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by Esther Yu-Hsi Lee Posted on April 13, 2015 at 8:00 amUpdated: April 12, 2015 at 11:15 pm

"How Marco Rubio Went From Backing Immigration Reform To Berating DREAMers"

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is expected to announce his 2016 presidential run Monday at Freedom Tower in Florida, or the Ellis Island of the South, so monikered because the center offered relief to Cuban refugees seeking political asylum from Fidel Castros regime between 1962 and 1974. But despite his announcement at a site that symbolizes hope and freedom for refugees, Rubio has not lately been the friend to immigration reform he once was.

Some political analysts believe that Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants from the Latino-heavy districts of Florida, could appeal to Latinos and could fit the description of a Republican nominee who scores somewhere in the mid-40s, or better, among Hispanic voters, as pollster Whit Ayres stated at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.

But even if Rubio is on the face of it, an immigration success story through his Cuban exile parents, Latinos and immigrant advocates arent necessarily into him. Thats hardly a surprise: In the past two years, Rubio has swung wildly between supporting a permanent fix to bring the countrys 11.2 million undocumented immigrants into the formal American society and berating so-called DREAMers, or undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children.

Rubios tap dance comes in part from a diverse potential constituency that includes appeasing both Tea Party supporters who helped put him in the Senate in 2010, and Latinos, who are quickly becoming something of an outreach necessity for the Republican Party to take the White House in 2016. Latinos are also the fastest-growing voter electorate.

For more than 40 percent of Latinos living in Florida, immigration policy is a personal matter. Rubio acknowledged as much in 2013, stating, the immigration issue is a gateway issue for Hispanics, no doubt about it. The Republican National Committees 2012 autopsy report was just as explicit, Hispanic voters tell us our Partys position on immigration has become a litmus test, measuring whether we are meeting them with a welcome mat or a closed door.

As Rubio has moved toward a possible presidential announcement, he has increasingly distanced himself from any sort of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship or even deportation relief for undocumented immigrants of the sort he championed just two years ago as a sponsor of the Senates reform bill. Below is a timeline of his most prominent positions.

2012: RUBIO STATES THAT DREAMERS ARE REAL PEOPLE. Immigrant advocates interrupted Rubios speech in January, asking him please help us, the immigrant community. Rubio responded, These young people are very brave to be here today. They raise a very legitimate issue. I ask that you let them stay. I dont stand for what they claim I stand for.

In April, Rubio reached out to immigrant advocates and DREAMers to discuss an alternative bill that he was crafting that would stop short of creating a pathway to citizenship, but still grant deportation relief to some immigrants brought to the country as children.

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How Marco Rubio Went From Backing Immigration Reform To ...