Al’s Loupe

Epiphany

By Alvaro F. Fernandez

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” – quote on Statue of Liberty from an Emma Lazarus sonnet, New Colossus

It’s a miracle. Or would you call it an epiphany? Semantics, I say. What is important: President Obama and congress seem willing to finally tackle the issue of more than 11 million human beings, many of them children, who seem stuck in a limbo here in the U.S.

I am happy to report that this apparently divine revelation has dawned on even one of our own Tea Party darlings and South Florida favorite son Marco Rubio. The same Marco Rubio who not too long ago, as Florida House Speaker, favored the draconian Arizona law that makes a mockery of the poor and huddled masses yearning for freedom here in this country. A freedom, mind you, that includes the right to work, feed and support a family, at the very least modestly.

Don’t take my words, read what Ben Smith of Politico wrote as recent as May 6, 2010: “Marco Rubio now says he backs Arizona’s controversial immigration law, after changes aimed at somewhat limiting the circumstances in which people can be asked for immigration papers, but leaving the central thrust of putting immigration enforcement in the hands of local authorities,” wrote Smith.

He then quotes Rubio: “This is a public safety issue. And the fact is that Mexican drug violence has tragically crossed over the border and into an American state and American cities. So I congratulate them on taking steps to clarify even further the intent of the law.”

Smith finishes his column writing: “Rubio also rejected the notion of a ‘path to citizenship’ or ‘amnesty,’ despite ‘the human stories.’”

‘There are going to be stories of very young kids that were brought to this country at a very young age who don’t even speak Spanish that are going to be sent back to Nicaragua or some other place. And it’s gonna feel weird and I understand that,’ he [Rubio] said, suggesting that those hardships would be a price worth paying.”

Thank goodness for divine intervention. Rubio has seen the light and during this week’s press conference joined the ‘Gang of Eight’ U.S. senators – four republicans and four democrats – in announcing that they were working on a bipartisan immigration bill Rubio helped to draft, which includes a path to citizenship. The new Rubio said, “We are dealing with 11 million human beings who are … here undocumented, the vast and enormous majority of whom have come here in pursuit of what all of us would recognize as the American dream.”

In Spanish, Rubio then added: “I’m clearly new to this issue in terms of the Senate. I’m not new in terms of my life. I live surrounded by immigrants. My neighbors are immigrants. My family is immigrant. Married into a family of immigrants. I see immigration every single day. I see the good of immigration.”

I am not sure what brought about this change. Whatever it was, I, as one simple U.S. citizen, welcome it.

Now to conjecture…

Maybe Marco recently took a trip to New York and met the Statue of Liberty for the first time. Having read the above written quote from the Lazarus sonnet, Rubio fell to his knees and wept.

There’s also the fact that people are talking of Marco running for president in 2016. But consider this: Rubio can run for president and U.S. senator at the same time. Yes, his senate term is up in 2016.

Let us say he makes a run for his party’s nomination for president and comes up short. It’s always a possibility.

Now don’t you think Marco Rubio has studied the results of Obama’s 2012 victory in Florida? I’ve already written of the important role Hispanics played last November.

Marco needs those votes in 2016, whether it be for president or his reelection chances in Florida. And most every Latino in Florida knows at least one undocumented friend or family member who lives here.