Ingraham blasted her disenchantment with Rubio on her show last week, when she said Republicans had “put all our hopes in a person, instead of in principles,” when they trusted Rubio to negotiate on their behalf for immigration reform.
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., with other senators in the gang of eight.
Conservative radio talk show hosts have signed a letter opposing the sweeping immigration reform bill in the Senate, bucking tea party favorite Sen. Marco Rubio’s attempts to win their support for the bill, which would combine enhanced border security with a legalization program for the nation’s unauthorized immigrants. Rubio, a member of the “gang of eight” senators who drafted the bill, has become the most prominent conservative spokesman for its passage.
Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham, who had Rubio on her show twice in the past few months to let him make his pitch for the bill, signed onto the open letter that says the “unsalvageable” measure “would do more harm than good.” The statement, signed by more than 100 conservative groups and leaders, argues that the bill is laden with earmarks and “rewards” lawbreakers by allowing most of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants to legalize if they pass a background check and pay fines.
Some influential conservatives have argued that the party needs to embrace reform in order to combat its declining support among Hispanic voters and to fix a broken system, even though the bill is also high on President Barack Obama’s agenda.
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