Posted on 02/09/2016 9:25:27 AM PST by xzins
Via the Weekly Standard, he's not saying anything here that he hasn't said before. He supports immigration reform, but not comprehensive immigration reform - only a piecemeal security-first approach will work, the same view now taken by Marco Rubio. But Cruz fans who haven't paid attention to him on this issue may assume, incorrectly but understandably, that he naturally takes the most conservative position that an electable Republican presidential candidate can take. Not so: It's Scott Walker(!) who's staked out the right side of the field by demanding that American wages be a variable when considering target numbers for legal immigrants, hinting that maybe legal immigration levels need to drop rather than rise. Walker's defenders argue that he's not saying anything controversial there; of course you'd want to know how a certain level of immigration will affect what American workers are paid. His break from the rest of the field is a matter of emphasis, not a matter of introducing something new into the debate.
Fair enough, but it's interesting to watch Ted Cruz, Mr. True Conservative, talk about this subject at length and not provide the same emphasis. Watch below from around 44:00 to 50:00 and then again at 1:29:00 to 1:36:00. In 13 or so minutes, wages don't come up. On the contrary, Cruz's emphasis is on the fact that he wants more legal immigration, at least among better educated immigrants who might qualify for an H-1B visa. It's interesting that a guy known for having his finger on the pulse of grassroots conservative/tea party sentiment isn't following Walker's lead but rather stressing his own relative moderation on the issue. There are obvious political reasons for that - he's addressing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here, and as one of the few GOP candidates who opposes a path to citizenship, he needs a way to show general-election voters that he's no Tancredo when it comes to immigration. But it's telling that he's not worried about Walker getting to his right on the hottest hot-button of the GOP primaries. Maybe he figures that, between his stellar tea-party track record on all manner of policy plus Walker's conspicuous flip-flopping on immigration (which still includes support for a path to citizenship), he can afford to place his emphasis on being pro-immigration - so long as it's legal. Or maybe Cruz suspects that Walker's wink-wink at reducing legal immigration levels actually isn't a position that an "electable" Republican can take. He wouldn't be alone in that belief, if so.
Try to watch both immigration Q&As below as they're both worth your time. Cruz spends most of his answers accusing Democrats of being the main obstacle to reform because of their fanatic, self-interested insistence on citizenship for illegals, a criticism that's valid but also ironic given that Cruz himself continues to support some kind of legal status for illegals and surely knows that that will lead to demands for citizenship eventually. (He notes in passing at around 1:31:00 that his amendment to the Gang of Eight bill didn't attempt to eliminate work permits for illegals, just citizenship.) Anyway, your exit question: Is this comment, from elsewhere in yesterday's Q&A, really the best way to pander to a racial group?
"I don't think I've ever seen an Hispanic panhandler. And the reason is: In our community it would be shameful to be begging on the street," Cruz said, recalling a conversation he once had with a Latino businessman on the topic.
You get his point - Latinos are hard workers, they should prefer a political party that looks dimly on welfare - but the inevitable follow-up question will be "Which communities don't regard it as shameful to be begging on the street?" Good luck with that one.
Ted Cruz flip flopped on hundreds of thousands of immigrants H1B visas just MONTHS AGO. It was not BEFORE his campaign began. It was AFTER he was already in this campaign. He flip-flopped when it became evident that this position was killing him in the polls. So, he had a PR event with Jeff Sessions and came out to say “I’ve seen the light.”
A suspect flip-flop for sure, since part of his justification of it at other points was his OWN DAD studying math. Has he ‘fired’ his dad from his memory?
At the 46 minute mark Cruz makes his “no stronger advocate remark”
At the 48:30 mark he strongly pushes for H1B visas, talking about how they create jobs, help the nation, etc., etc.
Excellent Find! People have claimed Cruz has evolved and changed his stance on increasing H-1B Visas 500%...Eh maybe not!
(Me: but rape, murder, drug dealing, drunk driving, human smuggling etc are all A-OK!)
And he has come around on this issue, to my satisfaction.
It is now so much the flip-flops in the past. It is the fact that he will owe his election to the people who donated to his campaign. He has enough skeletons in his closet to make it very easy for the “donors” to shape what he actually does as President.
There is only one candidate about which this cannot be said. Only one candidate who can actually keep a promise. (I know! I know! Which one? Which position? Yada! Yada! Yada!)
Well, Chad Sweet’s wife’s company would probably love more H1B visas.
” People have claimed Cruz has evolved and changed his stance on increasing H-1B Visas 500%...Eh maybe not!”
Maybe not ? 500% NOT
Only because he was caught.
H1B killing American’s jobs. He should flip on that flop IMO.
As a consultant working for my own company, I’ve worked at a number of companies in the last few years. They are all building giant data centers in India (Pune, Mumbai, etc.) These IT jobs are all going to Indian immigrants or to India. Pick your poison. India is producing cheap and competent, though not generally innovative, IT people by the millions.
Well H1B isn’t immigration, it’s a different arrangement.
I’ve mixed attitudes on it. I am one of the few palefaces in an H1B office. We get along fine.
What this might look like if the contractors were all native US? I don’t know. Would it be possible or maybe are Americans too demoralized to do what India Indians are not? One thing I have noticed is that India Indians tend to be deeper spiritually than where Americans are today. Life is more to them than being computer programmers, and maybe that is ironically why they are so relatively good at being computer programmers. Less potential for burnout.
My answer to the H1B question would be to bring Jesus (and that’s not Jesus Ortega) back to America.
Cruiz is an idiot, or worse. He wants to drastically increase legal immigration, but using the Third World preferences Ted Kennedy set up in 1965. Plus he wants to betray American workers by importing tens of thousands more H1-B visas. No way would I vote for this guy.
“What’s new pussycat†by Tom Jones.
I’d claim that attitude is related to general philosophy.
The philosophy of India is heavily Hindu based, with a smattering of Christian influence and a lot of eclecticism. But the point is, that it’s spiritual. I see what this is like daily where I work, in a contracting firm that is mostly H1B based but brings in US born people that ring their bells for some reason (like I did).
Whatever the “poison” you get with India, it is never a sheerly self destructive Kool-Aid. I note the comments of C. S. Lewis who said he would have embraced the dualism of Hindu philosophy had he not encountered Christ.
The world is full of nuances that we can so easily miss.
Example: Crux's cloture vote. He pushed for it, then voted to bring it to the floor, then voted against it knowing it was going to pass.
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SOP for self-serving Cruz---an Ivy League mind at work:
<><> He takes 3-4 positions on an issue.
<><> He then lies in wait to see which position benefits him.
<><> Once the voting stops, he examines which way the political winds are blowing.
<><> He then pulls out a canned excuse to cover his self-serving ***.
Anyone have the H-1B Visa Ping List?
†People have claimed Cruz has evolved and changed his stance on increasing H-1B Visas 500%...Eh maybe not!â€
Maybe not ? 500% NOT
They aren’t competent. They are “C” level. And they have “C” English.
Put those together and you have totally screwed up data centers which we now do. Too many people in the field admit it.
The only way the companies get away with it is an agreement to tolerate “C” across the board. Call for help with some of these places some day and see what you get.
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