Rubio: We Need to Legalize Immigrants So They Can Pay for Border Security
By Byron York
WashingtonExaminer.com
Why is it necessary to legalize the roughly 11
million currently-illegal immigrants in the U.S.
before newly enhanced border security and internal
enforcement measures are in place? Sen. Marco Rubio,
the leading Republican on the Senate’s Gang of
Eight, says part of the reason is that the federal
government can’t afford to secure the border on its
own and needs financial help from the immigrants
themselves, in the form of fines paid when they are
legalized.
Rubio made the statement during a
radio interview after he voted against an
amendment from Republican Sen. Charles Grassley that
would have put off legalization until after the
border is secure — a position supported by
majorities of voters across the political spectrum.
Host Andrea Tantaros asked Rubio why he opposed
something that was important “to so many in the
Republican party?”
Rubio’s first reason was that the U.S. has no other
choice than to legalize the 11 million. Enhancing
security first would take an estimated four years,
and Rubio declared, “We cannot wait another four
years with 11 million people living in this country
illegally without knowing who they are or why
they’re here.”
But there was another reason. “We need to register
them as soon as possible, not just to keep the
problem from getting worse, but we’re going to
require them to pay a fine, and that’s the money
that we are going to use to pay for the border
security,” Rubio explained. “If we don’t get that
fine money from the people that have violated our
immigration laws, then the American taxpayer is
going to have to pay for border security.”
Of all the expenditures the federal government
undertakes, one of the most basic and legitimate is
securing the border. It certainly seems like a more
reasonable use of taxpayer dollars than, say,
creating treadmills for shrimp or sending aid to the
Muslim Brotherhood. So why it would be undesirable
to have taxpayers pay for security is not clear.
Nevertheless, Rubio seemed disinclined to spend
public dollars for that purpose. If the fine money
is not used, he said, “We’re going to end up
borrowing money like we do now for 40 cents out of
every dollar, and I want to prevent that from
happening.”
Rubio also said he objected to the Grassley
amendment because it didn’t include a detailed
border security plan, which would leave things up to
the Department of Homeland Security. But that was
not related to the question of whether or not to
legalize the 11 million before new security and
enforcement measures are in place. As far as that is
concerned, one of Rubio’s main reasons is that we
simply can’t afford to do it any other way.