BEDFORD, N.H.—Marco Rubio is increasingly portraying immigration as a national security issue rather than a question of what to do with millions of people in the country illegally, a sign of his evolving stance on a topic that remains one of his liabilities with conservative voters.
“The issue is not the same one we had a few years ago,” Rubio told voters recently in New Hampshire. “This issue’s different now; we have radical jihadist groups that are using our immigration system against us.”
As he seeks to emerge as a top contender in the GOP’s crowded presidential field, Rubio still finds himself explaining his past support for an immigration overhaul bill that included a path to citizenship.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, one of his chief rivals, tries to use the bill to brand Rubio as too soft on the issue. And on the campaign trail, Rubio is often asked about immigration, either by skeptical voters or those simply seeking an explanation of where he stands.
“He still hasn’t made up with me yet regarding the Gang of Eight,” said David Merritt, a Massachusetts voter who came to see Rubio in Atkinson, New Hampshire. Merritt’s comments refer to the immigration bill Rubio co-authored. “I’m not 100 percent sure that I trust him,” Merritt said.
The overhaul bill passed the Senate, with Rubio’s help, but he later backed off the proposal as it began to draw fire from the conservative right. Asked to explain, he says he now favors a one-piece-at-a-time approach.
He says the federal government needs to boost border security and modernize the legal immigration system before it deals with the 11 million people here illegally. He says the government must do better at tracking the millions who overstay visas and must make mandatory the e-verify system, an Internet-based program that allows employers to check the eligibility of prospective employees through federal databases.
But in recent weeks, Rubio also has shifted the conversation, starting the immigration segment of his stump speech by painting gaps in the U.S.-Mexico border and the existing legal immigration system as a national security threat. And he’s taken to telling voters that the Islamic State group is actively recruiting fighters to send to the United States posing as doctors, students and investors.
“Radical jihadist groups, the same people who carried out the attacks in Paris, who inspired the attacks in California, are trying to use our immigration system against us,” Rubio said Thursday to a crowd packed into a Bedford home.
