Conservative talk radio superstar Rush Limbaugh blasted the bipartisan effort at immigration reform Monday afternoon, saying that it was up to him and maybe Fox News to fight the effort at overhauling the nation’s immigration laws in what some conservatives have labeled as granting amnesty to illegal aliens.
"It's up to me and Fox News, and I don't think Fox News is that invested in this. I don't think there's any Republican opposition to this of any majority consequence or size. We'll have to wait and see and find out. But this is one of those, just keep plugging away, plugging away, plugging away until you finally beat down the opposition," Limbaugh said.
"We've done this before. We've done amnesty before," said Limbaugh as five U.S. senators appeared on Capitol Hill Monday to talk about their plan. "This immigration bill that everybody's touting on TV today is essentially the Bush immigration bill that was beat back in 2007."
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Limbaugh also announced that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla,, one of the eight senators driving the new proposal, will be interviewed on his show Tuesday.
Limbaugh said the bipartisan proposal is the same as in 2007 and in 1986, when Congress passed immigration reform legislation.
"[Ronald] Reagan was not in favor of it, but he bought into it," Limbaugh said. "They promised him, 'If we do this once, that will be the end of it. Once we grant amnesty, that's it. No more of this illegal immigration stuff.'"
Added Limbaugh: "My guess is that it's gonna sound very close to exactly what we were told in 1986 with the first amnesty."
"The Republican participation in this is taking place largely because they believe if they don't do it, they will never win the presidency again because they will never get Hispanic votes," Limbaugh said. "They have been convinced that Hispanics hate them because of immigration. Now, we know this isn't true. We've seen the data.
"We've seen the academic, scholarly data, and we know that ... 75 percent of Hispanics do not vote for a president based on immigration. It's not their top issue," he said. "The welfare state is. Government as the provider, government as the source of prosperity is the number one issue for Hispanic voters. It isn't immigration."
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Republicans "have not said one thing to make anybody think they want Hispanics deported," Limbaugh said.
"Oh, there have been some people who have held principled positions about the law when it comes to immigration, and Republicans have been penalized for that," he said.
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