Poor Marco Rubio. No matter what he does, he just cannot convince Republican voters that he's enough of a mean-spirited bastard to run the nation in true Republican mean-spirited fashion. It's not for lack of trying. He's telling crowds he wouldn't let his own damn parents in the country, if it were up to him.
Addressing Rubio, a young man asked, "If you were to institute your merit-based immigration policy, wouldn't you be, I mean, shutting out people like your parents?"
Rubio replied, "Yeah, well, you wouldn't shut them out, but it's a different process. My parents came in 1956. The world is a different place from 1956.
"When my parents arrived in the U.S. in 1956, my dad had a fourth-grade education, maybe. My mom had about the same. If they came today under those circumstances, they would really struggle to succeed."
Mind you, Marco Rubio's parents were from Cuba; he has claimed on the campaign trail that they were fleeing the Castro regime, although they came to the United States over two years before Castro came to power. If we accept Marco Rubio's statements at face value, he's suggesting we shouldn't be taking in people fleeing Castro or similar regimes unless those refugees prove they've got a little something to offer us in return.
"Sorry Mom, Dad ... I know you mean well and really don't want to stay in Cuba, but let's face it, you two would be a total drain on American society. What could you possibly offer us? You'd probably just come here and have little immigrant babies who would steal all our educations and grow up to be useless members of the United States Senate or something. Parasites."
"And so, today in the 21st century, the immigration policy has to be primarily based on merit. That doesn't mean everyone's a PhD; it does mean when you come in you should be able to prove what skills you'll be able to bring to the U.S."
Don't even get him started on the children. Did you know we sometimes let useless little children in the country? That's why we're going to build a wall, it's to keep out anyone too young or too poor to afford a ladder.
All of this, and Marco Rubio is still getting crushed in the polls because he's just not far-right enough. The base just doesn't trust he has what it takes to really stick it to those immigrant types like, um, his parents.