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Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Marco Rubio Slows Immigration Reform Talk

Jeremy Fuster |
April 2, 2013 | 12:10 p.m. PDT

Executive Producer

 

(Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)
(Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons)
Congress' deal on comprehensive immigration reform, once thought to be a done deal, now seems to find its fate in the hands of Florida's Republican Senator Marco Rubio.

After a weekend that saw a breakthrough in negotiations when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO reached an agreement on programs for guest and low-skill workers, several senators declared that the reform deal was set to be completed, including New York Democrat Chuck Schumer. But on Sunday, Rubio sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) asking for extensive committee hearings on all aspects of the legislation instead of an immediate vote.

“You have said that “delay for delay’s sake” would be a mistake in this matter, I agree. But excessive haste in the pursuit of a lasting solution is perhaps even more dangerous to the goals many of us share,” wrote Rubio. “A rush to legislate, without fully considering all views and input from all senators, would be fatal to the effort of earning the public’s confidence.”

SEE ALSO | Senators Divided On How Close They Are To Immigration Deal

The letter has earned Rubio praise from fellow Republicans. including Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who has also been a vocal supporter of extended debates on immigration. 

“What we need, and must have, is a full and thorough national discussion over every component of this bill.  The timeline presented by Chairman Leahy…is unacceptable,” Sessions said in a letter written on Saturday.

Political analysts say that Rubio's move to slow the legislation is an attempt to take control of the debate on Capitol hill and show the conservative base that Republican senators are not yielding to Democratic demands.

From The Washington Post

"...appearances (and perceptions) matter quite a bit in politics. And, if the perception is that Rubio either a) got rolled or b) rolled over when it comes to a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, which Democrats insist must be in any comprehensive plan, it could mean real trouble for him with the conservative base of the GOP.

In the end, Rubio has to be able to say to conservatives something along these lines: 'I fought with Democrats. I told them what we needed to allow undocumented workers a path to citizenship. They didn’t want it but I held firm and we got it done.'

The fight is almost as important as the final outcome, politically speaking, when it comes to Rubio’s relationship with the base.  Yes, having been seen as the lead GOP voice in making comprehensive immigration reform happen would be a huge feather in his 2016 general election cap, but Rubio and his team know that to get there they have to win the Republican nomination first."

SEE ALSO | Pulitzer Winner Jose Antonio Vargas Talks With NT On Immigration Reform

 

Other pundits, like Politico blog Behind The Curtain, say that delaying the vote is a tactic by Rubio to buy more time to get Republican votes so the deal will pass by a wide margin:

Rubio advisers studied conservative objections to past immigration packages and found that a frequent complaint was that the measures had been too rushed. So Rubio has very publicly insisted on multiple hearings, and a wide-open debate and amendment process in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor. “In order to succeed, this process cannot be rushed or done in secret,” he said in Sunday’s statement. He wants buy-in from other Republican senators, and a big number on final passage, not a close vote.

Some Democratic officials are convinced it’s too late for Rubio to torpedo a deal. “There is so much of the policy figured out at this point, it would seem purely political to suddenly pick up and abandon the effort,” one aide said. But there are months of delicate maneuvering ahead, with lots of exit ramps for Rubio

 

Read more on Neon Tommy about immigration HERE

Reach Executive Producer Jeremy Fuster here and follow on Twitter



 

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