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Fact-Checking Marco Rubio's Immigration Stance

politifact.com
Credit politifact.com

Florida U.S. Senator Marco Rubio is still pondering a run for the White house.

And Democrats are already taking shots at Rubio -- especially on his big issue, immigration.

Some are claiming he has back tracked on favoring immigration reform that that includes a pathway to citizenship for people in this country illegally now.

One of those Democrats is the Democratic National Committee Chair -- Florida congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Wasserman Schultz recently said of Rubio's stand on immigration,"He was for immigration reforms and a pathway to citizenship before he was against it. It is really unfortunate that he has chosen the most politically expedient path on issues that matter the most to people here in Florida."

"We gave the Democrat statement a ruling of mostly false," said Josh Gillin of PolitiFact Florida. "That's because there seems to be some confusion about the way Rubio wants to approach this issue.  Now, he was part of a bipartisan group in the Senate in 2013 that proposed legislation that said undocumented immigrants could have sought registered provisional immigrant status. That wouldn't be the same as getting a green card but it would have allowed them to stay in the country and after ten years apply for a green card. After you have a green card, there's a process in place already that you can apply for citizenship."

It's not that Rubio is now against that.

But he has changed his mind about how that immigration reform should be implemented.

"In Rubio's new book "American Dreams," Rubio now says that one big bill is not the way to do it. We need to do a bunch of smaller bills," Gillin explained. "Experts we talked with said that's not anything different than what he has already proposed, policy-wise."

 

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Craig Kopp is relatively new to Florida and the Tampa Bay area. The veteran broadcaster and writer spent the majority of his 30 year career in Ohio.
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