The ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee cited an increased risk of terrorism as one of several reasons why he’s backing a plan by Donald Trump to mass deport people in the country illegally should he win the November election.

In an interview with “Meet the Press,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told anchor Kristen Welker that doing so would be a tough decision, but one that has to be made given the fact that there are literally tens of millions of people in the country illegally, and millions of come during President Joe Biden’s term due to his lax border enforcement policies.

“If reelected, Donald Trump has said he’s willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military to deport the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country. It would be the largest deportation operation in American history. Do you support that plan?” she asked.

“11 million? That was the number ten years ago. We’re talking upwards of 20, 25, maybe 30 million. There’s been almost 10 million people that have entered this country unlawfully in the last three years,” Rubio responded with a chuckle. She pressed: “Just to the question. Would you support it?”

“The number varies big time. I mean, it’s another 9-10 million people just in the last three years. The answer to your question is yes. We cannot absorb 25, 30 million people who entered this country illegally. They’re here illegally. What country on earth would tolerate that? We don’t even know who some of these, most of these people are. They talk about vetting; vetting them with what? They’re coming from nations that don’t even have document systems in many cases,” Rubio responded.

“Yes, we are going to have to do something. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to do something dramatic to remove people from this country that are here illegally, especially people we know nothing about. But 10 million, 11 million, that was the number 15 years ago. Today, it’s upwards of probably 25-30 million, maybe more,” he said.

Welker attempted to catch Rubio off-guard by playing several clips of him from his 2016 presidential campaign, when he was competing for the GOP nomination against Trump and stated his opposition to mass deportation. Rubio swiftly responded, explaining that the circumstances now are significantly different from what they were back then.

“The issue has completely changed. When I said that and back in 2013, when I was involved in immigration reform, we had 11 to 12 million people that had been here for longer than a decade. Now, we’ve had almost that number in the last three years alone from all over the world, including people, that I believe, are terrorists,” Rubio said.

“People, that I believe, are going to conduct terrorist attacks in this country if given the opportunity. Certainly people that were criminals in their home country. This is a completely different – this is not immigration. You asked me about immigration, this is mass migration. Mass migration. This is an invasion of the country and it needs to be dealt with dramatically. And by the way, I don’t – I’m not a big poll follower, but polls show most Americans agree with us on this,” he added.

WATCH:

@SenMarcoRubio expertly defends Trump’s mass deportation plan if he wins the presidency. pic.twitter.com/Vis761r5oj

— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) May 20, 2024