Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has caused a minor stir with comments that the “Gang of Eight” previously decided to “de-link” border security triggers from the pathway to citizenship.

In other words, the comprehensive immigration reform package does not have to ensure that the legislation’s border security directives are actually carried out, lest former undocumented immigrant residents, newly legalized, have their path to citizenship delayed until that happens, if it ever does…

“We have de-linked the pathway to citizenship and border enforcement. You could be on a path to a million people reaching citizenship and have one bad week on the border, at which point you stop, and that’s just unacceptable,” Durbin said, according to the National Journal.

Either Marco Rubio is being played the fool or we are being played the fool by Senator Rubio. He has become the face of support for this legislation and much of the support of the legislation from those on the right has come because of the good will so many of us have for Senator Rubio…

Contrary to the advertisement, the law does not secure the border in any meaningful way, in fact the “border security on steroids” as the ad claims does not begin until after the citizenship push starts, hence the pretend effort of John Cornyn now that this has been exposed.

Contrary to the advertisement, the law will grant amnesty — it is a big play for citizenship even before the pretend efforts to secure the border take place. It is the amnesty Senator Rubio opposed in 2010, though in the advertisement he says we have right now “de facto amnesty”…

I am just shocked, knowing what we now know, that Senator Rubio would continue to support this legislation and that other conservative Senators would too.

When President Obama came before House Republicans in March, King recalls, he told his political opponents, “You will never win another national election again until you pass comprehensive immigration reform. Republicans, I am trying to help you.” The Iowan retorts, “I don’t know how any Republicans can think it’s a good idea to take that kind of political help from the president. He’s not trying to help us.”…

King is frank about the difficulties of going up against the charismatic Senator Marco Rubio, whose conservative credentials, heading into the immigration debate, were stellar.

“I don’t want to be in a position where I’m personally critical of Marco Rubio. I think too much of him in all other categories,” King says. “At the panel that was before the RSC last week, if that had been the four House Democrats and the four Senate Democrats advancing that bill, a whole lot of those people . . . would disagree completely with the same language they seem to be nodding their head at today.”

All the Establishment feeds us is lies. If the reformers are so intent on securing the border, why isn’t it secure right now? Why does that have to wait until we somehow let the last bunch of people who scoffed at our sovereignty get on their pathway to citizenship before we take the most basic step any nation must take to be a nation at all – to protect our borders?

The answer is simple – they don’t want to secure the border, they never have wanted to secure the border, and they never will secure the border, at least until forced to do so, and then only grudgingly and while employing every passive aggressive tool they can to subvert doing so…

They are scared of us, because they know that our representatives fear us and our votes more than they fear the Establishment. So they lie to us, try to rush through their scheme, and trick us into just letting it happen.

There is no immigration “crisis.” The only “crisis” is the one faced by an Establishment that needs millions of new voters to cling to power because millions of real Americans are waking up to the nightmare they have created.

[O]ver the past week, it seems Republicans are having a relapse. The anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric are metastasizing and causing a substantial case of amnesia about the last election.

Last week, almost every House Republican voted to amend the Homeland Security Appropriations bill to deport undocumented children who grew up in the United States, registered with the government, stayed in school, and passed criminal background checks. More than a rudimentary anti-Obama vote against the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, even Republicans who support the DREAM Act felt compelled to support the King Amendment and signal to Republican voters, Latino voters and everyone else that the GOP wants to deport millions of peaceful, productive immigrants who are raising families, pursuing an education, and contributing to the American economy.

What were you thinking? You should know better. I thought you were leaving behind your get-tough-on-immigrants political games and had packed them deep in a storage unit with your “Mitt for President” buttons…

The Republicans I work with on immigration reform are smart, religious, America-loving legislators who want to establish for this nation an immigration system of which they can be rightly proud. I know you are out there. I know you understand this issue better than your recent behavior betrays. I think you can help your party get back on the path to recovery. Your nation, our nation, needs you to step up.

Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center alongside former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), [Jeb] Bush argued passionately for a major immigration reform overhaul and said he’d made a similar case to House Republicans Thursday morning at the behest of House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)…

Bush said the “humble advice” he gave to undecided House Republicans Thursday morning was to “change the conversation to ‘how do we restore our greatness as a nation by sustained economic growth,'” emphasizing fixing the legal immigration system rather than what to do with illegal immigrants to rejuvenate the aging American population.

“That is a winning message in conservative America, for sure,” he said.

After a vote on Tuesday, the Senate will now officially begin debate on an immigration reform bill. The legislation would strengthen border security and create a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants currently in the country.

A Fox News poll released Thursday finds that most voters generally favor those provisions.

The new poll shows 81 percent of voters want to strengthen border security and stop additional illegal entry into the country.

In addition, 74 percent favor finding a way for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in the country to remain — and eventually become citizens — if they meet certain requirements, such as paying back taxes, learning English and passing a background check.

Let me respond with three numbers: 775,000, 0, and 45%.

1. The first number refers to the Democratic Hispanic Bonanza Scenario and supposed deluge of 11 million illegal immigrants/undocumented workers. What if all those folks were citizens last November? Well, of that 11 million, only 10 million are adults. And of that 10 million, only 8 million are Latino. And of that 8 million, only 3.5 million would have been voting-age citizens if undocumented Hispanic immigrants became citizens at the rate equal to that of eligible Hispanic immigrants. And of that 3.5 million, only 1.7 million would actually bother to vote. And of that roughly 1.7 million, how many of these new Latino Americans would be net Democratic votes, nationally? Just 775,000 or so, according Harry Enten, polling analyst at The Guardian. So President Obama would have done about a half percentage point better vs. Mitt Romney. Some bonanza.

2. The second number refers to the Electoral College. Wouldn’t those 775,000 net Democratic voters have flipped a few more states Obama’s way? Not one, according to RealClearPolitics polling analyst Sean Trende. Zero. And key swing states would have been only marginally more difficult to win. Obama would have done, for instance, only 0.2 percentage point better in Ohio, New Hampshire, Missouri, and Minnesota.

3. The third number refers to the average share of the popular vote that GOP presidential candidates have garnered over the past six elections, a pathetic 45%. Republicans don’t need someone to help them commit political suicide. They’re managing just fine on their own. And that deterioration might accelerate if Americans think the GOP killed immigration reform mainly because the party feared reform would produce more Democratic voters. And why wouldn’t Americans think that given the comments of some conservative pundits such as Coulter.

Click play to listen.

Via the Daily Caller.