Rubio's Big Immigration "Mistake"

In an interview with Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, Senator Marco Rubio admits to a  “mistake” being made in the ‘Gang of Eight’ immigration reform bill. The mistake Rubio talks about is, “leaving the border plan up to the Department of Homeland Security and Janet Napolitano

“I don’t want to leave the border plan up to the Department of Homeland Security and Janet Napolitano. That is a mistake that is in the current bill”–Senator Marco Rubio

The language in the bill reads that the DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano  has “discretion” over border security, the one issue that Rubio says, if not addressed and strengthened in the bill, he would not continue to support it.

But this mistake Rubio is admitting to is not a mistake. Remember, their aren’t coincidences in politics. Throughout this carefully crafted bill, dozens of  instances of “If Secretary certifies” and “The Secretary shall” or similar language is cited, that questions Rubio’s claim that a mistake was  made.

“We’ve heard … from the border patrol agents. The people on the front lines on the border. Not only have I met with them, but other senators have met with them. We’ve gotten a lot of input from them. That’s some of the stuff that’s going to be in the specific plan. I mean, in essence, we don’t want to hear from the administrator – we don’t want to hear from Janet Napolitano. We want to hear from the people that are on the front lines trying to secure the border”–Senator Marco Rubio

But here is the problem with Rubio’s statement about reaching out to border patrol agents. Rubio doesn’t say when he met with these agents, leaving us to assume that he is referring to his visit to the U.S. border  on  November 4, 2011. This visit to the southern border was well over a year before the immigration reform bill was introduced.

If Rubio is referring to his 2011 visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, then the language in the bill regarding border security should have already included this “input” Rubio is referring to.

In addition, instead of Rubio standing shoulder-to-shoulder  with Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Schumer on this bill, and giving their liberal agenda undeserving legitimacy, Rubio should have initially reached out to other members of the Senate, like Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for some guidance or help in crafting a stronger border security bill.

Yes, Rubio has given legitimacy to two of the most liberal and un-American members of the U.S. Senate, who have supported two of the main issues that Rubio campaigned against, the  failed Obama Stimulus Act of 2009 and Obamacare.

Remember when Senator Dick Durbin said this about U.S. Soldiers?

“If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings”–Sen.Dick Durbin