Rubio Denounces Heritage Immigration Study: ‘The Folks Described In That Report Are My Family’
On Tuesday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined the growing chorus of conservative criticism of the Heritage Foundation’s new anti-immigrant report, which claims the Senate’s immigration bill would cost the economy $6.3 trillion. Rubio denounced the report’s assumption that all immigrants will forever be poor and uneducated, pointing to how his own family flourished after entering the U.S.:
“Their argument is based on a single premise, which I think is flawed,” Rubio told reporters. “That is these people are disproportionately poor because they have no education and they will be poor for the rest of their lives in the U.S. Quite frankly that’s not the immigration experience in the U.S. That’s certainly not my family’s experience in the U.S. The folks described in that report are my family. My mother and dad didn’t graduate high school and I would not say they were a burden on the United States…My parents were a lot better off 25 years after they emigrated here than they were when they first got here. And their children certainly have been. I still think we’re that country. And I still think we can be that country and even more in the future, so I guess I just have a lot more belief in the future of the country than some of the folks that helped prepare the report"
Indeed, the Heritage study ignores immigrants’ gains in wages and education after legalization, preferring to categorize all immigrants as “takers” who will be permanently dependent on the government.
Rubio’s heated critique of the Heritage study highlights widening divides in the GOP over immigration. In the past, Rubio has called Heritage president and former Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) his best friend, according to the New York Times. But now, DeMint has vowed to work against Rubio’s pet cause. Rubio has stated before that their disagreement over immigration “is never going to change how I feel about Jim DeMint, and hopefully doesn’t change how he feels about me.” Today, he pointedly added, “Anyone who opposes this bill but fails to offer a real and specific alternative is in favor of the status quo.”
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2013/05/07/1975021/rubio-demint-immigration-report/
= new reply since forum marked as read
disproportionately poor and many didnt have high education BUT they did not remain poor for the rest of their lives in the U.S and their children moved up and out making room for the next wave
Mr Rubio- you a token tool for these haters
get used to it!
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
”
― "quote onthe Statue of Liberty"
...missed the "Europeons only" sign underneath it when I was there in NYC I guess....... .
