Ted Cruz Talks Common Core, Immigration, and Jeff Sessions During Daphne Rally

“It’s not an attack”.

“For the first time in five debates, Senator Rubio publicly admitted not only did he support Obama and Schumer’s amnesty but he still supports amnesty and citizenship today”, Cruz said Thursday – highlighting a Rubio stance that is anathema to the GOP’s conservative base. But, as Baier mentioned, the Texas senator specifically told Byron York of the Washington Examiner in 2013 that this was not the case and “my objective was not to kill immigration reform”. The proposal would have replaced it with one that offered those immigrants legal status within the United States.

Marco Rubio campaigns in Iowa and Missouri.

TED CRUZ: There’s a reason why I think the new politically correct term is no longer illegal aliens.

In fact, Cruz’s first appearance on Limbaugh’s show was to criticize the bill, repeating his still go-to message that it would support amnesty while promising border security at a later date. “Here is where you have been in the past on some issues, and here is where you are now”, Rubio said. If, for instance, mandatory use of electronic verification is still in the courts 10 years after the bill passes, it’s entirely possible the Secretary of Homeland Security can just give everybody Green Cards on her own – and there are hundreds of other examples of that kind of discretion.

Nearly every requirement in this bill can be waived by Janet Napolitano: for instance, the time limits on when people can be legalized, the requirements on criminal activity or even the enforcement triggers.

The Cruz campaign argues that he hasn’t changed his position, but was referring to the Syrian civil war, not the fight against ISIS. Legalization, i.e. work permits, achieves all the same bad ends. Rand has voiced support for “amnesty” no matter how you want to define it – citizenship, legal status, whatever.

“It is not surprising that other candidates are throwing rocks at us”, he said, adding, “It is not surprising there are other candidates in the Republican field that are choosing to launch attacks our direction and choosing to launch false attacks our direction”. Not now, when Cruz is libertarians’ only hope against Trump, Rubio, and Christie. “And in introducing amendments, what I endeavored to do was improve that bill so that it actually fixes the problem”. Instead, he told the Senate in June 2013, his amendment would set up a process so that “those who are here illegally would be eligible for what is called RPI [registered provisional immigrant] status, a legal status, and, indeed, in time would be eligible for legal permanent residency”.

“Immigration is not an issue that I read about…it’s an issue I’ve lived around my whole life”.

And by exposing the hypocrisy, by calling their bluff, we won.

“It’s a complete and absolute betrayal of the men and women who elected us”, he said.

For all of the debate over immigration this week, some Republicans – and a majority of all voters – support a pathway to citizenship, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll.

That could become important later on, since Clinton, one of the most establishment-backed candidates in recent history, seems to be the likely Democratic nominee. Rubio was for citizenship.

To be sure, the Cruz campaign has had ample good news to take comfort in since the Las Vegas debate.

Erickson says that Rubio addresses numerous concerns Christians have when it comes to governing their lives.

Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand.