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Republican senator breaks with Trump on path to legalization for undocumented immigrants

The GOP senator opposed a comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. CREDIT: AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. CREDIT: AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File

During an Ohio Senate debate on Monday night, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) endorsed a “path to legalization” for immigrants to stay in the country legally, shifting away from his previous hardline position on the issue.

“People (should) have a chance to come forward and get out of the shadows,” if they pay a fine and do not have a criminal record, he said during a debate with his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Ted Strickland. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Portman appeared to stop short of supporting full citizenship.”

The policy plan Portman supports parallels some of the elements found in the 2013 comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in the Senate. That bill was never given a fighting chance on the House floor before it expired. Under that bill, undocumented immigrants would go through a 13 year-long process to get citizenship after paying back fines and passing background checks, similar to what Portman supported on Monday night. Portman opposed the bill at the time, saying it did not have enough enforcement components to it, despite the bill’s proposal to spend $4.5 billion on drones, Border Protection agents, fencing, and other security measures along the southern U.S. border.

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Portman’s immigration shift comes days after he dropped his support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump because of his lewd comments about forcibly kissing and groping women. Since his campaign launch, Trump has supported anti-immigrant policies like the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

One month ago, Portman released an ad targeted at Spanish-speaking voters on the issue of job creation. Roughly 199,000 voter-eligible Latinos live in Ohio, but people of color are expected to make up about one-third of the state’s population by 2060.

Portman is leading Strickland by 18 points, according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. He’s polling far better than Trump, who’s neck-in-neck in Ohio with Hillary Clinton.