I can! As you may remember the Gang of 8 kept trying to peddle the idea that the bill was really about immigration reform and border security, not about creating more Democratic voters. But because we COULDN'T be racist toward those poor illegals, there had to be a way to bring them out of the shadows right??? And of course, we needed to keep bringing in 'skilled' workers, right? (wink,wink). And not only were they successful in persuading the Senate, they also had a majority of the House ready to go along.
So Ted decides to call their bluff and show their true intentions. Okay, you say you want border security? Here is an amendment that requires that the border security measures be completed BEFORE anything else happens. You say you need 'skilled' immigrants? Here is an amendment that gives you more visas for skilled immigrants, in exchange for stopping the influx of low-skilled illegals. You say you are not trying to legalize the illegals just to get new voters for the Dems? Here is an amendment that will allow legal status for illegals, but will never allow them to become citizens.
Of course, Ted knew they would never pass those amendments, because it would completely undo what they really wanted - more low cost labor for business and more voters for the Dems. And once they voted down the amendments, Cruz, Session and others were able to take that to the House and help convince enough conservatives to kill the bill there.
Great summary CA. I had to go to a site to get it as I would have messed things up on my own.
excerpt:
In a Judiciary Committee speech at the time, Cruz said his amendment would “remove the pathway to citizenship,” but that the estimated 11 million people in the country illegally “would still be eligible for legal status” so they can come “out of the shadows.” ...
Though Cruz’s amendment failed, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions and Utah Senator Mike Lee, two fierce Republican opponents of legalizing undocumented people, voted for it. Democrats, who controlled the Senate, had made a path to citizenship a non-negotiable component of reform....
Stephen Miller, a spokesman for Sessions, noted in an e-mail that “numerous conservatives offered amendments to the progressive Gang of Eight bill that were designed to improve enforcement or combat amnesty.” He continued, “That does not mean these Senators supported the bill with those changes. That would be an extremely untenable interpretation.”
You left out an earlier and fairly peculiar stage of Ted's grand strategy.
"I think that is profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who have followed the rules, who have waited in line," he said. "I think the reason that President Obama is insisting on a path to citizenship is that it is designed to be a poison pill to scuttle the whole bill, so he can have a political issue in 2014 and 2016. I think that's really unfortunate."
So, a key step in Cruz's supposed strategy was to state that Obama's insistence on a path to citizenship was already a poison pill in the bill.
Ted Cruz Files Immigration Amendment To Ban Path To Citizenship
So, if Ted was being honest there, he believed the bill already contained Obama's poison pill, and Ted was attempting to remove that Obama poison pill so that the bill would have a better chance of passing.
Most Ted defenders don't start at that point. Most claim that Ted introduced his denial of citizenship (but legal status) amendment as a poison pill simply to make the bill unacceptable to the radical supporters of amnesty and reform.
So, which was it? I believe Ted introduced all those amendments to make it more likely to pass, as he explained at the time. And only after he announced for the presidency and Trump elevated the immigration did he change that stance and begin claiming he opposed any form of comprehensive reform in 2013, and any form of legal status.
And to suggest that his maneuvers brought attention to the issue is nonsense. For those half awake and half interested, it has been known since 1986 how the open borders folks promise enforcement with amnesty, but all we get is the amnesty. And the House has killed these bills before, and long before Ted was even in the Senate. Those in the House needed no help from Ted to decide what to do with the 2013 amnesty push. And it was the defeat of Cantor in the summer of 2014 that finally killed the bill in the House.
There are other articles showing how Ted supported comprehensive immigration reform efforts when he worked for W, and when he moved back to Texas and worked with some Latino groups. And he had little to say about it in his announcement speech other than he wanted to make legal immigration "something to celebrate", consistent with past statements that he wanted to "streamline" legal immigration and increase the numbers.
I trust neither Ted nor Rubio on immigration. Both are far too emotional about their own families' immigration stories and neither is likely to reduce legal immigration or deport any of the illegals other than criminals. I also do not trust Ted on trade and TPP, another flip/flop that requires tortured and elaborate explanation. Ted seems more and more like a triple-talking lawyer who thinks he can BS his way in and out of anything.
I didn't see you response last night and only read it today.
And there is a question I've asked that no one has answered. When was the first time Ted characterized his amendments as poison pills, that can be supported with linked articles?