Marco Rubio Wants the World to Know He's the Face of Immigration Reform

Sen. Marco Rubio appeared on basically every Sunday morning talk show known to man this week as the immigration reform legislation he's been championing moves forward in Congress. The Florida Republican and presumed presidential hopeful's done a good job of putting himself right out in front of this issue, a move that's not only won him time in front of the spotlight but also an audience with President Obama. On Sunday, the young senator wore a red tie as he appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CBS's Face the Nation, Fox News Sunday, ABC's This Week and CNN's State of the Union.

RELATED: Five Best Thursday Columns

The leader of the so-called Gang of Eight senators wants everyone to know that immigration reform should be a top priority and he's standing up for conservative values. "Even if we didn't have a single illegal immigrant in the United States, we'd have to do immigration reforms, because our legal immigration system is broken. Immigration is a problem because our laws are not enforced," Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants,?said on ABC's This Week. "We have no way to keep people from taking jobs away from Americans, and we have not secured our border, leading not just to our immigration problem, but to a national security sovereignty and humanitarian problem on the border." Rubio also propped up the immigration reform bill that he helped write, a bill that he's "very optimistic" will make its way through Congress this week. "I think this bill answers all of the questions that people raise," said Rubio on Face the Nation. "That's why it's taken so long, that's why we spent so much time on it; that's why we continue to spend time on it." He even took some time to jab Jay-Z in the ribs for his recent trip to Cuba.

RELATED: Rubio Fights the President's 'Half-Baked' Immigration Plan

RELATED: GOP Filibuster of Gun Bill Begins to Fizzle

Sen. Chuck Shumer joined Rubio on ABC's?This Week and voiced his support for the Gang of Eight's plan, calling Rubio a "tremendous asset." He said, "We turn away people who could actually create jobs in America. And at the same time, we let people come across our border who take jobs away from Americans. Who wouldn't want to fix that in a fair and balanced way?" What Sen. Shumer did not want to talk about, however, was the comeback of Anthony Weiner, a fellow New York Democrat. ABC's Jonathan Karl asked for Shumer's thoughts about Weiner's recently announced candidacy for the mayor of New York City, but Shumer wouldn't bite. "Look, I'm not going to comment on that," Shumer said. Three "no comments" later, Karl gave up and declared, "No comment at all? That is rare. We have Senator Schumer with a no comment."

RELATED: Why is Immigration Reform So Hard If It Looks So Unanimous?

Aside from immigration reform, the big story is still gun control, an issue that Sen. John McCain tackled in a conversation with CNN's Candy Crowley. The latest development on that process is a compromising bill on background checks drawn up by Sens. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, and expected to come to a vote in the Senate on Wednesday.?"I'm very favorably disposed," McCain said about the bill. "Eighty percent of the American people want to see a better background check procedure." Sens. Manchin and Toomey also appeared on the show to talk up their legislation and sounded optimistic about its reception among colleagues. "I think they'll see it's a very reasonable, common sense measure to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them," said Sen. Toomey. As for what happens next, Toomey is going to go with the flow. "I'll just let the political chips fall where they fall," he said.

RELATED: The Future of Immigration Reform Looks Like We Can All Start to Get Along

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/marco-rubio-wants-world-know-hes-face-immigration-180857351.html

mothers day 2012 cinco de mayo osama bin laden death spinal muscular atrophy brooklyn nets may day protests tony nominations 2012