Florida Sen. Marco Rubio admitted during an MSNBC town hall Wednesday that his "merit-based" immigration policy would have kept his own parents out of the country when they entered the United States from Cuba in 1956.
"When my parents arrived in the U.S. in 1956, my dad had a fourth-grade education, maybe. My mom had about the same. If they came today under those circumstances, they would really struggle to succeed," Rubio said.
Rubio said his parents would not have been "shut out" of the country as a questioner suggested, though the process is different.
Current immigrants should not be admitted with such low levels of education, he said, because there is no way to find a sustainable job in the United States.
Rubio's father worked as a bartender and his mother as a maid when they first fled Cuba.
"And so, today in the 21st century, the immigration policy has to be primarily based on merit," he said. "That doesn't mean everyone's a Ph.D. It does mean when you come in you should be able to prove what skills you'll be able to bring to the U.S."
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