Rubio, Cruz compete to reshape their records on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential rivals Sens.

He fired back that he was “puzzled and surprised” by Mr Cruz’s words, since the Texas senator was on record supporting a legal status for undocumented workers as well and that their positions aren’t “dramatically different”.

That interview made its way to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz that has emerged since Tuesday’s GOP debate, Rubio claimed that Cruz is painting himself as tougher on immigration only because the Texan shifted his position. He called legal immigration “a pillar of our nation’s heritage and strength” and introduced amendments to double the cap on legal immigration and increase the number of high-skilled immigrant visas by 500 percent.

Cruz accused Rubio of being the “point of the spear” for the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators who tried to come up with a comprehensive immigration policy in 2013 and failed.

“Ted is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally”, Rubio said, according to CNN. “He opposed every single one of them”.

Cruz announced his immigration plan ahead of a possible Senate vote next week on an immigration bill he’s been pushing to boost penalties for immigrants who illegally re-enter the country after getting deported. But it elevated his stature and showcased his willingness to dive in the choppy immigration waters – just as the GOP’s presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, had veered right on the issue and was considering picking him as the party’s vice presidential nominee. “In fact, when the Senate bill was proposed, he proposed giving them work permits”, Rubio said.

They’re also increasingly participating in a war of words over illegal immigration and how the candidates could best address the more than 11 million undocumented workers now living in the US. “That’s like Ayatollah Khamenei saying my position is the same as his on the Iranian nuclear deal”, Cruz said Friday.

Perhaps most radically in the new plan, Cruz says he would halt “any increases in legal immigration so long as American unemployment remains unacceptably high”. Rubio has been attacked by both Donald Trump and Jeb Bush.

On Thursday he pitched elements while on the campaign trail in SC. Rubio would go farther and allow citizenship, but either position is dismissed as “amnesty” by immigration hard-liners.

“It is not complicated that on the seminal fight over amnesty in Congress, the Gang of Eight bill – that was the brainchild of Chuck Schumer and Barack Obama, would have granted amnesty to 12 million people here illegally – that I stood with the American people and led the fight to defeat it in the United States Congress”, he said.

“There is nothing compassionate about a politician saying, ‘I’m so compassionate I’m willing to give away your job, ‘” Cruz charged.

Rather than wade into the senators’ sparring, Trump on Thursday directed his fire at the surging Carson, tweeting about his openness to a few leniency for undocumented immigrants. “So everybody running for president on the Republican side in one way or shape supports a few form or fashion the legalization of people that are in this country illegally”.