Rubio’s Florida Offices Draw Tea Party Protests Over Immigration Bill
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is pushing immigration reform, and some in the tea party aren’t happy about it.
Several dozen tea party members demonstrated outside some of Rubio’s Florida offices on Tuesday to protest the comprehensive immigration bill that Rubio and seven Senate colleagues announced this week, which includes a path to citizenship for up to 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.
At one event in Palm Beach Gardens protesters held signs reading, “Stop the Senate!!” and “No Amnesty for Undocumented and Illegal.” Rubio, elected with strong tea party support, has been considered an instrumental lawmaker in the development of the 844-page immigration proposal.
“We’re not condemning Senator Rubio, but we’re concerned about the direction his immigration bill is going, and especially about the fact that there was no public input,” said Jim McGovern, 65, a member of The Martin 9/12 Committee, a tea party group. “There was no debate. This was all done behind closed doors. This violated his campaign promise saying he would support no bill that took more than 25 pages to describe.”
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