Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said it was "unrealistic" not to expect a permanent change in immigration enforcement if Congress enacts legislation to protect young undocumented immigrants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The policy begun by former President Barack Obama, protects young undocumented immigrants, known as "Dreamers," from deportation. President Donald Trump reversed the policy and set a March 1 deadline for Congress to make legislation that addressed the issue.
"It's unrealistic to think you're going to get 60 votes in the Senate and a majority of the House and a presidential signature on a permanent change to the immigration status of hundreds of thousands of people and not pair that up with permanent changes in enforcement," Rubio told the News-Press in an article published Saturday.
"And the obsessive opposition to anything that involves enforcement by those on the left is beyond me. Even if there weren't a single Dreamer in the United States, we should still be doing these things," he added.
Rubio also maintained that he did not want to see the program end and the youth affected ending up deported.
"I can tell you what I don't want to see happen — hundreds of thousands of young people who have made America their home basically their entire lives in many cases suddenly lose their jobs, lose their licenses, lose their businesses and potentially be deported," he said.
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