BY MARJE - THE BEACHES PONTE VEDRA GROUP

Most people who do not know Marco Rubio's background would naturally think he is a Conservative.  I lived in Miami from 1990 to 2003 and then moved to Jacksonville. lleana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) was my Representative in the US House and still is there today. Marco interned under Rep Ros-Lehtinen.  This is a women who voted for nine different pieces of amnesty legislation. When there is a bill on illegal immigration you can count on lleana to vote with the Left.

She received consistent F's on immigration from Numbersusa.com, an organization that grades our members of Congress on their immigration voting records each year. I have been a member of Numbersusa.com since 1995 when there were only about 200 members. There is now over one million members. 

Marco was unknown to me until April 2008 when I was notified by a friend in Miami that there were some very strong immigration bills going to the Florida House and would hopefully be brought to the floor for a vote. In 2008 Marco was the powerful Speaker of the Florida House. He blocked six immigration enforcement bills that would require law enforcement officers to report suspected illegal aliens to ICE. Those bills included giving criminals an option of being deported that would have saved us millions of dollars to incarcerate them.  It would have prohibited government services, made employers use the E-Verify system to validate SS numbers and make it unlawful to hire an illegal alien. I was one of thousands of Floridian's who phoned e-mailed, faxed and demanded he bring these bills to the floor for a vote.

Rubio first forced six representatives each having an Immigration Enforcement Bill to hold a meeting and demanded they hammer their bills down to one bill making it easier for him to kill one bill instead of six.  Rubio then pulled a  "political maneuver" by telling his six chairmen that were going to vote on the bill and to stall the bill and not take any votes until the end of the legislative session.

On talk radio he said "illegal aliens are a federal issue and out of his state's legal jurisdiction!" (The same statements Rep Ros-Lehtinen, his mentor uses). This is a falsehood, since OK, TX, GA have passed state Immigration Enforcement Laws promoted by Law Professor Chris Kobach and they are legal.

When Marco decided in 2009 to run for the Senate against Charlie Crist I heard on the radio that he was endorsed by former Florida Senator Mel Martinez. Mel Martinez joined with John McCain and Ted Kennedy and authored the infamous failed Amnesty Bill of 1996.

After winning the Senate race and into his first year 2011, Marco did not have such a sterling record on immigration bills in fact he failed to act eight out of nine times for that year. He failed to act on (Reduce Chain Migration) Failed to Act (Reduce Visa Lottery) Failed to Act (Unnecessary Worker Visas) Failed to Act (Reduce Refugee and Asylum Fraud) Failed to Act (Reduce Illegal Immigration at Borders) Failed to Act (Reduce Amnesty Enticements) Failed to Act (Reduce Illegal Immigration Rewards) and  Failed to Act on (Reduce Anchor Baby Citizenship).  His record in 2012 was very much the same. He was downgraded by Numbersusa.com from a too generous B- to a C-.

Many of his supporters left their messages of disappointment about his voting record and said they would not vote for him again.

In 1996 Rep James Sensenbrenner (R- WI) stated during an interview that "illegal immigration would bankrupt our country"  I believe he is right. We should support candidates who are truly Conservative in order to preserve our country. It is my opinion that Marco Rubio is not a true Conservative.