Sen. Marco Rubio Paints A Picture Of Immigration Reform

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is on the "gang of eight," the bipartisan group that's working on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. He appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box Tuesday morning to discuss the process, need for reform, and exactly what they want the bill to accomplish. He said to pass an immigration law, they'll need to improve border security first. According to Rubio, without improvements, they just won't have the votes. Rubio went on to say that as the bill stands now, nearly all republicans and some democrats won't vote for it. He did note, however, that most republicans are ready to do immigration reform. "We're going to come out with a bill that has the largest amount of support as possible. That's what I'm working towards…Even if we didn't have a single illegal immigrant, we would still need to do immigration reform," said Rubio. Rubio stated that the United States needs to stop illegal immigration from ever happening again, and that we need to deal with those who are here now illegally, because they aren't going anywhere. He expects that President Obama would sign the bill if it passes. Rubio went on to say that we need to have a legal immigration system that works for our economy, saying that skills and merit outweigh family reunification, which he notes the current law as prioritizing. "You have 11 million human beings living in the United States illegally, and in violation of our immigration laws, but the vast majority of them have been here for a longer than a decade, they have children that are U.S. citizens, some of them own businesses and have been paying taxes," said Rubio. "They're not going anywhere. We have to deal with that realistically." He said that most of them want to be Americans that contribute to our future. The process isn't easy, however, and Rubio said that they have to pay the consequences for violating our laws. He believes that a vast majority of republicans are ready to accept many illegal immigrants as U.S. citizens as long as they take the steps outlined by the bill. Though many republicans haven't said that on the record… "What the bill calls for is for people to come forward and register, undergo national security, criminal background checks, pay a fine, start paying taxes, and if they do all of these sorts of things, they're going to be given the provisional status for about ten years. They have to renew it once during that ten year period, and after the ten years is elapsed, they're eligible to get in line like anybody else and apply for a green card," said Rubio.