Sessions welcomes Cruz to Alabama with immigration cover fire

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio brought their increasingly nasty immigration fight to the campaign trail Thursday, accusing each other of muddying their records for political expediency. In a new television spot in Iowa, Cruz amplified his new line of attack, the first time Cruz has taken to the airwaves to outline contrasts between him and another candidate during his campaign.

“Can we really secure the border?” asked Cruz.

Republican presidential candidate, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reacts to a question during a town hall event, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015, in Exeter, N.H. “Their misguided plan would have given Obama the authority to admit Syrian refugees, including ISIS terrorists”.

Mr. Cruz’s campaign, which was initially rattled by Mr. Rubio’s attacks, is retaliating with a new ad that makes the case that the 2013 immigration bill Mr. Rubio helped write would have left the country exposed to attacks from Islamic State infiltrators. And as part of the immigration reform debate in 2013, Cruz introduced an amendment that proposed eventual legal status for millions.

“He supports legalization, and I think his hope was once he got into the general election, to then start talking about legalization as a way to attract more voters”, Rubio 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.

Often playing defense on immigration, the Florida senator shifted to offense this week by going after Cruz’s evolving rhetoric.

Yet his recent attacks on Mr. Cruz carry a fair amount of risk, as some influential conservatives are now rallying to Mr. Cruz’s side and denouncing Mr. Rubio.

Cruz campaign aides also piled on Rubio on Twitter, mocking him for missing a Senate vote to campaign.

“We made the identical promises to the men and women who elected us”.

“Let’s have a moment of simple clarity: I oppose amnesty, I oppose citizenship, I oppose legalization for illegal immigrants”. “Those decisions have consequences”.

“We are going to deport criminal illegal aliens, we are going to pass Kate’s Law [mandatory minimum sentences for illegal immigrants who are deported but later return to the U.S.], we are going to end welfare benefits for those here illegally”, Cruz told a raucous crowd of over 1,300 Alabamians. “I can tell you that I flew back to Washington, D.C., today to vote against this omnibus”, Cruz told reporters. “He’s the one that supports a 500-percent increase in guest workers into the United States, and he’s the one that supported legalization and legalizing people that are in the country illegally”.