The legalization amendment sparked a tense exchange between Cruz and Rubio, both first-term senators and sons of Cuban immigrants, at Tuesday’s fifth Republican debate in Las Vegas. Cruz authored an amendment during the 2013 battle that Rubio argues shows Cruz’s support for legalization, and Cruz spent most of a 20-minute interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren testily defending his past record.
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Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have been clashing on the issue since Tuesday night’s debate – when Rubio characterized a Cruz amendment to the 2013 immigration legislation as supporting “amnesty”. I oppose citizenship. Marco Rubio supports citizenship. “I always have, I always will and I challenge every other Republican candidate to say the same thing or if not, then to stop making silly assertions that their records and my records on immigration are the same”, Cruz said.
American Bridge, a Democratic PAC, knocked Rubio in a statement Friday: “Rubio embarrassed himself on TV yesterday by promising obstructionist grandstanding that Senate procedure prevented him from following through on – he didn’t know at the time because he wasn’t at work”.
“He was a supporter of legal immigration, as he said at the time and repeated to multiple media outlets for months”, Rubio said Thursday.
That year, Cruz proposed several amendments to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, a comprehensive immigration reform bill co-authored by Rubio. “That may not be a majority position in my party, but that’s down the road”. “He strongly supported legalizing people that were in this country illegally”.
“So I’m not a Rubio fan anymore”, Reid added. “The senator has long said, both publicly and privately, that his best chance to secure the Republican nomination is to unite the conservative base behind him – and that the best way of doing so is to earn the backing of high-profile activist leaders in hopes that their endorsements trigger a cascade of support down to the grassroots level”.
“I was attacked by Ted Cruz on the debate stage and I responded by saying I’m puzzled by his attacks on this”, Rubio said, accusing Cruz of using “crafty language”.
Lindsey Graham of SC, who is running near the bottom of the Republican field, was the only presidential candidate to vote ‘yes’. “They were not telling the truth”, he said.
And he tried to paint Cruz as having a similar position on immigration, noting the Texan’s support in the 2013 reform bill for expanding the number of H-1 guest worker visas and green cards the government issues each year.
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“The Washington establishment is furious”, Cruz said.
