Marco Rubio's varying disposition towards immigration reform throughout his political career has come back to haunt him in the 2016 presidential race. As the son of Cuban immigrants, Rubio was once a champion of comprehensive reform measures that would have provided undocumented residents with a pathway to citizenship and offered undocumented youth an affordable option for higher education.

However, in the likes of fellow GOP candidates like Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, who use anti-immigrant rhetoric to pander to voters, the Florida senator has adopted a hardline stance on immigration that calls for building a fence on the U.S.-Mexican border and deporting immigrant families.

Back in 2003 and 2004 during his tenure in the Florida House, Rubio co-sponsored legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates at community colleges and state universities. Under the bill, Florida students who attended a state high school for three years prior to graduation would be able to pay in-state tuition as long as they pledged to pursue permanent residency as soon as possible.

Rubio, however, was unsuccessful in getting the bill to pass during his time in the state legislature, and it wasn't until 2014 when Gov. Rick Scott signed a measure to allow undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates.

Rubio's immigrant-friendly past as a member of the 2013 "Gang of Eight" -- a bipartisan group of senators that pushed to pass immigration reform that included a pathway to citizenship -- has also been used as fodder by other GOP candidates who claim that he is not tough on immigration. Some contenders, like Cruz, even accuse Rubio of being a supporter of "amnesty."

"It surprises no one that Rubio has been a consistent supporter of policies that encourage more and more illegal immigration. While Rubio doubles down on amnesty and wants to reward those who have broken the law, Ted Cruz has led the fight to stop it," said Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier to The Daily Beast.

In turn, Rubio has dealt with his reputation on immigration as a political liability, and has since proposed harmful polices that would hurt immigrant communities.

For instance, in November, he slammed President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) program and stated that he would not allow undocumented parents whose children are legal U.S. residents to remain in the country if he is president.

"It's unconstitutional," he told CBS This Morning. "It's the wrong way to do this. And quite frankly, we need to begin to enforce immigration laws in this country."

The junior senator also told a crowd of 300 at a campaign rally in Iowa last month that the government should add 20,000 more border patrol officials on the Southern border, build a 700-mile wall, and add more cameras and sensors, reported the Sioux City Journal.