RUBIO QUOTES! Some Rubio quotes and promises from his campaign for the Senate from Powerline blog:

“…When Rubio was running for the Senate in 2009, he told a Florida political blogger that, with regard to immigration, “the most important thing we need to do is enforce our existing laws.” He added:

If you go to people and say: “Look, well you’ve been here for so long that even though you broke the law we’re going to let you stay. . .it demoralizes the people that are going through the legal process: it’s a very clear signal that ‘why go through the legal process if you can accomplish the same thing through the illegal process?’

Rubio then said, “I never have and never will support any effort to grant blanket legalization amnesty to folks that have stayed in this country illegally.”

Later in 2009 (according to Mediaite), Rubio told a Florida Republican club that, unlike his opponent Charlie Crist, he would not have voted in favor of legislation allowing illegal workers to earn legal status.

Rubio called this “blanket legalization.”

Similarly, during a Fox News debate in 2010, Rubio declared: “As far as amnesty, that’s where the governor [Crist] and I disagree. He would have voted for the McCain plan. I think that plan is wrong, and the reason why I think it’s wrong is that if you grant amnesty, as the governor proposes that we do, in any form, whether it’s back of the line or so forth, you will destroy any chance we will ever have of having a legal immigration system that works here in America.”

Finally, during a CNN debate shortly before the 2010 election, Rubio had this exchange with Candy Crowley:

CROWLEY: You’re going to close the borders, get the electronic system, fix the legal system, and then do what?

RUBIO: “You’ll have people in this country that are without documents that will be able to return to the – will be able to leave this country, return to their home land, and try to re-enter through our system that now functions, a system that makes sense.”

In other words, “self-deportation.”