Marco Rubio blasts Obama's "unconstitutional" immigration plans
Just off a strong primary debate performance in Milwaukee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio joined "CBS This Morning" to slam President Obama's plan to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation, which was dealt a legal blow earlier this week by federal courts.
"I don't oppose deporting people that are criminals," Rubio said early Wednesday. "And I don't oppose deporting people that haven't been in this country for a very long time."
For other illegal immigrants, he added, "we have to have a realistic policy about people that have been here for a long time that are not otherwise criminals."
On Monday, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against President Obama's plan to defer deportation for an estimated 5 million undocumented immigrants. The Department of Justice plans to appeal the ruling before the Supreme Court.
When pressed about whether he supports the deportation of illegal immigrants who are the parents of many legal U.S. residents, the Florida senator called it a "very difficult" issue.
"This is tough issue here because you're talking about human beings and real lives," Rubio said. "The flip side is you're talking about the law. This country has the right to have immigration laws and it needs to enforce those laws or you don't have laws. No one has a right to illegally immigrate to the United States."
"I do not support DAPA," he added, referring to the administration's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability program. "It's unconstitutional. It's the wrong way to do this. And quite frankly, we need to begin to enforce immigration laws in this country."
When questioned about his relationship with Jeb Bush, a fellow Florida Republican and rival for the GOP nomination to the White House, Rubio promised that he would not attack his "close" friend.
"I admire him greatly, I have tremendous respect for him," he said. "Unfortunately over the last few weeks, he's chosen to attack me, but I'm not going to change my strategy and reciprocate that."
Rubio also responded to recent reports from the Miami Herald about an American Express card issued by Florida's Republican party, saying that he had released all relevant financial statements from the time he was a state lawmaker.
The GOP contender further dismissed it as a "silly story," saying that the Herald was just "one newspaper that's obsessed with the story."