Just How Close Was The 2014 Amnesty Vote? – Here’s The Back Story…

The Conservative Treehouse and PBS ^ | Dec. 15, 2015 | Sundance

[BobL]

-snip-

A very insightful PBS documentary "The Immigration Battle" lays out exactly what took place during the 2013/2014 legislative time frame (i.e., Gang of 8). If you have not watched the documentary I would strongly recommend you do so, it is profoundly enlightening.

The documentary walks you through a timeline explaining exactly who was doing what at the times discussed.

- snip -

They had enough votes to pass it.

- snip -

On Tuesday June 10th Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor (Majority Leader) and Kevin McCarthy (Majority Whip) had lunch together discussing timing the vote Thursday night or Friday Morning.

However, later that same night...Dave Brat defeated (primaried) Eric Cantor.

-snip-

The next day, Wednesday June 11th, the House of Representatives was also in a state of shock - Almost the entire reason for the defeat was the controversial immigration position of Cantor.

Immediately panicked GOP congresscritters were calling Kevin McCarthy and revoking their previous (2 days earlier) positions of support for the bill. By lunchtime Wednesday June 11th it was obvious the Immigration Bill was NOW DEAD in the House.

[AuntB]

“Defeat in the house was insured after the poiison pill exposed the intent of the senate gang of 8 to be not what schumer and rubio were claiming.”

Jeff Sessions was more responsible for that than Cruz.

And it was the HOUSE that denied it, not the Senate.

Cruz bragged about some of his amendments on his official website.

Sen. Cruz Presents Measure to Strengthen, Improve Legal Immigration
Offers amendment to increase H-1B visas to help improve, retain high-skilled labor force
May 14, 2013

press@cruz.senate.gov / (202) 228-7561
Sen. Cruz’s amendment would:

Immediately increase the H-1B cap by 500 percent from 65,000 to 325,000.

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) today presented an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill that would improve our nation’s legal immigration system by increasing high-skilled temporary worker visas, called H-1B visas, by 500 percent. The measure would effectively address the needs of our nation’s high-skilled workforce by helping meet the growing demand for workers in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. It will also make block grants available to states to promote STEM education efforts and increase domestic STEM professionals. The committee voted against the amendment 4 to 14 with every Democrat voting against it on a party-line vote.

“I strongly support legal immigration. Legal immigration is a fundamental pillar of our nation’s heritage, and I was pleased today to offer legislation that would have improved and expanded legal immigration by dramatically increasing the cap for high-tech temporary worker visas. This amendment would not only improve the current system, but would also encourage economic growth and create new jobs in America. There is currently a serious shortage of workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math, yet every year we send thousands of high-tech graduate students back to their home countries to start businesses and create jobs. This makes no sense. I’m disappointed in the committee’s vote to reject expanding high-tech immigration. Although the Gang of Eight’s bill makes a modest step towards improving high-tech immigration, it does not go nearly far enough. There is no reason to arbitrarily cap high-tech visas at 110,000 when these jobs are going unfilled. We need economic growth here and now.”[snip]

http://www.cruz.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=137

[biff]

I guess all you trumpets have dog poop for brains. Do you not trust or understand what Sessions and all the rest of the conservatives in the House have said about this? Why do you even care then if you do not believe them?

Find something that haves some meaning and be glad Rubio’s gang bill was defeated. Did you want 20 million new democrat voters?

Worry about something that has some impact now and not 3 years ago. You are truly members of the new republican party that will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Will88]

You trumpers should not be bitching about this because if it had passed the house the democrats would have 20 million new voters.

You Cruz followers should be ashamed of yourselves, and Cruz should be ashamed of himself, trying to claim that amendments Ted proposed and were rejected, and the bill passed 68-32, that his maneuvers somehow resulted in the defeat of the bill in the House, where it languished for a year until Cantor's defeat.

Defeat in the house was insured after the poiison pill exposed the intent of the senate gang of 8 to be not what schumer and rubio were claiming

Nonsense. The voters and the House members' fear of the voters defeated this bill just as it defeated the bills in 2006 and 2007, well before the Wizard Ted Cruz was even in Congress.

Never heard such tortured logic from a politician and a bunch of people trying to claim credit for something they had had little or nothing to do with. But I bet they could even come up with a way for Ted to claim credit for defeating W's amnesty pushes.

And what does that part in bold even mean. Which proposed Cruz amendment was a poison pill? And, to even be a poison pill, an amendment needs to be made part of the bill, and none were. There was no poison pill.

Ted's immigration policy, until Trump came along, was to increase legal immigration, to streamline it and make it something to celebrate. And he never spoke of deporting illegals until the past few weeks.

[Will88]

He kept saying that it was going to work because he was exposing the true intent of the bill.

There's that phrase again. What was the true intent of the bill that Rubio and Schumer were hiding from everyone?

[AuntB]

“I guess all you trumpets have dog poop for brains. ...and on and on .....”

Really? I posted politely to you, and you come back like the fool you are and you have the NERVE to condemn me or Trump supporters? Catch a clue...Ted is having some problems and YOU are not helping him!

You give absolutely NO information or supportive facts for your guy, as we do, just insults and distractions and that is all of my time you are wasting.

Go ahead and spew your idiocy. No one is going to read it.

[biff]

so i guess you and others are calling Sessions and other conservatives liars?

[biff]

Go to MSNBC site and they have a fairly long article about this convoluted mess and even they end up supporting Cruz.

Now, I am tired of arguing over something so old and has no consequence. There are other sources of information out there than DU, Google is your friend.

[lewislynn]

It is not just Cruz that was behind the poison pills.

Nice try. He's the only one pounding his chest over it and the only one that's a candidate for President.

So, was the poison pill a lie then or is it a lie now?

[lewislynn]

You believe liberal/socialist PBS or conservative Cruz?

I can't tell the difference.

It doesn't matter if he says or you say he's conservative Cruz admitted he lied...

Now we don't know when he's not lying.

[lewislynn]

Without the maneuvering by Cru the bill would have been passed weeks earlier and the Cantor loss wouldn’t have been a factor.

You call it "maneuvering" he and I both call it a lie.

It doesn't matter if you agree why, it's still a lie.

His lying seems to be a trend these days.

BTW, making proposals to a legal document under false pretenses isn't just a simple lie, it's fraud.

[biff]

N e i t h e r..........c a n y o u r e a d t h i s.

Now, go write Jeff Sessions a question and see for yourself.

[Pelham]

The GOPe better pray we don’t go medieval on them.

[BobL]

It’s been 333 years now, but I never had a chance thank you for saving Vienna - so THANK YOU. By the way, are you busy this summer, we may need your services again.

[BobL]

One quick ping to you guys that responded on the thread...Watch the PBS show in its entirety, it is EYE OPENING. Here are a few points that stuck out to me:

1) The show traces Luis Gutiérrez and how he sweet-talked Republican after Republican into supporting Amnesty.

2) All suspicions that we’ve had over the years about secret meetings and secret deals behind closed doors ARE PROVEN. They keep mentioning the need to make sure that “nothing leaks out”. I think in Texas we have open meeting laws to prevent just that - I guess not in DC.

2) The 1 hour, 54 minute show NEVER shows ANY CONCERN from any Republican as to how phone calls are running, or E-Mails, or any other communication from constituents (including a Tea Party guy from South Carolina, Mick Mulvaney, who is later corrupted). We simply DO NOT EXIST as far as the show goes...and given what they nearly did, it’s likely true, as phone calls were likely 50 to 1 AGAINST amnesty then.

3) The South Carolina Republican was fed a FLAT-OUT LIE by the GOPe regarding Texas demographics. Specifically he was told that the Romney won Texas by 900,000 votes in 2012, but in 2016 there will be 3 MILLION NEW HISPANICS that can vote then (in 2016), but cannot vote in 2012. That’s pretty amazing because the entire population of Texas will not even increase by 2 million people in that time frame, and only a bit more than half of them will be Hispanic. The 3 million may be a national number, it is not a state number, but then who cares about facts when the cause is much more important?

4) The Tea Party guy above starts out his Town Hall spending 10 minutes LECTURING the people of South Carolina as to why Amnesty is the only choice for the Republican Party.

5) The Tea Party guy above and his hottie assistant snicker at locals back home when doing an “electronic town hall” (via Internet). They can’t stand getting question after question over something so ‘obvious’ as the need for Republicans to pass Amnesty.

6) Hate him as we do, Boehner is simply not willing to bring up a vote on Amnesty until at least half of the Republicans in the House are on board (the Hastert Rule). With the compromised Tea Party guy above carrying along a bunch of Republicans, they are finally able to reach that 50% mark, and the vote is planned just after Cantor’s Primary (and then canceled after Cantor loses). But Boehner does hire this REALLY SNIDE lady babe who is an ‘expert’ on immigration issues to try to bring up the Republican vote count...and she does her job. In the end, she lets us know what she thinks of Republicans in general.

7) Cantor, the House Majority Leader, is only mentioned once in the entire show (when he loses). People above and below him are mentioned all the time...that was weird. As we knew, Paul Ryan is TOTALLY ON BOARD for Amnesty, but has enough sense to not be part of the show. Had he been on this show and had it come out earlier, there is no way he would have been elected Speaker.

8) This club in DC needs to be BROKEN UP and ENDED. It is SICKENING to see the Republicans get suckered over and over again by Gutiérrez, who, in return shows us what he really thinks of Republicans, over and over.

Anyway, that’s my report - watch for yourselves if you have the time.

[wiggen]

The 2 leading on the pubbie side are for stopping illegal immigration. Everyone can read the polls. Hasn’t Sanders come out against it as well? If theres one thing people running for office can understand its the shift in the winds (except Jeb). will the candidates backslide? Its possible but the message in all the polls today are not in favor of it and theres nothing politicians like more than winning.

[Jan_Sobieski]

May be too late to save Vienna and Europe...am just hoping the USA can be held together for a while. Otherwise I will “catch the last train for the coast, with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost...”

[arthurus]

Stopping illegal immigration. Yes. But all of them fudge on legalization which would continue the pressure on the borders. Even Trump wants to kick them out then bring them back if they dont have actual felonies. Rubio is the worst. He said to Hannity that the priority is to secure the border first before doing anything to deal with the illegals already in the country and implied that that all the ones already here just might be given status. None of them can let go of that dream of turning this country into a permanent one party Democrat ruled state They all want those millions of new Democrat voters somehow.

[Yosemitest]

When it comes to Marco "AMNESTY" Rubio, CRUZ WINS hands down.

Rubio stood with Barack Obama and Chuck Schemer and supported a massive amnesty plan.

But TED CRUZ chose to stand with others like Jeff Sessions and Steve King and the American people, to secure the border.

They can't stop CRUZ.
Source:

... Cruz even indicated he would back deporting those who came here illegally -- another proposal he has usually rebuffed.

"I would enforce the law," Cruz said, explaining that he would first deport criminals without proper papers.
"Federal immigration law provides that
if someone is here illegally and is apprehended,
that they should be sent back to their home country."

Cruz has recently begun stressing that he believes the number of undocumented immigrants would decrease with strict border enforcement.
...

"The only people I'm under fire from are reporters who want to throw rocks," Cruz said in Harlan.
"Once we've demonstrated that we can solve the problem, then we can have a conversation about what to do about whatever people remain illegally."

The Rubio campaign ...
"He has attempted to muddy the waters," Cruz said on the stage. "Where there was a battle over amnesty
and some chose, like Sen. Rubio to stand with Barack Obama and Chuck Schemer
and support a massive amnesty plan.
Others chose to stand with Jeff Sessions and Steve King and the American people
and secure the border."

Let's get VERY CLEAR on TED CRUZ and Immigration:

Immigration

As the son of a Cuban immigrant, Sen. Cruz celebrates LEGAL immigration.
He has championed measures
to secure the border,
reform the LEGAL immigration system,
and uphold the rule of law.

Americans, and particularly Texans, have witnessed the harmful effects of an unsecure border,
endangering the lives both of citizens and those who enter illegally.
President Obama's policies have encouraged drug smugglers, child abusers, murderers, and other dangerous criminals to traffick immigrant children into our nation under life-threatening conditions.
In the summer of 2013 we witnessed a humanitarian crisis at our Southern Border, propelled by PROMISES OF AMNESTY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE .
Immigrants deserve a better system in which they will be welcomed to the United States safely and with dignity.

As a critical step to protecting families and inviting more people to enter LEGALLY, in 2014, Sen. Cruz proposed legislation TO PREVENT OBAMA FROM ILLEGALLY EXPANDING AMNESTY .
The House acted to solve the ongoing crisis and passed bills that closely mirrored Sen. Cruz’s proposals,
but regrettably the Senate DemocRATS REFUSED TO ALLOW A VOTE on the measures.

In 2013, Sen. Cruz proposed amendments to the "Gang of 8";bill that would
strengthen border security,
expand green card opportunities,
increase high-skilled 'H1B'visas, PREVENT ILLEGAL ALIENS FROM RECEIVING WELFARE BENEFITS ,
and enforce the rule of law.

ALSO from On The Issues :

Ted Cruz on Immigration

End Obama's illegal amnesty via Congress' checks & balances
Q: How to respond to the split within your party on immigration?
What you're saying is
that the Republicans should vote to fund the governments for all departments except one:
no funding for the Department of Homeland Security,
which handles immigration, rescinding President Obama's executive action,
and if he vetoes that, he's responsible for shutting down the department.
The problem is
that's almost exactly what you did with the government shutdown across the entire government in 2013 with ObamaCare,
and it backfired badly on your party.

CRUZ: All across this country, Republicans campaigned, saying:
if you elect a Republican Senate, we will stop President Obama's illegal amnesty.
We need to HONOR WHAT WE SAID .
We should use the constitutional checks and balances that we have TO REIN IN THE ABUSE OF POWER OF THE EXECUTIVE.
Step #1 is IF the president implements this LAWLESS AMNESTY, that THE SENATE WILL NOT CONFIRM ANY executive or judicial nominees.


Defund amnesty; and refuse any nominees until rescinded

Q: How would you rescind President Obama's executive action on immigration?

CRUZ: We should use the constitutional checks and balances that we have TO REIN IN THE ABUSE OF POWER OF THE EXECUTIVE .
Step #1 that I have called for is the incoming majority leader should announce IF the president implements this LAWLESS AMNESTY, that THE SENATE WILL NOT CONFIRM ANY executive or judicial nominees,
other than VITALl national security positions,
for the next two years,
UNLESS AND UNTIL the president ENDS THIS LAWLESS AMNESTY .
That is AN EXPLICIT AUTHORITY given TO the Senate.

Q: Are you saying the Senate should REFUSE TO CONFIRM the president's new nominee for attorney general?

CRUZ: We have to REIN IN the executive.
And step #2, we've got is THE POWER OF THE PURSE,
and we should FUND ONE AT A TIME the CRITICAL PRIORITIES of the federal government,
but ALSO USE THE POWER OF THE PURSE TO ATTACH RIDERS .


No path to citizenship for 1.65 million illegals in Texas

When discussing what to do about the 1.65 million ILLEGAL immigrants living in Texas, . . . CRUZ again said
HE DID NOT SUPPORT A PATH TO CITIZENSHIP FOR ILLEGAL immigrants living in America, . . .

Give police more power to ask about immigration status

Cruz accused Dewhurst of using his position as head of the Texas Senate to KILL A BILL last year that would have given police more power to ask anyone they detain about their citizenship status--a charge Dewhurst denied.
Both agreed that the US has FAILED TO SECURE ITS BORDER with Mexico,
and said they OPPOSE AMNESTY for ILLEGAL immigrants and the Obama administration's new directive
allowing many young illegal immigrants brought to the US as children to be exempted from deportation.


Boots on the ground, plus a wall

Border wall: James and Leppert OPPOSE A WALL,
Dewhurst and CRUZ tout "boots on the ground" AND A WALL IN SOME PLACES .


Triple the size of the Border Patrol

CRUZ on immigration: Wants to TRIPLE [the]SIZE of Border Patrol.
Says Dewhurst supported in-state tuition for kids of ILLEGAL immigrants.
Dewhurst: I have always been against an amnesty program.
"If they want to be a citizen, they ought to go home and reapply."
Dewhurst says he was against tuition for children of illegal immigrants.


Strengthen border security and increase enforcement

Ted Cruz has worked to STRENGTHEN BORDER SECURITY and help ensure that America remains a nation of laws.
Among other efforts, he has worked on efforts to INCREASE PENALTIES for felons WHO ENTER THE COUNTRY ILLEGALLY .
Ted authored a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of 10 states in Lopez v. Gonzales,ILLEGALLY .

Let's take a close look at what TED CRUZ said at that time about his amendment to the "Gang of Eight amnesty/ citizenship bill" :

Cruz In 2013 On Providing Legal Status To Illegal Immigrants ( 2:14 )
Published on Nov 12, 2015

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Hearing, 5/21/2013:
"And I'd like to make a final point to those advocacy groups that are very engaged in this issue
and rightly concerned about addressing our immigration system
and, in particular, about addressing the situation for the 11 million who are currently in the shadows.
If this amendment is adopted to the current bill, the effect would be that those 11 million under this current bill would still be eligible for RPI status.
They would still be eligible for legal status and indeed, under the terms of the bill, they would be eligible for LPR status as well so that they are out of the shadows,
which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as THEIR principal objective to provide a legal status for those who are here illegally to be out of the shadows.
This amendment would allow that happen, ...

"But what it would do, is it would REMOVE the pathway to citizenship, for REAL consequences that RESPECT the RULE OF LAW,
and that treat LEGAL Immigrants with the fairness and respect they deserve,
And a second point to those advocates that are so passionately engaged,
In my view, if this committee rejects this amendment,
and I think everyone here views that it is quite likely that this committee will indeed reject this amendment,

In my view that decision will make it much, much more likely that this entire bill will FAIL in the House of Representatives.

I don't want immigration reform to fail.
I want immigration reform to pass.
And so I would urge people of good faith on both sides of the aisle,
if the objective is to pass common sense immigration reform that SECURES THE BORDERS, that improves LEGAL immigration, and that allows those who are here illegally to come in out of the shadows;
then we should look for areas of bipartisan agreement and compromised to come together.
And this amendment,
I believe, if this amendment were to pass, the chances of this bill passing into law would increase dramatically."

The intent was TO EXPOSE the "ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS" AND THE DemocRATS for their dishonesty.
THEY were trying to LEGISLATE the ILLEGAL ALIENS a PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP.

TED CRUZ was trying to amend the Bill so as TO STOP THEM,

by REMOVING the pathway to citizenship,
for REAL consequences that RESPECT the RULE OF LAW,
and that treat LEGAL Immigrants with the fairness and respect they deserve.

FOLLOW THE LINKS !

It's always best to get the information from the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

Now let's really take a close look at HOW the Trans-Pacific Partnership was passed. (It took me a long time to track it down.)

Under The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, 2015 is a small block index you'll find 2 Legislation.
There you'll find Legislation timelines and under that heading you'll read
• June 24, 2015: The Senate voted in favor of stand-alone TPA legislation ATTACHED TO HR 2146 - Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act by a vote of 60-38.^[41]

Now look at HOW TED CRUZ VOTED on THAT VOTE.

Cruz (R-TX), Nay

TED CRUZ
voted
AGAINST TPP ! TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership, is actually the name of the Organization that the legislation called TPA authorized.
What everyone is looking for is the vote on "FAST TRACK" !
Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the Role of Congress in Trade Policy

Summary
Legislation to reauthorize Trade Promotion Authority (“TPA”), sometimes called "fast track," was introduced as the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA- 2015; H.R. 1890/S. 995) on April 16, 2015.
The legislation was reported by the Senate Finance Committee on April 22, 2015, and by the House Ways and Means Committee the next day.
TPA, as incorporated into H.R. 1314 by substitute amendment, passed the Senate on May 22 by a vote of 62-37.
In the House of Representatives, the measure was voted on under a procedure known as "division of the question," which requires separate votes on each component, but approval of both to pass.
Voting on June 12, TPA (Title I) passed by a vote of 219-211, but TAA (Title II) was defeated 126-302.
A motion to reconsider that vote was laid by Speaker Boehner shortly after that vote. ...

Now let's look at ALL of TED CRUZ's votes on the matter.

• April 22, 2015: The Senate Finance Committee approved S. 995: Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 by a vote of 20-6.
  TED CRUZ is NOT on that Committee .
  
  
• May 12, 2015: The United States Senate voted against a motion to proceed to the trade bill by a vote of 52-45.
  TED CRUZ (R-TX), Yea
  
  
• June 24, 2015: The Senate voted in favor of stand-alone TPA legislation ATTACHED TO HR 2146 - Defending Public Safety Employees' Retirement Act by a vote of 60-38.^[41]

Now look at HOW TED CRUZ VOTED on THAT VOTE.

Cruz (R-TX), Nay

So ... On the FINAL BILL,
the Bill with ALL the CHANGES,
TED CRUZ
voted
AGAINST TPP !
FOLLOW THE LINKS !

It's always best to get the information from the ORIGINAL SOURCE.

[AuntB]

“This club in DC needs to be BROKEN UP and ENDED. It is SICKENING to see the Republicans get suckered over and over again by Gutiérrez, who, in return shows us what he really thinks of Republicans, over and over.”

Thanks for the ping,I will try to catch this episode. But it really isn’t about Gutierrez or other democrats. Remember these names, they are who promote these amnesty candidates while they pretend to be ‘tea party’.

Cesar Conda, Rubio’s chief of staff, Ryan’s mentor

Grover Norquist owner of the ‘pledge’...when candidates sign it, they OWN them and if they try to go anti amnesty/bad trade like TPP, They are destroyed...Cruz signed it, Trump has not

Karl Rove...”Turd Blossom”

Al Cardenas, head of CPAC

Steven Moore, Heritage’s head ‘economist’ who helped Conda, Norquist destroy prop 187 in Calif and every attempt at enforcement

NRCC...run by Cong. Greg Walden, who is stealing contributions of Trump Supporters.
NRSC...Which Cruz used to run, pulling the same scam on Trump supporters.

Freedom works
Americans for Prosperity
Several lobbyist run ‘Tea Party’ groups, ie...Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots

And YES, most of our ‘conservative’ non profits have SOLD OUT

[Eva]

The Republcan Insider support of amnesty still doesn’t make sense me. It can’t be a desire for cheap labor. That need simply doesn’t exist. The farm laborers where I live have been carrying on a srtike against a berry farm for three years in attemp to block temporary workers from taking their jobs. The strikers are illegals who over stayed their visas.

The only explanation is that the establishment and probably Trump, as well, are Statists, who view the voters as useful idiots, and evangelicals as good for nothing.