Rubio’s DREAM Faces Opposition From The Right

While Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has publically chided Democrats for not supporting his DREAM Act alternative, a more vocal opposition to his plan seems to be coming from the Republican’s own party,

On the Laura Ingraham radio show Thursday, Rubio claimed the White House has been calling immigration advocates and asking them not to work with the freshman senator on his alternative DREAM Act.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, is crafting a Republican alternative to the DREAM Act that would permit young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. with their parents to apply for non-immigrant visas.

According to a Daily Caller report, Rubio has actually had some success in courting Democratic lawmakers. Rubio met in late April with Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-TX) and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and according to sources who spoke to the Daily Caller, got support from Gutierrez and a maybe from Gonzalez.

Rubio’s fellow Florida senator, a Democrat, even said last week that he’s open to considering the Republican’s plan. “If that’s the only thing we can pass, then I’m certainly open to it,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said.

Groups on the right, however, have not been as open. Anti-immigration groups this week mobilized to call Rubio’s office and urged other Republicans to come out against it the still evolving plan.

Last month, Romney immigration adviser Kris Kobach called Rubio’s proposal unacceptable. “Although Rubio denies that his plan is amnesty, it would allow illegal aliens who arrived in the United States prior to age 16 to gain legal status and remain in the U.S. indefinitely,” Kobach said.

Aware of the grumblings, Rubio began a new effort this week to sell skeptics in his own party, casting his bill less as immigration reform than as humanitarian relief for a specific group of young people who face deportation.

“This is not really immigration reform,” he told a group of Iowa business leaders Thursday. “This is not a system that is going to exist in the future. This is for a very specific case of people who have come here, through no fault of their own.”

Asked about the senator’s efforts to sell his party on the plan, Rubio spokesperson Alex Conant reiterated the opposition Republicans and Senator Rubio share in opposing the original DREAM Act. Conant said while there have been some concerns from the right, the response has been mostly positive.

“While everybody deserves more details before taking a position, the initial response to the concepts proposed by Senator Rubio is very encouraging,” said Conant told FLDemocrcay.


http://fldemocracy2012.com/2012/05/1...rom-the-right/