Ads featuring Marco Rubio (and Paul Ryan) shilling for amnesty and major increases in guest worker programs are now blanketing the airwaves. These ads are paid for by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s lobbying group, Americans for a Conservative Direction, which is nothing more than a front for the tech industry that supports the Rubio’s bill because it will substantially increase their access to lower-wage foreign workers. The Gang of Eight even included the so-called Facebook loophole, which expands the number of foreign workers companies (i.e. Facebook) can employ without restriction.
In one of the ads, Rubio claims that the Gang of Eight bill put in place “potentially” the toughest enforcement measures in the “history of the world.” So why then has Rubio made it clear that the bill as it now stands is not tough enough, and has vowed to fight to amend the bill to cut down on chain migration, to prevent amnestied aliens from receiving welfare, and to build that dang border fence –at least the 700 miles that was required by legislation passed in 2006. By Rubio’s reckoning, these new measures should make the bill the toughest in the known universe, and potentially in all as yet undiscovered dimensions of space and time.
If these new security and enforcement measures are not met, Rubio claims that one of his amendments would prevent already amnestied aliens from renewing their probationary status when it expires in six years time; except, presumably, for all of those who are put at the front the line, such as the “Dreamers” and agricultural workers who are eligible for a green card after five years. Rubio, who has lost all credibility on this issue, now wants the American public to believe that if the enforcement triggers aren’t met then millions of amnesty recipients will either be deported, or will revert back to their previous status and remain in the country illegally –he hasn’t made that part clear yet.
Where was Rubio when the bill was being negotiated? Was he even in the room? Did he just vote present? Or did he send his staff’s immigration lawyer to negotiate in his stead? Whatever the case, Rubio now realizes that the public is not buying what he’s selling, and he’s furiously scrambling to position himself on the right side of public opinion. Problem is, his fellow gang members are none too happy with his newly discovered concern for what the American people actually want from immigration reform. Once in, in for life, Marco, remember that. The Democrats are threatening to call your bluff, and if you torpedo this thing now, John McCain will forever give you dirty looks in the elevator. Mark Zuckerberg might even unfriend you.