Rubio: We Must Control Future Illegal Immigration Before Deal

Likely 2016 presidential contender Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, tried to squash fears in conservative circles over his past position on immigration reform. Rubio, who was part of the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill, said he has learned his lesson and now understands the GOP cannot agree to a comprehensive solution until the border is secure.

The Florida senator is one of many potential presidential hopefuls who spoke last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. As with other CPAC 2015 speakers, Rubio sat down with Sean Hannity to answer questions on immigration, and a host of other issues.

SEAN HANNITY: Let me ask you about immigration, you went forward with your immigration proposal and at the end of the day you said it didn’t work, I tried and it is not going to work. Last time i interviewed you on radio about it you said you regretted going forward but you learned from the process of making a mistake.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO: Well it wasn’t very popular, I don’t know if you know that from some of the folks here, but it is a serious problem. It has to be confronted, this is why it is serious.

Number one, we don’t have the mechanisms in place to enforce our immigration laws, we don’t have an e-verify system, 40 percent of illegal immigrants come legally and overstay visa, we don’t know who they are. We have to put that in place…

It needs fencing, patrols, it needs more — that stuff has to get done. We also have a legal immigration system that is the most generous in the world — a million people per year come to this country annually, not other country comes close to that, but it is all based on whether or not you have a family member, it can not continue to be based on family alone — but merit or some kind of economic contribution.