Potential VP Flips On Trump Deportation Stance
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) is changing his tune on Trump’s deportation plan.
“Yes,” Rubio said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, where he was asked whether he supports Trump’s plan to use the military to deport illegal immigrants from the country. “We cannot absorb 25, 30 million people who entered this country illegally. They’re here illegally, what country on earth could tolerate that?”
The comments were in stark contrast to Rubio’s previous stance on the issue, most notably as a primary rival of Trump’s in 2015. Rubio was critical of the Trump plan to round up and deport the millions of illegal immigrants living in the United States, panning the idea as “not a workable plan.”
Pushed on why his stance has changed since campaigning against Trump nearly a decade ago, the Florida Senator argued that the situation itself has changed since then.
“When I said that back in 2013 when I was involved in immigration reform, we had 11, 12 million people that had been here for longer than a decade, now we’ve had almost that number in the last three years alone,” Rubio said, noting that he believes some of those who have entered the country more recently could include “terrorists.”
Trump has vowed to implement a plan of mass deportation if he wins November’s election, promising last month to use the National Guard if needed to deport illegal immigrants from the country.
Rubio has been floated as a potential contender for vice president among other popular Florida Republicans such as Rep. Byron Donalds and former primary rival Gov. Ron DeSantis.
