MARIA CELESTE ARRARÁS (MODERATOR): Senator Rubio, last week you said that on your first day in office, you will get rid of President Obama's executive action, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA for short. It's a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young people that came here when they were children, brought to the U.S. by undocumented immigrants. This is the only home they know. And that is a dramatic change from last April, when you said in Spanish, and I'm going to quote you --
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ARRARÁS: Which translates to, “DACA is going to have to end at some point, but it wouldn't be fair to cancel it immediately.” So, Senator Rubio, what changed?
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): It didn't change.
ARRARÁS: Why is it now fair to cancel it on day one?
RUBIO: No, it's the same policy. It will have to end at some moment, and as I said, we will eliminate that executive order. The people that are on it now will not be allowed to renew it, and new applicants will not be allowed to apply to it. And it's not because we're not compassionate to the plight of someone who came here when they were 2 years old. I understand, I know people that are personally impacted by this. The problem with the executive order is it is unconstitutional. The president doesn't have the power to do that. And he himself admitted that.
ARRARÁS: Senator, senator --
RUBIO: He's -- I'm sorry, but let me finish
ARRARÁS: But, you went from saying that it was deeply disruptive, to deport them immediately, to deport them on day one.
RUBIO: No, but this is not about deportation. Everybody always goes immediately to the issue of deportation. This is about DACA. DACA is an executive order that is unconstitutional. I will cancel it on my first day in office. Which means people who currently hold those permits will not be allowed to renew them when they expire ,and new people will not be able to apply for them. Now, I am sympathetic to the plight of someone who came here when they were two or three years old through no fault of their own. But you can't solve it doing something that is unconstitutional.
