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Senator Marco Rubio
Excerpts of Interview with Mark Levin
January 23, 2013
Full interview available here: http://youtu.be/U98HzM8B3Ks
Levin: “I suspect that even if all conservatives and Republicans back your suggestions here, the fight will be with Obama and Reid and them because they do want amnesty and they do want citizenship and they are not that hot about securing the border and so forth.”
Rubio: “Well, they’re going to have a decision to make. And that decision is, do they want to play politics with this issue, do they want to get into a bidding war where they continue to move the ball and water it down? Or are they serious about solving it? And if they’re serious about solving it, then I think these are the sorts of principles they’d want to support because I think they’d have broad support and they make sense to people, even though most people aren’t happy about having to deal with this.
“But on the other hand, if they want, if what they’re looking for is a political cause, what they’re looking for is to play politics with an issue, then I would imagine they’re probably going to say this isn’t good enough and they’re going to want something more lenient. Now I’ve made a habit of not questioning people’s motives until they give me a reason to, so let’s see what they come up with in regards to these principles.”
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Levin: “Now, but I want to make it clear. You want operational security of the border and you want enforcement in the workplace of existing law?”
Rubio: “Well, let me tell you the problem with that. In the past people say that, but then what happens is they go ahead and do the process of legalization but they don’t do the security. So one of the things I should have mentioned – which is important to these principles – is the security component is a trigger. In essence, none of that other stuff with regards to getting in line and applying, none of that happens until we have been able to certify that indeed the workplace security thing is in place, the visa tracking is in place, and there is some level of significant operational control of the border. And obviously we are going to have to come up with a way of certifying the border issue. I think the workplace enforcement will be a little bit easier because you either have it or you don’t. But that’s a trigger. In essence, I don’t that any of these other things I’ve talked about happens – with regards to people getting in line – until that happens. That’s an important point that I think is non-negotiable.”
Levin: “You know this is very fascinating to me. I am going to take a much closer look at this and I am going to try to keep an open mind about it. Because I am pretty fed up with what is going on in these border towns and in these border states which is horrific and, as you know, we’ve got drug activity slipping over the border. We’ve got kidnapping slipping over the border. It’s extremely dangerous all along the border and no one wants to talk about the crime that’s coming into this country.”
Rubio: “Yeah and here’s the thing about the border. It’s an immigration issue sure, but it’s a much bigger crime and national security problem. Look, I am not in favor of an agricultural worker sneaking across the border. I am not in favor of that, but what keeps me up at night is a terrorist with a bomb coming across the border. What keeps me up at night is a drug runner or human trafficker coming across the border. These are the things when we talk about border security. It’s really much more of a national security issue than simply an immigration one.”
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Levin: “And he’s right. We have de facto amnesty right now. When he said it, it set a light bulb off. Maybe I am a little slow. I said, ‘Well he’s right, we do have de facto amnesty.’ Which is exactly why Obama wants to really do nothing.”