Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
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Without calling out his Senate colleague by name, Cruz twice took subtle digs at Rubio during the Fox Business Network debate. Senator, welcome back to the program.
But Ted Cruz is lurking with intent, as I like to say, and he is well-positioned to exploit Rubio’s weakness on immigration. A few denizens of Obamaland have even taken to griping about Rubio cribbing O’s “turn the page” phrase – which ironically only resonates today because it’s now Obama’s page from which voters are so eager to turn. Because they are Cuban nationals or whatever, or come from Cuba. “If you’re a criminal, you’ll be deported. A green card with no right to naturalization”.
“Do you really believe they pay taxes?”
He’s wrong because there’s no separating all the issues that make up the immigration problem. That is a very long path. I personally am open to that. Rubio, however, described his proposal as “a very long path” to citizenship. “And then you’ll get a work permit”. It included an excerpt from an interview Cruz had with the Texas Tribune in 2013 in which he is reported to have said that he opposed a path to citizenship, but not allowing them to stay altogether. “In fact, when the Senate bill was proposed, he proposed giving them work permits”, Rubio said. I live in a Hispanic community – majority immigrant community. All of my neighbors are immigrants.
Cruz is drawing attention to his stance against “amnesty” for people living in the country illegally and his efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.
RUBIO:…So it’s a complex issue. We all know you can’t pick them up and ship them across, back across the border. But the program has come under increasing criticism from protectionists and American industries that say the country is “outsourcing” labor and charge there is widespread abuse of the visa system. “We can wait until after the election, ‘” Rubio told the Wall Street Journal at the time. We have to have a process. He can elevate and then eviscerate the “amnesty” issue.
INSKEEP: Are you in danger – is the party endangering its chances in the fall with its debate now?
Amazingly, Rubio has mostly been able to avoid talking about immigration during the debates.
“Everybody on that stage has supported the legalization of people who are here illegally, every single one of them has supported that”. Are you ready for them to do that to you? Rubio would have to tread carefully on countermeasures. “And right now it doesn’t look like we are getting it right or we’re going to get it right”.
“Marco Rubio is in a unique position to unite the various factions of the Republican coalition”, said Whit Ayres, Rubio’s pollster, to Politico. For example, I bought a house in 2005 in Miami.
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. And millions of people were impacted around the country. I had thousands of dollars of student loans that were a significant burden on us.
His quip about overseas coverage – “You assume defending this nation is dear; attempt not defending it” – additionally ranked among the many most tweeted remarks. We were having children. And it was tough.
But how deportation policy functions is much more complicated than simply enforcing the law versus ignoring it. One of the biggest questions is over prosecutorial discretion, or the need for law enforcement officials to prioritize a few people over others given limited resources. “So you draw the contrast and let people decide”. “Rubio went along with [New York Democratic Sen.] Chuck Schumer and there was a secret deal made”. I don’t think he’s failed because he didn’t have executive experience. So what positions exactly will be “in bounds” as Republicans go forward?
That was the single best part of the debate – other than the Numbers United States of America ad showing civil rights hero Barbara Jordan’s stirring call for a restriction on immigration: “Many American workers do not have adequate job prospects”. And the presidency’s a unique office because it’s the commander-in-chief and the leader of the free world.
INSKEEP: Senator, thanks very much.
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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has moved up the ranks on social media since the last GOP debate, closely following the front-runner Donald Trump in sentiment score.
