All four Republicans in the Gang of Eight voted against the amendment.
“That shows you exactly what the intent of the people pushing the legislation is, the fact that they couldn’t put legitimate triggers into the bill so we’d be able to determine whether the more had been made more secure. So the fact they had to vote that down in the Senate shows you that they’re not serious and they’re lying to us when they say otherwise,” said Rohrabacher, who says he will not vote for any bill that legalizes the status of anyone who came to this country illegally.
But it’s not just the Republicans in the Gang of Eight who are pushing the GOP to get behind the bill. Rohrabacher says it’s coming from all angles.
“We have been in an era of massive propaganda and pressure on each and every one of us, from the big moneyed interests in our districts who want cheap labor to the liberal news media that want to further the cause of the liberal left. They’ve been pushing, pushing, pushing,” said Rohrabacher.
House Speaker John Boehner says immigration reform is his top priority and may not necessarily demand a majority of support from Republicans before bringing a bill to the floor. Rohrabacher says that would be completely unacceptable.
“I would consider that a betrayal of the Republican members of the House and a betrayal of Republicans throughout the country,” said Rohrabacher. “If Speaker Boehner moves forward and permits this to come to a vote even though a majority of Republicans in the House oppose whatever is coming to a vote, he should be removed as speaker.”
Roohrabacher also fears House and Senate leaders may try to ram this bill through before summer recess, giving members little time to read the bill and Americans no chance to confront their lawmakers over the break. He says doing that would be a “declaration of war” against opponents of legalization and a “betrayal of the American people.”
