Ted Cruz says that Obama has written “20 lawless and illegal memoranda and executive orders on amnesty”, and that he will rescind every one of them on his first day of office.
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“Yesterday, Marco had a fairly remarkable comment in that he suggested that my record was exactly like his on immigration and I have to admit, I laughed out loud at that”, Cruz told Gallagher. Aside from the economic impact of illegal immigration, Cruz warned that a porous southern border makes the nation vulnerable to Islamic State fighters and deadly diseases like Ebola. It would increase penalties for re-entering the country illegally. Cruz’s campaign did not detail the cost of his proposals when asked.
Cruz and Rubio, who share similar biographies and were at a time close in Washington, are not immediate political rivals, with the pair mainly appealing to different wings of the GOP.
And in his most high-profile dig, Cruz took a swipe at Rubio in Tuesday night’s debate over the Floridian’s support for sugar subsidies as an example of cronyism. “On other issues regarding immigration, he’s not that much further than I am”.
During the Senate immigration debate two years ago, the Texas senator was an outspoken advocate for increasing legal immigration, particularly for highly skilled immigrants. He said he changed his position after learning that a few companies, including nearby Disney World, might be abusing the program. He would also require that anyone coming in with an H-1B visa have an advanced degree, and prevent employers bringing these visa holders in from laying off domestic workers for a set period of time. He would also enforce the “public-charge” doctrine, which would force immigrants to certify they are self-sufficient before they are given permission to live in the USA “The objective of legal immigration should be to grow the economy, not displace American workers”, he said. “That being said, I don’t think it’s reasonable to say that you’re going to round up and deport 11 million people, I’ve said that”.
“The IRS estimates that about 6 million unauthorized immigrants file individual income tax returns each year”, the CBO said, while also citing statewide reports, including one out of California, that showed “75% had taxes withheld from their paychecks, filed tax returns, or both”.
After speaking at the Sunshine Summit, Cruz was scheduled to hold a rally in Orlando where he planned to focus on immigration.
The bill is called Kate’s Law for a woman shot in San Francisco by an immigrant illegally in the country. Rubio has renounced parts of his own work, but it’s not clear which parts, and it’s not clear if he has renounced them for good or only until he determines they are more politically practicable.
“Ted is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally”, he said.
If the race comes down to Rubio and Trump, the immigration issue may turn into a wash.
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“You’ve got Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and even Ted Cruz, to my disappointment, who want to do everything from double to triple to quintuple – in Ted Cruz’s case – the number of H-1B visas that are available to these largely offshore outsourcing companies from India”, influential conservative pundit Michelle Malkin said in a video on her Facebook page last week.
