Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has flip-flopped on immigration so many times, it once took Think Progress nearly 1600 words to try and track it all. He helped push through the Senate immigration bill, S. 744, before backing away from it and then repudiating the comprehensive strategy completely. He’s supposed to be the GOP’s best hope for attracting Latino voters, yet he recently called for an end to DACA, meaning the resumption of deportations for DREAMers.
Today, immigrant youth from Florida, including leaders from United We Dream, infiltrated Sen. Rubio’s Miami office to call him out on his anti-immigrant, anti-DREAMer stance. They brought along a giant flip-flop (signifying Rubio), giant DACA identification cards (highlighting the benefits of the program and what deferred action has meant to them), and demanded executive action for their parents.
As Felipe Sousa-Rodriguez, Deputy Managing Director for United We Dream said in a statement:
It’s irresponsible for Sen. Rubio to make excuses that suggest we “wind down” DACA and keep undocumented people “that are not currently in [the DACA program]” from qualifying, subjecting people like myself to deportation.
DACA has provided me, and more than half million young immigrants, an opportunity to work and to end my fear of deportation, and Sen. Rubio’s attacks against Dreamers will not stand. We’re here to remind the Senator of his immigrant roots, and it’s shameful that he continues bullying families like his.
The Republican Party has fully embraced a political ideology that seeks to mass deport Dreamers and their parents, and we’ve known that relief for my family rests in President Obama’s hand. The GOP is dead to our community and we will not soon forget its continuous attacks on our families.
View some of the photos and tweets from today’s action below:
