Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Richard Carmona blasted the Rubio DREAM Act and questions Republicans’ motivations in crafting the bill, calling it an election-year trick rather than a genuine change of heart in an interview with the Washington Post.
“Why do you think they’re reworking their initial vitriolic, far-right, ‘deport everybody’ (message)?” he asked. “Why? Do you think that all of a sudden there’s an epiphany and their hearts have opened up to people who are struggling? I don’t think so. I think it’s a political calculation – that they recognized they cannot win their races and stay in office unless they embrace the Hispanic community. So, I really feel it’s very disingenuous.”
Carmona finds the timing of Rubio’s bill fishy:
“Do you think it just popped up at this time – six, seven months before the election – and everybody goes, ‘Oh gee, let’s embrace these people now’? … So, it’s crazy. The fact of the matter is these are political calculations and the public is fed up with it.”
Carmona, whose parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York City, said that the DREAM Act is a personal issue for him:
“I had my own version of the DREAM Act when I came back from Vietnam,” he said. “I couldn’t get into college. Okay? I am who I am today because Bronx Community College had an open-enrollment program for Vietnam veterans. … And because of that, I became surgeon general of the United States.”
“So, that’s why I’m so passionate about giving these kids a chance,” he added. “It’s the right thing to do. They’re here through no fault of their own. They were brought by adults, and now we’re going to penalize them. It doesn’t make sense.”
