At a meeting with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce earlier this week, 2016 Presidential candidate Ted Cruz declared himself a “proponent of immigration reform.”
Ted’s sure got a funny way of showing it.
Short of physically cutting off all electricity to the Capitol Building, Cruz has done everything in his power to stifle passage of comprehensive immigration reform.
The Canadian-born son of a Cuban immigrant, Cruz’s sole contribution to the Senate’s 2013 bipartisan immigration bill was a poison pill blocking undocumented immigrants from ever being able to attain U.S. citizenship.
When President Obama was then forced to act on his own following the GOP House’s failure to pass the Senate’s bill — or any humane solution of their own — Cruz called ending President Obama’s immigration actions his “top priority.”
And earlier this year, Cruz made his point by being one of the leaders of the failed GOP effort to shut down the Department of Homeland Security unless DACA and DAPA were first defunded (ultimately a pointless effort, as the programs are self-funded by applicants anyway).
Some immigration proponent, right?
Cruz may be wrong on just about any topic, but now that he’s running for President, even he must realize that there is no road to the White House for either Democrats or Republicans without first winning the booming and relentless Latino vote.
It probably explains his visit to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, where, cozying up to Latino business leaders, he even let loose a “our community” when referencing the tough-as-nails work ethic of the immigrant and Latino communities.
“Our community”? Bet you he doesn’t use that line when he’s railing on immigration in front of Steve King’s primary voters.
Additionally, in an interview with TIME that same day, Cruz claimed Democrats were “treating immigration as a political cudgel where they want to use it to scare the Hispanic community.”
What a way to patronize Latino voters, not to mention the fact that the same day Cruz made this accusation, House Republicans were giving Cruz’s immigration mentor, Steve King, a hearing on ending Birthright Citizenship.
Looking forward to hearing Cruz explain that one to “our community.”
