Rubio, the Florida Republican who has taken a significant amount of heat from conservatives for his role in helping craft a comprehensive immigration reform package, emerged from a Faith and Freedom Coalition luncheon as the clear star of the show. Rubio was the final speaker at the lunch, following Sens. Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, and Mike Lee. ….

Rubio has been hit hard by conservatives for his work on immigration: As recently as Wednesday, the Heritage Foundation released a graphic of Rubio with the tagline “Amnesty? Guaranteed. Border Security? Not so much.” But amongst the audience at Faith and Freedom, there was no animosity on display. Ralph Reed, the group’s founder, has been supportive of Rubio’s work and called the Senate immigration bill “a good start.”

The audience peppered his speech with shouts of “Amen!” and gave him a rousing standing ovation following his speech.