Any amnesty bill will that can pass will have a cutoff date–say March 1, 2013–after which you aren’t allowed to sneak into the country and claim an amnesty. You’ll have to prove you were here before then through purchase receipts or other evidence, which some people who “rush” in after March 1 will try to falsify.

Under Rubio’s plan, apparently, there would be a second cutoff–say a year after the first cutoff–after which even those illegals who were here before March 1 couldn’t obtain their “probationary legal status” even if they’d qualified.

What if they could prove they were here but claimed they had been having trouble coming up with the money to pay their “fine” and “back taxes,” and had stayed in the shadows past the deadline?