After being one of the most important forces behind the passage of the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform bill last year, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) had nothing to say about the issue during his CPAC speech Thursday ahead of what may be a 2016 presidential run.
After the Senate passed its comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Congressional Budget Office determined would lower the wages of American workers, Rubio was silent on the issue. A spokesman for Rubio even told Breitbart News’s Matthew Boyle last year that the House should not pass a bunch of piecemeal bills as a ruse to get to conference with the Senate on amnesty legislation.
As he decides whether he wants to run for the GOP presidential nomination, Rubio recently conceded that his support for amnesty along with Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) may have permanently damaged him with some conservatives.
“I’m sure there are people who are unhappy with what I did on immigration and will never be supportive of me again,” Rubio recently said. “But by and large, I think if you look at my approval ratings in different metrics that are out there, I feel like many of my supporters maybe disagreed with me on immigration – and disagreed strongly – but they understand that I’ve been involved in other issues that are important for the country.”