Rubio Tacks Right on Immigration

In an obvious play for conservative support, Establishment-backed candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, who flirted with comprehensive immigration reform in 2013, insisted Thursday that changing the immigration system cannot be achieved with broad strokes.

Speaking to guest host John Hinderaker on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” Rubio said border security must come before any other measures.

“It’s all predicated on bringing illegal immigration under control,” he said.

After that, Rubio said, the country needs to shift immigration from relatives of U.S. residents to people with the most to offer the economy. He noted that the current immigration system benefited his own parents, but he added that the modern economy is not designed to absorb large numbers of low-skill immigrants.

“We can’t continue to do it that way,” he said, pointing to the million green cards the government hands out each year. “We’ve got to have a merit-based system of immigration, where when you come here permanently, you come here on the basis of what you know, what you can do, what you’re going to invest.”

Rubio is gaining new scrutiny from Republicans voters after a strong performance in Wednesday night’s Republican debate, in which he clearly bested his chief rival for Establishment support, Jeb Bush. Rubio’s increasing conservatism on immigration can be seen as an effort to separate himself from Bush and make inroads on the right.

A “merit-based” approach would move the system back toward what it had been before the reforms of the 1960s, and it would decrease the proportion of immigrants entering from Latin America.

Rubio’s dalliance with the so-called Gang of Eight on immigration reform has engendered deep distrust among illegal immigration opponents. His ability to overcome those doubts could be the key to whether he can capture the GOP nomination for president.

Rubio offered assurances that he would not be a puppet of the Chamber of Commerce

Asked about abuses of guest worker visa programs, in which U.S. companies have imported foreign workers to replace the American workforce — in some cases even requiring the citizens to train their replacements as a condition of severance payments — Rubio repeated a position he stated at Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate.

“It would be an abuse of current law, even though the current law, alone, is not good enough,” he said.

Rubio told Hinderaker that he favors a number of reforms to increase protections for American workers, including a permanent ban from participating in the visa program for any company caught cheating.

He said the time companies are required to advertise for workers domestically should be increased from 90 days to 180 days. Companies also should be required to pay higher salaries to imported foreign workers so that the program would not be a magnet for cheap labor, he said.

Rubio offered assurances that he would not be a puppet of the Chamber of Commerce, which backs less restrictive immigration laws. He said he opposes the Export-Import Bank, a chamber priority, and also differs with big business interests on normalizing relations with Cuba.

“The conservative movement has never been about big business,” he said. “The conservative movement has been about free enterprise.”

On the debate, Rubio said he felt good about his performance but said it was a “missed opportunity” because of the way the CNBC moderators handled the event. He also brushed aside attacks by rival Jeb Bush about missed votes in the Senate during the presidential campaign.

“At the end of the day, I can’t control what other campaigns do,” he said. “If he’s decided that’s what he thinks he needs to do, then that’s what he’s going to do. I’m not going to let him change who we are and what we’re about.”