It appears the anti-Cruz faction is out in full force, on this thread. I agree with you about these folks quoting the NYSLIMES to back up their *arguments* on Sen Cruz’ immigration stance.
Here’s more detail of what Sen Cruz has to say about immigration...
This is from a recent interview that Kathleen McKinley (aka Texas Sparkle) did recently with Sen Cruz, in Austin TX after his speech at the TX Public Policy Foundation:
Now, a recent poll said that 55% of American Hispanics say they think it’s more important to find a way for illegal immigrants to live and work in the U.S. legally, than to focus on a path to citizenship. Even Hispanics want this. But Sen. Cruz, you say that Democrats would rather push for a path to citizenship (Amnesty), so they can have a divisive issue for the 2014/2016 elections. You have said the Democrats have no interest in giving us bi partisan immigration reform. Do you still believe that?
A) “Yes. Congress made a deal with the American people in 1987. They said we will grant Amnesty to the 2 to 3 million people here illegally, and we will secure the border and then fix the illegal immigration problem. That never happened, and it never worked, because we never secured our border, and we never fixed the problem The Gang of Eight Bill essentially has made the same promise. It says we will grant Amnesty and sometime, somewhere down the line, we will secure the border. Now we have 11 to 12 million here illegally. The Gang of eight bill gives the same promise we where given in 1987. And we all see how that worked out.
“In the Senate I tried very hard to propose common sense amendments that would actually fix the problem. I proposed amendments that would improve the Gang of Eight Bill. The current bill makes the illegal immigration problem only worse. In the Senate Judiciary Committee I introduced a series of amendments. One was to put real teeth in border enforcement; to actually secure the border. I proposed to triple the border enforcement, and to increase four fold the helicopters and fixed wing assets and technology. In addition, to put in place a strong e-verify in the workplace. Every single Democrats voted these amendments down.
I introduced two amendments to dramatically increase and improve and streamline legal immigration focused on high skilled workers. High Tech and high skilled foreign students study here and graduate here in engineering, science, math, and then we send them back to their own country to work. They start businesses there, when they could start business here, and create jobs. It makes no sense. The amendment I introduced would increase the numbers of temporary high skilled visas five fold. Again, every single Democrat voted it down. Why? Sen. Chuck Schumer explained why. He said the Democrats had cut a deal with the union bosses and they could not go any higher.
Another amendment I introduced was to streamline and simplify the legal immigration system. It is now an extremely complicated bureaucracy. It takes years, and it’s expensive and burdensome. I proposed to end the per country caps. Actually, Mexico is hurt the most by this. It can take as long as 10-20 yrs to come into the U.S. legally from Mexico. Increasing per country caps would help with that. Every Democrat voted against it. Again, they cut a deal with the unions.
No member of the Senate is more of an advocate of legal immigration than I am. I am the son of a legal immigrant. I believe America is an extraordinary nation because we are the children of those who risked so much. The most divisive amendment I opposed in the Gang of Eight Bill was the path to citizenship to those here illegally. I oppose it because I think that it makes it profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who have waited years, and even decades to come here legally. It would only encourage future illegal immigration. No one who is concerned about a humane system would want to encourage those to risk their lives to come here illegally.
Even if you don’t agree with me on the merits, I believe there are not the votes in the House for this bill to pass. I believe it is designed to fail by Democrats so they can campaign in 2014 and 2016 on this divisive issue. If they wanted to see real immigration that fixes the problems, they would remove the poison pill of amnesty, so we can have a bill that can pass.”
When Sen. Cruz said this to Sen. Schumer, Schumer responded, “let me be clear, if there is no path to citizenship, there can be no reform.”
Sen. Cruz thanked Sen. Schumer for his candor. It’s clear that if Schumer cannot get 100% of his bill, he will do nothing for immigration reform. Most revealing, he will do nothing for the 11 million to 12 million people here living in the shadows. So, it’s not about true immigration reform to the Democrats, it’s about running on an issue they themselves refuse to compromise on, where they have made promises to union bosses, and won’t consider changing this to pass an immigration reform bill that is best for the country.
Keep in mind, if Sen. Cruz’s amendment had passed, the underlying work permit of the Gang Of Eight would have remained. The 11 to 12 million here living in the shadows would have been able to get a work permit, which the majority of Hispanics support over Amnesty.
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I cannot stand the term “living in the shadows”, when referencing illegals. I think at one time they did live in the shadows when they actually feared being deported. They not only don’t fear being deported, but they are now living large on tax free wages (mostly) AND on welfare/assistance.
If temporary work permits (what Sen Cruz wants) are issued while welfare/assistance is cut off, I think the illegal problem would begin to fix itself.
The Dims don’t want that (temp work permits) to happen, though, because they want the illegals to become union dues paying/Dim voting citizens, once amnesty would be passed, and the GOPe is happily going along with them. Sen Cruz points this out, perfectly, in this linked interview.
It’s not hard to put the Cruz detractors back in their holes. In fact Ted Cruz makes it easy. He’s clearly smarter than all of them combined.
But at least one detractor has apologized and is I think catching on to the smears and lies about Ted Cruz. Some of them are too feeble to ever be aware of the tools they are. But I will take the one or two who begin to see the light. That’s the whole purpose.
That’s not to say that Ted Cruz couldn’t surprise us and go to the dark side like Rubio, but I don’t expect that to happen. But if it did then Ted would have the likes of me chomping on his ass daily.
But again I don’t expect Ted Cruz to do anything except educate people on the real issues, the real debates. That’s what he is a champion of.