With the highly-awaited bill promising comprehensive reform to the nation's immigration laws, one of the most high-profile Republicans and advocates for the bill is starting to make his public campaign to push for the bill's passage.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., one of the key members of the bipartisan U.S. Senate panel known as the "Gang of Eight", spoke out on Thursday to defend the bill in the face of right-wing and Republican critics claiming that the new immigration reform bill presented by the panel is nothing but "amnesty" for millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Defending the bill, Rubio said the legislation was necessary in order to fix what he called a "broken" legal immigration system.
"We all wish we didn't have this problem, but we do and we have to fix it. Because leaving things the way they are, that's the real amnesty," Rubio said at a news conference, as reported by Reuters.
"If there wasn't a single illegal immigrant in the United States, we would still have to do immigration reform," Rubio said.
It was a busy day for Rubio on Thursday as he spent the day at six different talk shows talking about and defending the bill, as USA Today Reports, as well as standing by his fellow bipartisan senate members as they unveiled the bill in a public press conference that day.
A member of the Tea Party faction of the Republican party and seen as a possible 2016 U.S. Presidential candidate, Rubio's support of the bill has been seen as critical in the effort to bring more Republicans to the table on passing immigration reform. Republican opposition is what killed the last effort to pass immigration reform legislation when it reached the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate in 2007.
And opposition still remains as Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., held a separate news conference Thursday vocalizing his opposition to the bill, as ABC News reports.
"Today, if the bill passes, illegal immigrants will have the presumption of amnesty," Sen. Sessions said.
At the same time, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has been facing TV ad attacks by right wing groups in South Carolina for his support of the immigration bill, vowed to "fight for this bill."
Rubio called for fellow conservatives to step forward and embrace immigration reform, something that many political experts agree is crucial to the survival of the Republican party, as evidenced by the waves of Latino voters in swing states that votes for President Obama over GOP candidate and immigration conservative Mitt Romney during the presidential elections in November.
"It's tragic that a nation of immigrants remains divided on the issue of immigration," Rubio said.
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