Rubio Joins Another Gang

By Ronald W. Mortensen on March 23, 2015

Marco Rubio just can't seem to stay away from gangs, or to tell the truth about gang-sponsored legislation.

Rubio broke onto the national immigration scene as a member of the infamous Senate "Gang of Eight", which drafted a "comprehensive" amnesty bill. He peddled the Gang's bill to conservatives by hiding the fact that it granted illegal aliens immediate legal status, a path to citizenship, and total amnesty from employment-related felonies. He also conveniently failed to point out that the bill granted amnesty to the employers of illegal aliens and the fact that it did not secure the border for years after legal status was granted, if ever.

After taking considerable heat for his enthusiastic support of amnesty, Rubio had not a deathbed conversion, but rather a presidential-bed conversion. Now he claims to have seen the error of his ways and to have repented from past immigration misdeeds. However, like many gang members, he has been unable to make a clean break and has now joined another gang — the bipartisan "Gang of Six".

This bipartisan gang consists of Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). Their bill, the Immigration Innovation ("I-Squared") Act of 2015, would increase the number of H-1B visas, grant work permits to dependent spouses of H-1B holders, increase the number of green cards for high-skilled workers, and make it easier for H-1B holders to move from employer to employer.

According to the gang's press release, the bipartisan legislation is the result of constant outreach with leaders in the business and high-tech industries, which means that it is definitely not an American jobs or middle-class friendly bill. In fact, it is designed to do for American jobs in the high-tech sector what open borders did to lower-paying, American jobs — eliminate most of them and drive wages down for any remaining jobs.

As Ronald Reagan would say if he were debating Rubio, "There you go again," because Rubio is once again selling his gang's bill for what it ain't. He throws around the terms "border control" and "internal enforcement" when talking about it despite the fact that neither of these are in the bill or a prerequisite for passage of the bill. He also implies that the bill will create good-paying jobs for Americans in spite of the fact that the country has more than twice as many workers with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees than there are STEM jobs.

"America deserves an immigration system that works for our economy, drives innovation, and creates good paying jobs for our people," said Rubio. "An immigration system for the 21st century will be judged by whether it provides the conditions for both security and economic growth. The reforms in this legislation lead the way to such a system, which I believe we can ultimately achieve after meeting the immediate challenges of securing our borders and improving internal enforcement." (Emphasis added.)

So, there he goes again. As noted in an earlier blog, either Rubio is exceptionally gullible or just plain dishonest. In either case, he has once again demonstrated that he is not qualified to be president of the United States.


Immigration Innovation ("I-Squared") Act of 2015

Employment-Based Nonimmigrant H-1B Visas

  • Increase the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 115,000.

  • Allow the cap to go up (but not above 195,000) within any fiscal year where early filings exceed cap and require the cap to go down in a following fiscal year (but not below 115,000) if usage at the end of any fiscal year is below that particular year's cap

  • Uncap the existing U.S. advanced degree exemption (currently limited to 20,000 per year).

  • Authorize employment for dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders.

  • Increase worker mobility by establishing a grace period during which foreign workers can change jobs and not be out of status and restoring visa revalidation for E, H, L, O, and P nonimmigrant visa categories.

Student Visas

  • Allow dual intent for foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities to provide the certainty they need to ensure their future in the United States.

Green Cards

  • Enable the recapture of green card numbers that were approved by Congress in previous years, but were not used, and continue this policy going forward through the roll-over of unused green cards in future fiscal years to the following fiscal year.

  • Exempt certain categories of persons from the employment-based green card cap:
    • Dependents of employment-based immigrant visa recipients

    • U.S. STEM advanced degree holders

    • Persons with extraordinary ability

    • Outstanding professors and researchers

    • Eliminate annual per-country limits for employment based visa petitioners and adjust per-country caps for family-based immigrant visas

U.S. STEM Education and Worker Retraining Initiative

  • Reform fees on H-1B visas and employment-based green cards; use money from these fees to fund a grant program to promote STEM education and worker retraining to be administered by the states.