Bush has considered backing out of pledge if nominee is Trump: aide

Cruz, in contrast, concedes nothing, including his dubious shift to “attrition through enforcement”.

“Securing our borders and stopping illegal immigration is a matter of national security”. He had every chance to say he opposed a legal status for illegal immigrants and didn’t do so.

Cruz has come under heavy fire for comments he made during Tuesday debate that “I have never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization”. Nothing will make it harder to enforce the existing laws, if you reward people who broke them. Rubio is politically vulnerable among conservatives because he supported comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country.

“I oppose amnesty. I oppose citizenship”. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at a rally, Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, in Las Vegas. “That’s why I fought so hard to defeat President Obama and the Republican establishment’s Gang of 8 amnesty plan”, Cruz said in the direct-to-camera spot. Marco Rubio supports amnesty.

“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”. According to lawmakers and aides who had a front row seat to the 2013 debate, Cruz’s move featured a bit of parliamentary trickery. That’s an amendment to the underlying bill.

Rubio’s trying to capitalize on his momentum. The Texas senator has said the amendment was a “poison pill” meant to highlight the fact that Democrats weren’t open to compromise on a pathway to citizenship to get reform passed, even as they demanded compromise from Republicans on the bill. Cruz said he believes a more narrowly focused approach would more effectively target militants extremists. Cruz and rival Marco Rubio, who have emerged as the two most popular alternatives to Trump, mostly jostled with each other. He continued, “At no point did Ted Cruz indicate that he was going to vote for this bill”.

“I went in there saying, ‘Boy, this is going to be a tough evening, ‘ ’cause I heard all of them were going to come at me”, Trump told his supporters. “I can tell you I flew back to Washington, D.C. today to vote against this omnibus”, Cruz said. The underlying bill from the Gang of Eight provides for legal status for those who are here illegally. “As a party we have to have it. As a country we have to have it”, the Arizona Republican said.

We rated Rubio’s claim Mostly False. But he’s also said the process is “effective”, and we’ve gotten “dramatically” better at the task in the past few years.