WASHINGTON — President Obama could try to legalize millions of undocumented workers by executive order if a bipartisan immigration deal dies, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio warned yesterday.
Rubio, a key Republican backer of the “comprehensive” Senate bill and a bridge to conservatives, argued that if the deal blows up, Republicans won’t get any of the enforcement mechanisms for which they’ve strived.
“I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress . . . to issue an executive order like he did for the Dream Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen,” the Republican senator said.
“I think a year from now we could find ourselves with all 11 million people here legally under an executive order from the president, but no E-Verify, no more border security, no more border agents, none of the other reforms that we desperately need” he said.
Rubio is onto something, said Frank Sharry of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice. “If [House Republicans] block reform, then I know that the immigration reform advocates are going to do what we did in 2011 and 2012, which is to pressure Obama to use his authority — which is expansive in this area,” he told The Post.
But Sharry, who has worked closely with the administration on immigration, said the White House “hates” the idea of an executive order aired publicly. “They’re freaking out today. They want to put the pressure on the Congress to act,” he said.
Rubio’s threat could be an effort to cajole House Republican opponents of the Senate bill, after progress slowed amid signs of deep divisions in the GOP ranks.
Last summer, Obama took executive action to stop deportations of people who were brought here illegally by their parents and don’t have criminal records, firing up his political base before the elections.