Rand Paul's 'newsflash' for Ann Coulter: The U.S. already has 'de facto amnesty'

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is firing back at Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh after the conservative talkers criticized his plan to allow undocumented immigrants to work legally.

In a speech on Tuesday, Paul had called on Republicans to be "part of the solution” on immigration reform.

Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, Coulter had warned that "no Republican will ever win another national election" if Congress passed a path to citizenship -- or "amnesty" -- for undocumented immigrants.

"People like Coulter and Limbaugh say that people like you are being suckered into an agreement here and what they argue is that conservative principles should not be sacrificed here," Fox News host Bill Hemmer told Paul on Thursday.

"I’ve got a news flash for those who want to call people names on amnesty – what we have now is de facto amnesty," Paul shot back. "We have 11 million people here that have been here, some of them for a decade or more. No one is telling them to go home. No one is sending them home."

"So I would say, if you want to work, we'll find a place for you, but that doesn't mean you get special privileges."

A recent report from the University of California-Merced found that President Barack Obama's administration was on track to deport 2 million immigrants by 2014, nearly equaling the number of people deported from the U.S. between 1892 and 1997.

The Kentucky Republican also offered Coulter "another newsflash: We haven't been too competitive in the last two national elections."

Wattch this video from Fox News, broadcast March 21, 2013.

(h/t: Politico)