“When politicians say the exact opposite of what they’ve done in office and I’d treat that with a pretty healthy degree of skepticism”.
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Rubio’s campaign pointed to Cruz’s support for the USA Freedom Act of 2015, which banned bulk collection of data of Americans’ phone records and Internet metadata.
“That is a path to losing”, Cruz said. He found himself in the middle of a typical conservative media conspiracy feedback loop with bogus charges that the bill contained “amnesty phones” and auto subsidies and in the end he quietly voted for the bill and then dropped out of the gang forever, hoping that nobody would remember his role in it.
“Marco and Schumer basically had a secret deal to block all amendments”, Rand alleged. The dispute is over whether Rubio’s more recent veer to the right is genuine, and whether he can be trusted.
Rubio wants to muddy the waters to avoid Cruz’s attack.
Moments before the bill’s passage, Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said: “Generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass”, adding: “That’s why I support this reform”.
He has more cash than any other Republican candidate.
Speaking at a Republican presidential forum in Orlando, Paul said Rubio’s opposition to one of his amendments to the 2013 Gang of Eight immigration bill, which would have enhanced screening requirements for those entering the country, damaged national security. But they haven’t been all that specific on how their administrations might apply prosecutorial discretion, if at all. As scripture says, ‘You shall know them by their fruits.’ We had an epic battle, in Congress, just a couple years ago – we’re not talking about ten, twenty years ago, this was just a couple years ago – on the question of amnesty. McConnell’s spokesman, Don Stewart, said no decisions had been made.
Rubio has left himself wiggle room on deportations.
Wednesday on CBS’s “This Morning”, Rubio was asked specifically whether he thinks people who would benefit from Obama’s yet-to-be-started Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents policy should be deported. I don’t. I think amnesty is forgiveness without outcome of a violation. That could be interpreted as a yes.
Now, as the H-1B program becomes a growing target on the right, Cruz is qualifying his position, saying he’s working with Sessions, an ardent H-1B opponent, to come up with reforms to the program.
However, under the new Cruz plan, he is calling for the government to put a freeze on legal immigration for as long as the rate of US employment remains “below historic averages”, reports NBC News. 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. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, may have a credible… And as others (including Rubio) have argued, the current situation amounts to a de facto amnesty, because very few are punished under the current laws, and each time reform is blocked stronger enforcement of immigration laws is sacrificed for the sake of keeping the unenforceable laws exactly as they are now. “In fact, when the Senate bill was proposed, he proposed legalizing people that were here illegally, he proposed giving them more permits”. Roque Planas contributed reporting.
The effort collapsed amid partisan acrimony, and illegal immigration is one of the biggest flashpoints in the fight to win the Republican nomination for the presidential election in November 2016.
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Immigration is not the only issue on which Cruz has stoked a rivalry with Rubio. He said he changed his position after learning that a few companies, including nearby Disney World, might be abusing the program.
