Ted Cruz's Path From George W. Bush Adviser to Immigration Reform Opponent

national journal ^ | May 23, 2013 | Beth Reinhard

[JohnBrowdie]

May 23, 2013 In 2000, Ted Cruz was known as a Texas-raised, Harvard-trained domestic policy adviser to the George W. Bush campaign. Bush was a two-term governor from a border state who was determined to fix what he saw as a broken, inhumane immigration system.

Cruz helped craft the campaign’s immigration policy, which called for speeding up the application process, increasing the number of work visas, and allowing the relatives of permanent residents to visit the U.S. while their applicants were pending. “Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande,” Bush used to say.

Bush, a self-described “compassionate conservative,” went on to win the presidency and champion a law that would have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to earn citizenship. Cruz went on to win election to the Senate from Texas as a hero of the tea party movement and emerge as a sharp critic of a pathway to citizenship in the latest attempt at immigration reform on Capitol Hill.

The route Cruz chose, from working on the reform-minded Bush campaign to voting against the bill Wednesday as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, confounds some of those who crossed paths with him. His role on the Bush campaign is a lesser-known part of the biography of a politician increasingly viewed as a potential presidential contender in 2016.

[JohnBrowdie]

watching people mining the web for anything, no matter how paper thin, to use against scott walker about being a flip-flopper is getting tedious.

it turns out that ted cruz used to work for **organ music** Bush43! (OMG!! OH NOES! ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE) and when he did, he advocated immigration policy that nearly all of his supporters on FR would condemn as amnesty. they would then label him a RINO, and proceed to declare him the enemy of all conservatives.

consistency. it's a b*tch sometimes.

[skeeter]

I suspect that up until recently it was impossible to be a up and coming republican in Texas and not be associated in some way with the Bush family.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Lawyers often put together plans and accords that they don't personally agree with. You do realize that the very young Ted Cruz (hell, he's still young now!) was the Bush campaign's legal advisor, right? That's why they won Bush v. Gore and were able to assume the presidency. Do you think that Abraham Lincoln, as an attorney, agreed with everything his clients were up to? Does anyone here realize this?

[CyberAnt]

Excuse me .. you’re surprised Ted Cruz would be “working with GW) ..??

Since Ted Cruz was SOLICITOR GENERAL OF the STATE OF TEXAS, while GW was GOVERNOR and became President, I would surmise Cruz would have had many opportunities to consult with the Gov. on legal issues.

And, while Cruz might give GW “legal information”, that does not mean that Cruz agreed politically with what GW wanted to do.

But, legal advice is the only advice Cruz would have been giving, because Cruz was not a “consultant” to GW as President.

To try to make this something against Cruz is a stretch TOO FAR.

[liberty_lvr]

Good point - but it's not about consistency, and it's rarely about what the highly hormonal but low experienced crowd here on FR likens to "patriotism".

It's all about "self" - my team is better than your team, and only when my team triumphs do I experience any feeling of self-worth and belonging. So your team, no matter how good or valuable to the greater cause, must be destroyed at all costs so I can feel good about myself.

[dowcaet]

I suspect that whoever the GOP nominee is their immigration plan is not going to be the hard line stance many here would support. In other words, border enforcement, but amnesty is a done deal.

[5thGenTexan]

Sigh. I guess you are a Walter supporter, but a smear attempt on Cruz is distasteful and counter productive to getting one of these men in the White House. Either would be awesome for this country.

Cruz helped craft the campaign’s immigration policy, which called for:

• speeding up the application process, (making the legal path more efficient)
• increasing the number of work visas, (again, work visas are a legal path)
• and allowing the relatives of permanent residents to visit the U.S. while their applicants were pending. (a pending application is again a legal path)

No where in those points did he advocate an amnesty concept where those currently here illegally would somehow be waived and put into the legal process or granted some form of legal status.

I prefer Cruz now since I know more about him, and I love the way he gets the message out ther. A President needs the skill to communicate the vision and Cruz is great at that. Let's talk about the positives / negatives that both candidates are proposing and leave the smear to the Democrats, shall we?

[stephenjohnbanker]

I’m sure the NatGen is out to do all they can for Cruz......

[kabar]

[JohnBrowdie]

oh, please. spare me. there is ZERO tolerance by the ted cruz crowd for any candidate to have ever, in his entire life, had so much as had an impure thought on immigration. any candidate, apparently, other than ted cruz.

intellectual honesty requires that people at least admit the rampant hypocrisy that's running wild regarding scott walker.

[FrankR]

“Time and advice are a lawyers stock in trade” - Abraham Lincoln (?)

[JohnBrowdie]

if that precise plan was put forth by any other candidate, he would be mercilessly slimed by the cruz supporters here.

people should just admit it, and move on to the next thing.

[Gator113]

I will proudly vote for Cruz, and no other.

Sometimes it’s not so much that I don’t like Walker and I don’t trust him, it’s more about how I flat can’t stand some of his supporters.

~~Cruz OR LOSE~~

[kabar]

No where in those points did he advocate an amnesty concept where those currently here illegally would somehow be waived and put into the legal process or granted some form of legal status. <

Cruz Tries to Claim the Middle Ground on Immigration

Asked about what to do with the people here illegally, however, he stressed that he had never tried to undo the goal of allowing them to stay.

“The amendment that I introduced removed the path to citizenship, but it did not change the underlying work permit from the Gang of Eight,” he said during a recent visit to El Paso. Mr. Cruz also noted that he had not called for deportation or, as Mitt Romney famously advocated, self-deportation.

Mr. Cruz said recent polling indicated that people outside Washington support some reform, including legal status without citizenship. He said he was against naturalization because it rewarded lawbreakers and was unfair to legal immigrants. It also perpetuates illegal crossings, he added.

Besides barring citizenship while instituting some level of legalization for those here already, Mr. Cruz has proposed increasing the number of green cards awarded annually, to 1.35 million from 675,000. He also wants to eliminate the per-country limit that he said left applicants from countries like Mexico, China and India hamstrung when they tried to gain legal entry to this country.

[Gator113]

and I don’t trust him = but I don’t trust him

[SoConPubbie]

watching people mining the web for anything, no matter how paper thin, to use against scott walker about being a flip-flopper is getting tedious.

it turns out that ted cruz used to work for **organ music** Bush43! (OMG!! OH NOES! ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE) and when he did, he advocated immigration policy that nearly all of his supporters on FR would condemn as amnesty. they would then label him a RINO, and proceed to declare him the enemy of all conservatives.

consistency. it's a b*tch sometimes.

Nothing in this article, or the facts themselves, can be used to cover for the dramatic shift (Flip-flopping) by Walker.

Ted Cruz didn't change his positions. Walker has on multiple occasions.

You're right, Consistency is a b*tch sometimes.

[dowcaet]

Thanks for the chart. I certainly don’t support amnesty, but I don’t think the eventual GOP candidate, if elected, will stop the amnesty order, and that includes both Scott Walker and Ted Cruz.

[TADSLOS]

Ted Cruz didn't change his positions. Walker has on multiple occasions.

You're right, Consistency is a b*tch sometimes.

PWN'D!

[SoConPubbie]

intellectual honesty requires that people at least admit the rampant hypocrisy that's running wild regarding scott walker.

No, intellectual honesty requires everyone to admit that Walker has been changing his positions because he is running for President.

[SoConPubbie]

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