Florida Senator Marco Rubio has outlined what he thinks will be former president Donald Trump's priorities with regards to immigration after he secured another term in the White House.
Immigration was among the top issues for Americans in this election cycle. A mass deportation policy, announced as a core element of the GOP's 2024 immigration policy could see many millions of undocumented or illegal immigrants removed. Trump has also pledged to deport some legal immigrants, such as the million-plus who were admitted into the U.S. under humanitarian parole, or were allowed to stay in the U.S. through temporary protected status.
In a Wednesday morning appearance on CNN, Rubio was asked whether he would be supportive of mass deportations, if that was something Trump wanted to do, and how the administration should approach cases where illegal immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens and they have not committed a crime.
Rubio said he wouldn't make pronouncements about how the Trump administration would prioritize it, but did say he can "guarantee their number one priority is going to be first and foremost people who are here illegally and unlawfully, and have committed or are committing serious crimes, or are a threat to the country."
"If you're a convicted murderer in El Salvador or a convicted murderer in Venezuela or whatever, and now you've got into the United States unlawfully, you need to be removed, Rubio said.
"I don't care how many children you have in the United States, you're here unlawfully, you need to go because you're a threat to the country.
"And that's what you would prioritize, I believe, and you work your way down from that.
"And the most important thing is if you do not begin to enforce your immigration laws, if you do not send the message that there are people in this country unlawfully and they're going to be removed, then more people are going to come. It's all been entirely incentive based."
The senator, who ran against Trump in 2016, was also asked whether he would be interested in a role in the future president's administration.
"I'm always interested in serving this country, I'm doing it now in the United States Senate," Rubio said.
But the senator said he hadn't yet had any conversations about a role.
"Either way I plan to work with him," Rubio added.
Newsweek has contacted Rubio and the Trump campaign for comment via email.
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