Rubio on Dream Act Kids: Deport Em’

Via Ben Smith, Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives said in an interview with Human Events’ Jason Mattera today:

And that’s why I’ve always believed that, no matter how well-intentioned it is. I understand the human stories that we’re going to…We’re gonna….There are going to be stories of very young kids that were brought to this country at a very young age who don’t even speak Spanish that are going to be sent back to Nicaragua or some other place. And it’s gonna feel weird and I understand that. The goal here is to have an immigration policy that works.

Marco Rubio

(Flickr/DavidAll06)

Rubio’s scenario of an ideal immigration system would require securing federal funding to deport over 65,000 young people who are undocumented citizens. It would require some sort of system to identify them, hunt them down, and facilitate their deportation.

The proposal doesn’t sound weird as much as it sounds wrong. The United States is a nation of immigrants… we hold these truths to be self-evident…the last great hope on earth.

What I’d like to know is what I’m supposed to tell young people like Juan, Felipe, Gabby and Carlos collectively known as the Trail of Dream Walkers. These four young people walked from Florida to Washington, D.C., in support of immigration reforms like the DREAM Act, federal legislation that would provide three of them with a path to citizenship through education or military service.

To Rubio, the stories of families coming to America at all costs might sound “human” and the notion of deporting them all despite their humanity might sound like a solid immigration policy.

Yet that doesn’t actually seem to be his position, as evidenced in a column written by Kathleen Parker that draws upon his insights and statements:

Immigrants like [Rubio’s] parents "clearly understand how different America is from the rest of the world. … What makes America great is not that we have more rich people than anybody else," but that "there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else but are possible here."

Exactly. Deportation is not an immigration policy, and many of the human stories of those who have immigrated here are fundamentally American.

Sara is a Communications and Outreach Associate at Campus Progress.

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• dream_act
• immigration reform