Posted on 02/13/2018 4:52:12 AM PST by iowamark
On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz was the only senator to vote against Senator Mitch McConnell’s plan for the Senate this week: a so-called “free-for-all” open debate about immigration on the Senate floor.
Fears of a Democrat-leaning deal on DACA are rampant among Republican activists, and with conservative websites calling this the “amnesty debate”, Senator Cruz’s solitary objection gives voice to the thousands of voters who believed what they were told on the campaign trails of 2016.
His office released a statement Monday night (below.)
The unusual debate period this week will of course focus on DACA and family immigration, among other issues, and begins in earnest Tuesday.
From the New York Times::
The highly unusual debate, expected to unfold throughout the week, will test whether a series of legislative concepts and proposals championed by President Trump and a variety of Republicans and Democrats can garner 60 votes, the threshold for a measure to pass the Senate. No one has any idea how it will turn out.
“Whoever gets to 60 wins,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, told reporters last week. “And it will be an opportunity for 1,000 flowers to bloom.”
The process kicked off Monday evening with a procedural vote on an unrelated House-passed measure that will serve as a shell for building an immigration bill. By a vote of 97 to 1, with only Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, dissenting, senators took the first step toward consideration of the underlying measure, as expected.
As McConnell said, 60 is the game now. The objective is to reach that number before recess on Friday. “This is Sen. (Dick) Durbin and Democrats’ opportunity and so far they kind of seem to be a little confused about what they’re planning on doing — but they better get it done quick because it’s this week or not at all,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said this week. “People had better get to work because the clock is ticking.”
Senator Cruz voted against, and he explained why in a statement from Catherine Frazier, his Senior Communications Advisor.
“Sen. Cruz believes it would be a serious mistake for Congress to pass legislation that grants a path to citizenship for those here illegally. Such a policy is inconsistent with the promises that he and Republicans have made to the voters, and is in fact further to the left of President Obama’s position.”
“The solutions that we should pursue should focus on securing the border and building the wall, as well as passing Kate’s Law and the El Chapo Act, both introduced by Sen. Cruz.”
“Respectively, these bills will provide for mandatory minimum prison sentences for aggravated felons who repeatedly enter the country illegally and require that any assets seized from convicted drug lords go towards building the wall and other border security assets.”
On Tuesday, the Senate will nevertheless take this up and the actual debate is expected to begin. Republicans have not outlined a plan, but several senators promised media that Tuesday all would become clear.
There will be a lot of news from this process throughout the week. Read RedState to keep up to date. And make sure to watch Sen. Cruz’s Twitter timeline. If the many amnesty ideas floating around start making headway, you can bet he’ll tweet about it.
“Wow, your counter argument is sure...compelling /s”
It certainly is considering that while he is actually fulfilling exactly what he is doing, people like you only complain that it isn’t happening as fast as you demand.
You fail to notice any mass arrests is an example of your retarded video game attitude when it comes to this, as stories of ICE doing their jobs with the least amount of obstruction in years goes over your head because you are denied an image of rows of illegals in handcuffs with guns at their head being marched across the Mexican border as proof enough to satisfy you. Let’s not forget that DACA is headed for extinction because Trumps’s demands in exchange will never be agreed to by the Dems, and he will let it expire without them.
But NAH! You gotta play that stupid “wobbly” b.s. for all it’s worth, thinking that it plays to anyone other than Cruz’s old fanboys.
There is no way to use that falsely sympathetic image to our advantage. The GOP will fold—just as it always does. They’ll tell us what a great deal they got, but it will be horrible. I mean, Trump himself is advocating for amnesty for them—how can the other side lose?
If this is true, then why are CA schools filled with Mexican chidren?
It’s not true, but it is what I wish was true.
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It certainly is considering that while he is actually fulfilling exactly what he is doing, people like you only complain that it isn’t happening as fast as you demand.
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Oh, I don’t demand. I EXPECT his to live up to his WORD.
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You fail to notice any mass arrests is an example of your retarded video game attitude when it comes to this, as stories of ICE doing their jobs with the least amount of obstruction in years goes over your head because you are denied an image of rows of illegals in handcuffs with guns at their head being marched across the Mexican border as proof enough to satisfy you.
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Care to back up your presumptions w/ some specifics?
One only need review some of the debates to show mine.
But, please, continue to live your life w/ a severe case of cranial-rectal inversion.
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Let’s not forget that DACA is headed for extinction because Trumps’s demands in exchange will never be agreed to by the Dems, and he will let it expire without them.
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Again, no thanks to the Pres’ EXTENSION; which flies in the face of 1) his rhetoric 2) his JOB as the chief law enforcement officer (not enforcing the Law and keeping an ILLEGAL edict ‘alive’).
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But NAH! You gotta play that stupid “wobbly” b.s. for all it’s worth, thinking that it plays to anyone other than Cruz’s old fanboys.
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Rightfully don’t care WHOM it ‘plays to’, truth\facts are what they are. And when those in positions of power are WRONG, they should be called out, vocally, as so.
I’ll leave the head-hobbing up to those of you on the (R)N(C) knee-pad brigade.
Cruz was allowed to grandstand on this to shore up his sorely damaged image on this particular issue, damaged due to his Presidential run. If you think it’s anything more than that, you’re naive.
Ok, fine.
Since you are so retarded that you seriously think Trump is OBVIOUSLY doing nothing, then why waste time?
Now go back to your idiotic narrative, and the rest of us can live in reality.
WHINE WHINE WHINE! DEMAND DEMAND DEMAND!!!! ARE WE THERE YET!!!! I’M BEING.... BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDD!
Does that sum up your nutty observations?
Be damn happy that Trump is there, otherwise you would just be a crank complaining about Hillary.
Ted Cruz is damaged on the issue of amnesty for illegals? How so?
Because he’s very vague on the concept of citizenship as demonstrated by “forgetting” that he was Canadian.
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