The eventual approach will be step-by-step. First, build the wall, secure the border. Pause and talk about what comes next. Perform the next step, say it's encouragement of self-deportation, then pause and talk about what comes next. If the next step is forcible deportation, then do that...pause and talk about what comes next. Because even after forcible deportation, there will still be a million or two or more illegals left. And, in the end, we're going to have to deal with that residue.
Cruz has always contended that there will be no citizenship, under any circumstances. He has never backed off that promise.
And he has recently made an issue of the economic impact illegals have had -- taking jobs from and reducing wages for Americans (usually poorer Americans). It follows that you can't reduce that impact by leaving them in place. So, I'm confident that he intends to employ policies that encourage self-deportation (e.g., enforcement of workplace laws, denial of benefits, etc.) to remove the bulk of the illegals.
Then, we'll see what's left...and figure out what to do next.
Instead of being "oddly silent", Cruz also recently published his own immigration plan. I'd urge you to read it. There are similarities to Trump's plan...and differences, too. For one thing, there is no nonsense about, after completing deportations, wanting to welcome "the good ones" back.
In my estimation, Cruz is being realistic. The first thing that needs to be done -- and almost all sane people can agree -- is to secure the border. All right, dammit, let's get that done!
Then we'll worry about Step 2.
A reading of his immigration plan and understanding the premise behind his making the illegals an economic issue convince me that Cruz is serious as a heart attack about moving the illegals out.
He just doesn't want to put the cart before the horse. Securing the border is job one.
Trump is good at messing with enemies’ minds. A wall might say something more than what it supposedly can physically do.
I’m going to trust that what you’re saying about Cruz’s position is true. The problem is, I think, that some of his words sound SO similar to the BS that we were being fed before by politicians, and now it sounds like he’s using the same words.
It may be because he’s spent a senatorial term in Washington and that’s just how they talk. I only spent one year in Brooklyn last year and I came back talking like them, even if I didn’t think like they did. So maybe he’s just unconsciously picking up phrases that he hears being used.
I think that Cruz, being the son of an immigrant, tends to be sympathetic to people who want to be in the United States in order to pursue the American dream. He knows what this country has given him and his father. And so he is nearly always in favor of something that would encourage people to come to the United States and achieve what Cruz Sr. did.
But what we’re worried about right now is the people who not only want to leech off of the people who want to succeed in the United States, but want to deny the American dream to the rest of us too. I think, from what I’ve seen, that Cruz is aware of that, but to ignore his pro-legal-immigration roots would be dishonest. At least that’s what it seems like to me.
Ultimately, if I may elaborate on what I think the BEST situation for border security would be, it would be that Trump is the clear winner, but with Cruz as a strong second. With a one-two combination like that, it will completely knock the establishment out of the running and make it so that they can’t try to force establishment compromises on the Trump campaign. Instead, Trump and Cruz will be able to team up without any costly delegate battles and go blazing into the rest of the campaign season.
It should give Trump 4-8 years to deconstruct the Washington establishment with bombast, the bully pulpit, and long, LONG coattails. He’s also an excellent way to espouse conservatism, or at least not-leftism to many people who have never heard it before. And then after that, with 4-8 years to polish his excellent act even more, and with that time to build a support network of his own too, Cruz would be able to take up the reins himself and help to finish reconstructing a Constitutionally limited government. By then, legal immigration won’t be a weakness, because if Trump is being truthful, the wall will also be built and laws will be enforced.
In the best case, of course. In my opinion. That doesn’t mean that other outcomes aren’t also good.
Provided, of course, that we don’t let them down.