Cruz, Rubio Clash At Debate

Cruz isn’t just criticizing them to look tough on immigration, a hot issue in the GOP primary this year; one of his biggest GOP rivals, Marco Rubio, was a member of the Gang of Eight.

In Iowa, meanwhile, Rubio accused Cruz of trying to duck the issue – pointing to his amendment that would have replaced citizenship with legal status for undocumented immigrants.

Looking to toughen his contrast with Rubio, Cruz this week ruled out legalization unequivocally, a position he has been resistant to take for much of the campaign. “Rubio, to stand with Barack Obama and Chuck Schumer and support a massive amnesty plan”, Cruz said.

“Rubio says we should collect all Americans’ records all of the time”, Paul said.

“I think (the Democratic debate) might be airing on PBS up in Alaska”, said Cruz, alluding to what he suspects will be low ratings for the debate. And as part of the immigration reform debate in 2013, Cruz introduced an amendment that proposed eventual legal status for millions.

The two are jockeying to become the Republican alternative to front-runner Donald Trump, and as each have climbed in the polls, they’ve ratcheted up attacks on each other over defense funding, USA government surveillance and other issues.

Cruz was referencing Rubio’s leading role in a bipartisan group of senators who crafted an immigration reform package in 2013 that aimed to strengthen border security, overhaul legal immigration and allow a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

The jump in support for Cruz also follows the Republican presidential debate Tuesday night during which Cruz sparred with Rubio, a fellow US senator, aiming to position himself as the clear alternative if Trump, who has been leading polls since the summer, should falter.

Later, in Minnesota on Thursday, Cruz said that Rubio had broken the vow he had made to the voters who elected him in 2010.

Cruz has called that a poison pill created to highlight Democrats’ hypocrisy by painting them as more interested in gaining votes than helping immigrants. Both Rubio and Cruz opposed the deal, with Rubio at one point this week saying Republicans should try to slow it down, but only Cruz returned to Washington to actually vote “no”. Rubio, a Florida senator, sees Cruz’s shifting rhetoric on immigration as a prime example of a larger pattern of political pandering.

“I think really, he ought to make a decision to resign or give up his paycheck if he’s not going to be here doing the people’s business”, Paul said.

Cruz supporter and Las Vegas resident Bob Jacobsen, 85, linked illegal immigration to terrorism, noting that he and his son bought guns for the first time two days earlier to protect their family from violent extremists.