The Rubio counter-strategy – which he used again during the debate – has been to try to turn the tables by suggesting that Cruz was much closer to his own position than Cruz is willing to admit, including having sponsored an amendment in 2013 to let undocumented immigrants receive legal status but not citizenship.
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Cruz, a Texas senator and tea party firebrand, sees Rubio’s support for a more forgiving immigration policy as his greatest vulnerability among conservatives who overwhelmingly oppose a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. Reporter David Drucker of the Examiner went back through his archives and found an interview he did with Cruz in July 2013, just a few days after the Gang of Eight bill passed the Senate (with Cruz voting no and Rubio voting yes, of course). She also attended the New Hampshire primary ballot filing with Bush and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
“He’s going to have a hard time because he’s not told the truth about his position in the past on legalization”, Rubio said of Cruz while campaigning in Iowa. “It’s not an attack”. John McCain (R-AZ) as Mr. Cruz says: “Their misguided plan would have given Obama the authority to admit Syrian refugees, including ISIS terrorists”. Marco Rubio, supported despite heavy criticism from conservatives – would have permitted millions of people here illegally to stay and work.
Cruz said that the amendment he offered in 2013 was a “poison pill” meant to expose those behind the “Gang of Eight” bill who, he said, were angling for amnesty above all other forms of immigration reform. The Senate approved the bill, but it was blocked by House Republicans and widely attacked by conservatives.
The stop in Daphne is part of a 12-day swing to 12 cities, most of which are in the Deep South where Cruz hopes to curry conservative support. But there is a big difference between his vision of good immigration policy and mine and Senator Cruz’s.
Later, in Minnesota on Thursday, Cruz said that Rubio had broken the vow he had made to the voters who elected him in 2010.
He said his amendments “did not alter the underlying language of the bill that would have allowed for legalization and indeed would have allowed for them to receive a green card”. “He’s the one that supports a 500-percent increase in guest workers into the United States, and he’s the one that supported legalization and legalizing people that are in the country illegally”. Cruz also took the opportunity in this week’s GOP debate to connect Rubio with the Gang of Eight bill, casting the bill’s provisions on refugees as too weak. Some say it isn’t amnesty without a special path to citizenship that differs from that followed by legal immigrants.
Cruz answered questions during a media gaggle on a tranquil berry farm, where hundreds of supporters showed up in the misty morning to hear the senator speak. “Rubio or any other candidate running to make that same statement, to be clear where they stand”. He pointed to Cruz’s vote against an amendment offered by Sessions at the time that would restrict legal immigration, an approach Cruz favors now. “I want immigration reform to pass”, he said.
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His bill, an amendment to Senate immigration legislation, proposed stripping out the option of citizenship. He said, then and now, Cruz’s positioning on the issue of the legal status was always about 2016.
