Immigration Reform News 2015: Rubio Calls For Stronger Border Security, Claims Immigration Reforms Don't Work

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said illegal immigration in the U.S. should be put under control first before Congress tackles any bill about it, adding that Republicans should first work on strengthening border security rather than immediately seeking to overturn President Obama's immigration program.

"I would prefer we would spend the majority of our time actually acting on our immigration reform platform," he said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, according to Bloomberg.

He added, "I think we should try to prevent this new executive order from kicking in."

Rubio, who is aspiring to run for president in 2016, said they are not going to be able to solve the immigration issue in one bill.

"As far as the way forward immigration I can tell you we're not gonna be able to do it. And that's in one big bill and I can tell you that with tremendous confidence because I tried it and it didn't work," he said.

Rubio explained that immigration reforms "do not work because people do not believe that the enforcement will ever happen. They believe that you will go ahead and do the legalization but the enforcement will never occur and in 10 years, we will have another 10 million people here illegally."

He said, "I believe that the only path forward that has any chance of success is first, to bring illegal immigration under control to prove to the American people that not only are we serious about enforcing our immigration laws, but that we are enforcing them."

Rubio said the legal immigration system should be modernized, suggesting that it should be more a merit-based system. "The Senate bill moved in that direction. Perhaps it should move further in that direction. And I say that to you as someone whose parents came here on a family-basis system," he said.

Rubio is the son of Cuban parents who immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and became American citizens in 1975.

He said the government "should not be signing up new people" under the 2012 order by President Obama that stopped deporting young illegal immigrants for two years.