Prelude to coming battle? Rubio, Cruz clash on immigration

They offered a distinct contrast in styles. Rubio co-wrote a massive 2013 immigration bill that passed the Senate. “He opposed every single one of them”.

“The Gang of Eight bill had a few positive aspects when it came to H1B visas”, Cruz said at the time.

When asked later for differences on immigration between him and Rubio, Cruz said simply to look at their records.

On Thursday he pitched elements while on the campaign trail in SC.

“‘The amendment that I [Cruz] introduced removed the path to citizenship, but it did not change the underlying work permit from the Gang of Eight, ‘ he said during a recent visit to El Paso”. He’s supported a massive expansion of the H-1B program – a 500% increase. And he said his administration would evaluate foreign worker programs.

Republican talkers have been Cruz’s biggest gadflies.

For months, Rubio was flirting with the group and privately negotiating details, but hadn’t made a formal decision about signing onto the legislative proposal until April 2013, when he went on all the Sunday talk shows to aggressively defend the effort.

The move comes as Cruz faces a surprisingly robust challenge to his conservative credentials on immigration from Sen. Which may appear shocking, given the Florida senator’s current feedback on the necessity to take a position heavily in border safety, deport unlawful immigrants who commit crimes, & complete President Obama’s executive order defending immigrants brought in to the USA not legal as kids from deportation. That video was posted by a brand new YouTube account called “Hypo-Cruz”.

The Texas senator pointed out that unlike Rubio, who now says that border security measures need to be implemented before a pathway to legal status can be established for immigrants living in the country unlawfully, Cruz believed in securing the border first all along. “That is what real friends do”, Carson said in a statement. Cruz voted against final passage of the bill while Sen.

Rubio, meanwhile, late this week hugged Cruz’s position closely, telling reporters that he did not see much daylight between his position during the critical immigration negotiations and Cruz’s.

“It is not complicated that on the seminal fight over amnesty in Congress, the Gang of Eight bill, that I stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it”, Cruz said.

“Ted Cruz is the principled conservative in this race”, Combee insisted. On Wednesday, Cruz began to prosecute that case against those who have left the door open to citizenship, a few of whom have used George W. Bush’s rhetoric of “compassionate conservatism” to make their argument.

Rubio highlighted those stances in a campaign appearance in SC on Thursday, saying: “Ted is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally….” It would also triple the number of Border Patrol agents, raise surveillance and tracking of the Southern border, require E-Verify and use a biometric entry-exit tracking system to keep track of immigrants.

Both senators are maneuvering to appeal to conservative GOP presidential primary voters in a campaign shadowed by Donald Trump, who wants to deport all 11.5 million immigrants in this country illegally. In addition, Cruz called for an expanded crackdown on undocumented immigrants.