1) Rubio’s response completely fails to address Section 3(c)(2)(B) of the bill which states: “EXCEPTION.—The Secretary shall permit registered provisional immigrants to apply for an adjustment to lawful permanent resident status if — (i)(I) litigation or a force majeure has prevented one or more of the conditions described in clauses (i) through (iv) of subparagraph (A) from being implemented; or (II) the implementation of subparagraph (A) has been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States or the Supreme Court has granted certiorari to the litigation on the constitutionality of implementation of subparagraph (A); and (ii) 10 years have elapsed since the date of the enactment of this Act.”

Translated into English, what this section means is that if liberal activist groups can challenge any of the bill’s security triggers in court, then, after 10 years, the secretary of homeland security can grant currently illegal immigrants permanent legal status anyway. That’s what the bill currently says. If Rubio does not like it, he should introduce an amendment to remove this section of the bill.

2) The border fence is the only border security item that the bill exempts from nonconstitutional challenges. Challenges to any other security measure in the law are still vulnerable to suit.