Rubio's Tough Immigration Stand Riles Some Hispanics

Since Freshman GOP Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida emerged as a star in last year’s election, the assumption has been that the son of Cuban immigrants would draw Hispanics to Republicans’ side. But his strong stance against illegal immigration could actually push Hispanic voters to the Democratic column, Politico reports.

Some immigration activists hoped that, after the election, Rubio would go back to the moderate immigration opinions he adopted as speaker of the Florida House. But that hasn’t happened, and the Hispanic activists are upset about it.

They don’t like his strong opposition to the DREAM Act, and they don’t like his view that it’s all about border security and keeping illegal immigrants out of the workplace.

“There’s a Benedict Arnold feeling,” Jorge Mursuli, executive director of Democracia, a Hispanic civic engagement group, told Politico. “Having known him, his political career and knowing where he comes from . . . one has to wonder what it is that he’s thinking.”