( CNN ) -- How does Sen. Marco Rubio curry favor with Hispanic voters and at the same time burnish his tea party credentials ? Easy . By saying one thing and doing another . On May 10 , Rubio , a Florida Republican , attempted to reframe his Dream Act proposal to give special visas to children of undocumented workers if they attend college or serve in the military . He said , `` But I would just say this is really not an immigration issue ; it 's a humanitarian issue . '' On that same day , he quietly submitted a bill that would severely threaten humanitarian assistance to nearly 4 million children living in poverty . These are U.S. citizens . But to Rubio they are guilty by association . Through no fault of their own their parents are undocumented workers . Currently , a credit is available to undocumented workers who report their income to the IRS through the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program , created in 1996 , making them eligible for a Child Tax Credit . For many children , this payment ( $ 1,000 per child ) is the difference between abject poverty and the ability to survive . The program is , in fact , the ultimate conservative brainchild . It 's not a handout ; rather it 's a way to give working people the ability to subsist , and to keep their children off entitlement programs . It is the kind of program that Ronald Reagan championed in the 1980s as a dignified alternative to welfare for the working poor . Rubio 's proposal -- the Responsible Child Tax Credit Eligibility Verification Act of 2012 -- would stiffen the filing requirements for Individual Taxpayer Identification Number applicants . This is being done , according to a Rubio spokesperson , in an attempt to `` crack down on fraud at the expense of taxpayers . '' The Center for American Progress characterizes Rubio 's contentions as overstated , and says the proposed bill will greatly harm innocent children who rely on the tax cuts for food on the table , school books and shelter . There is nothing `` humanitarian '' about terminating assistance to nearly 4 million American children who depend on such support . And there is nothing humanitarian about his `` DREAM Act without the dream , '' a palliative offer of legality without a clear path to citizenship . Such a proposal is nothing more than crumbs thrown to Latinos , who Rubio apparently hopes are n't paying attention . Lurking near the top of the list of running mates for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney , Rubio is seen by many in the GOP as the key to the Latino vote . Yet the heart of his GOP support comes from the anti-immigration extreme right , while an overwhelming majority of Hispanics support immigration reform . It ca n't be easy for this son of a maid and a bus driver -- both Cuban immigrants -- to reconcile those contradictions . Would a Latino running mate help Romney ? The hypocrisy of Rubio 's recent moves paints a vivid picture of the unbridled ambition of an individual who plays on the politics of resentment and fear at the expense of children . Imagine a patient in critical condition bleeding of multiple stab wounds . Rubio talks about putting a Band-Aid on the patient 's little finger , while silently stabbing him in the back . In March I wrote that `` Rubio Needs a 'Nixon in China ' Moment , '' insisting that the senator should use his conservative credentials to courageously break the logjam in immigration reform . I was at first encouraged to see him step into this debate , but unlike the rabidly anti-Communist Nixon , who traveled to China to promote dÃ©tente , Rubio instead travels to key battleground states -- Florida , Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina , and Virginia , tea party turf -- to peddle his autobiography . It 's unfortunate that two of Rubio 's closest mentors , former Florida Gov . Jeb Bush and Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen , who both support comprehensive immigration reform , ca n't shake their protÃ©gÃ© by the shoulders and set him straight . Navarrette : What Latinos want from candidates ? Respect . Perhaps they could suggest that he turn from promoting his own book to studying Robert Caro 's recently published `` The Passage of Power , '' the fourth installment of the biography of Lyndon Johnson . Caro depicts a scene the night before LBJ 's first major address as president , to a joint session of Congress , in which his closest advisers urged him not to make civil rights a central tenet of his presidency . They argued it would antagonize the conservative Southerners who controlled Congress , and threaten his presidency . Caro writes that one adviser `` told him to his face that a president should n't spend his time and power on lost causes , no matter how worthy those causes might be . '' The former conservative senator from Texas retorted , `` Well , what the hell 's the presidency for ? '' LBJ 's leadership and political genius in passing civil rights legislation brought a measure of justice for millions of people to whom justice had long been denied . As Rubio abandons Hispanic families , he should ask himself : `` What the hell is a Senate seat for ? '' He sure does n't seem to know . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Charles Garcia .
Charles Garcia : Senator Rubio has been hypocritical on the immigration issue . He says Rubio , a potential VP choice , moved to provide tax credit for immigrant children . The Florida senator has weakened the Act while opposing needed tax credit . Garcia : Rubio should follow example of LBJ , who emphasized value of holding public office .