Before retiring, former Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) had been widely viewed as the Republican who would help co-sponsor an immigration bill. His successor, George LeMieux, told POLITICO Wednesday he had not been approached about signing onto the bill, but that the issue is important and he would be "happy to look" at a proposal.
"My feeling on immigration reform is that the system is broken. We need to do something about it. There was a huge effort to do something about it from people with good minds on both sides and it failed. But we have a continuing need to address border security. We have a continuing need to figure out a solution to what we're going to do with the 10.8 million people who are in this country illegally," LeMieux said. "I'm a person who's here to try to solve problems and if there's a thoughtful piece of legislation that's worked out, I'm happy to look at it."
LeMieux added that though he has not been approached by Graham specifically on immigration, he is working with him on several other issues, so the possibility of cooperation is there.
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