In response to the Obama Administration’s announcement that it was circumventing Congress by unilaterally changing U.S. immigration law to allow over 1.4 million illegal aliens to remain in the country and work, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) told reporters that he no longer planned on introducing his version of the DREAM Act. At least not until after the November elections.
“People are going to say to me, ‘Why are we going to need to do anything on this now. It has been dealt with. We can wait until after the election,’” he said in an interview. (Wall Street Journal, June 18, 2012) “And it is going to be hard to argue against that.” (Id.)
Sen. Rubio also expressed frustration over the President implementing his policy without consulting him. “We have never talked to anyone in the White House about their plans,” he said. (Id.) “The only thing the White House has ever done about our ideas was to try to get some of the Dream Act kids [to]not work with us.” (Id.)
Rubio spokesman, Alan Conant, echoed his boss’ sentiments in a separate interview. “Sen. Rubio was working hard to find a permanent solution to this issue, meeting with Republican Senators and Dream kid activists earlier this week, and we were not briefed — let alone consulted — before the Administration made his announcement.” (The Hill, June 18, 2012)
Although Sen. Rubio had been talking about his plans to introduce a DREAM Act for months, dropping hints here and there as to its contents, he had yet to introduce any language. News reports indicated he planned on finally unveiling it sometime this month.