[Flashback 2015] Cruz and Amnesty: The Telltale Video

Do You Have Amnesty in that Basket? Did Ted Cruz support an immigration solution that involved legalizing the 11 million or so illegals now in the U.S.? When we last left this dispute, Cruz staffers were denying it. True, a New York Times article had asserted that Cruz was carving out a "middle ground" on immigration, offering illegals legalization (work permits that would allow them to stay here) but making stopping short of the citizenship offered in the Senate's "Gang of 8" bill:

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."

The Times' characterization wasnâ€™t accurate, Cruz spokesperson Brian Phillips argued. Cruz was only offering his amendment "to show that Dems won't allow any reform without pathway to citizenship," not because he actually supported it. Just a parliamentary device! See this Twitter exchange with MSNBC's Benjy Sarlin:

Benjy Sarlin: @RealBPhil Okay so to be 100% clear: If his amendment succeeded, he still would not have supported work permits for existing undocumented?

Brian Phillips: .@BenjySarlin 100% clear: Cruz's amendment had nothing to do with that issue. [Emphasis added]

Even some experienced Washington hands seemed to buy Phillipsâ€™ explanation.

They shouldn't. How can I be so sure? I've got proof! Here's a video, the link to which was recently sent me by alert kausfiles reader J. In it, Cruz speaks directly to immigration "advocacy groups," and clearly embraces his legalization-without-citizenship option as a big part of a solution that he supports. The most relevant passage starts around 3:30 in:

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 [Legal Permanent Resident status] as well, so that they are out of the shadows, which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as their principle objective â€” to provide a legal status for those who are here illlegally to be out of the shadows. This amendment would allow that to happen

And a second point to those advocacy groups that are so passionately engaged. In my view if this committee rejects this amendment, and I think everyone here views it as quite likely this committee will choose to 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 Representantives. 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 compromise to come together and this amendment â€” I believe if this amendment were to pass the chances of this bill passing into law would increase dramatically, and so I would urge the committee to give it full consideration and to adopt the amendment.

Does that sound like someone using a parliamentary device merely to smoke out the Democratic position, or someone sketching "middle ground" legislation he supports?

Either you are being disingenuous or you weren't paying attention in 2013.

BOTH political parties were determined to give illegal aliens CITIZENSHIP in order to build a new voter base even though the elites continually denied it. I remember laughing when Cruz used "liberal speech" while discussing his amendment that gave them everything they SAID they wanted EXCEPT citizenship. It brought into SHARP FOCUS the true agenda when the amendment was voted down as expected.

BTW, I guess you never bothered to research his OTHER amendments he tried to add to this amnesty bill, did you? Seems Cruz was talking about securing our borders and building a wall while Trump was no where to be found in the amnesty fight

2013-A Senate committee rejected an immigration-legislation amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz today that would have added significant security resources along the U.S.-Mexico border. The amendment proposed tripling the number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border and quadrupling equipment, including cameras, sensors, drones and helicopters, within three years. And the 700 miles of border fence required by a 2006 law would need to be finished. (Dallas Morning News)

There are legitimate questions to ask about Cruz but when you push stuff that isn't true, you lose credibility with those that haven't made up their minds

There are legitimate questions to ask about Cruz but when you push stuff that isn't true, you lose credibility with those that haven't made up their minds
There's something Cruz could learn on several issues.

Senator Cruz official website:

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.

Everybody knows when you want to end illegal immigration the first hing to do is "expand green card opportunities". green cards come with benefits. That's a good way to give illegals benefits.

There's nothing on his official site about a wall.

Was he lying then or is he lying now?

Either you are being disingenuous or you weren't paying attention in 2013.

Fact: Not Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, anyone at that time opposed legalization provided border security came first. See here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3374003/posts

Cruz supported legalization, called it part of "common sense" immigration reform, and not you, or anyone, was laughing about that. Legalization simply wasn't a topic that was opposed at that time, at least legalization that follows border security. The left had already won that fight, until Donald Trump came, of course.

BTW, I guess you never bothered to research his OTHER amendments he tried to add to this amnesty bill, did you?

I did. They doubled green cards and increased H1B visas by 500 percent. So, have YOU researched his amendments? I don't believe you have.

Thanks for bringing up the one thing that did raise my eyebrows in 2013....but you also have to truthfully NOTE that he was talking about increasing LEGAL immigration and green cards and that had nothing to do with giving them to ILLEGAL ALIENS. The first time I heard that was during committee hearings with the ICE/CBP officials, and he commented that it made more sense to fix the LEGAL immigration system so people could come to the US correctly instead of ignoring those who were illegally coming across the border....after which he mentioned those numbers. Does he STILL believe we should increase the number of foreigners LEGALLY entering the country after the last 2 years of the illegal alien invasion? I don't know and haven't heard anyone ask him.

I already provided a news report on Cruz's amendment to strengthen border security and build the wall. I'm not sure if I made this link correctly...but here's another report Cruz: Homeland Security has its mind made up on border security

So, have YOU researched his amendments? I don't believe you have.

Again, I was watching the "Gang of Eight's" amnesty bill in 2013, so yes, I did. I don't "trust" what a politician (or anyone else) tells me unless I research it.

1. Cruz Amendment 1320: Create border security triggers that can be measured objectively by Congress and provide the resources and capabilities necessary to secure the border. You can "prove it yourself" here but I typed some of it below

No illegal immigrants can be legalized until DHS (a) triples the number of Border Patrol agents on the Southern Border (b) Quadruple the cameras, sensors, drones, helicopters and other technology and infrastructure as appropriate (c) Complete all 700 miles of fencing required by law in the Secure Fence Act of 2006 (d) Develop a policy assuring real-time sharing of information among all federal law enforcement agencies regarding illegal border activity. (e) Complete and fully implement the US-VISIT system, including the biometric entry-exit portion--as Congress has repeatedly mandated-so we will finally know those present in the country after their VISA Expires. (f) Establish â€œoperational controlâ€ over 100 percent of the southern border.--------If DHS fails to substantially comply with any of these trigger requirements within 3 years, the salary of all DHS political appointees would be cut by 20 percent and 20 percent of DHSâ€™s budget would be granted to the states with the full authority to use those funds to secure the border; This amendment is required to be fully offset. Either the appropriations committee must identify offsets, or it will be paid for by an automatic, across the board cut to non-defense spending â€“ an approach supported in the past by many Republicans and the White House.

2. Cruz Amendment 1321: Prohibit federal, state, or local entitlement benefits for those here illegally

3. Cruz Amendment 1322: Ensure that illegal immigrants who are given legal status under this bill are not given a path to citizenship

4. Cruz Amendment 1323: Combines Cruz 1322 and Cruz 1321. Provides that those who are granted legal status under the bill are ineligible for welfare and for citizenship

The last amendments are what cause me to go "hmmmmmmm" but I didn't do any further research on it so I don't know what he was trying to do. I DO KNOW the first ones were quite "poisonous" to the elites that were pushing amnesty but he needs to explain if he still thinks like he did in 2013... after the years of illegal alien invasion and if he will give the green cards to illegals already here

5. Cruz Amendment 1324: Green Card (LPR) reform to modernize, streamline and expand legal immigration

This amendment would streamline and simplify our legal immigration system by consolidating segmented visas, creating real and transparent caps, eliminating the diversity visa lottery, and treating all immigrants equally by eliminating the per-country caps. (I didn't type up the other provisions provided.....you can look it up)

6. Cruz Amendment 1325: Increase high-skilled temporary worker visas (H-1B visas) five-fold

This amendment would improve our nationâ€™s legal immigration system by increasing the H-1B cap from 65,000 to 325,000. It would also help America retain the people it educates by authorizing dual-intent student visas and address the need for high-skilled labor by creating a block grant to promote domestic high-skilled workers.7. Cruz Amendment 1326: Combines Cruz 1324 and Cruz 1325. Implements Green Card reform to streamline and expand legal immigration and increases high-skilled temporary worker visas five fold.

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