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Forget, for a moment, about the bipartisan Gang of Eight, whose members crafted the original version of the immigration bill being taken up by the Senate this week.

There's another, very partisan gang to watch on the issue. Let's call them the Gang of Four, a high-profile group of relatively new Republican senators whose trajectories are set for the national stage. The group includes Marco Rubio of Florida, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas — some of the newest stars in the GOP firmament.

Immigration votes are among the hardest lawmakers ever take and no vote is tougher than one that could foreclose what once seemed like a promising political future.

That reason alone makes it worth knowing what these four have said so far on the immigration overhaul and what they're likely to do. Their views range from being present at the creation of the Senate bill to vehemently opposing the bill under consideration.

Rubio — The Florida senator is also a member of the Gang of Eight. As such, Rubio is the one whose political future will most arguably rise or fall based on what happens with the immigration bill.

As a Cuban-American and a relatively new face on the national political scene, Rubio is often touted as the cure for what ails the Republican Party demographically - its difficulty in attracting Latino voters. Rubio's position on immigration has evolved in recent years, going from opposing a path to citizenship to supporting it.

Indeed, Rubio over the weekend told Univision in a Spanish-language interview, "First comes the legalization. Then come the measures to secure the border." That's not a popular position with many in the GOP base, to put it mildly.

But Rubio may be counting on some of the same dynamics that allowed Mitt Romney to win the GOP nomination despite having provided the Massachusetts model for Obamacare. Meanwhile, his position would make him much more competitive with a Democratic nominee for Hispanic votes.