Results 1 to 7 of 7
Like Tree3Likes

Thread: John McCain and Jeff Flake dispute Ted Cruz on 2013 immigration bill

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    California
    Posts
    65,443

    John McCain and Jeff Flake dispute Ted Cruz on 2013 immigration bill

    Dan Nowicki, The Republic | azcentral.com 12:05 p.m. MST December 23, 2015

    U.S. Sen. John McCain is disputing the contention that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was particularly instrumental in defeating the bipartisan 2013 "Gang of Eight" immigration-reform bill.

    Cruz, R-Texas, and supporters of his presidential campaign have maintained that his opposition was crucial in derailing the measure, which would have provided a pathway to citizenship for many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States as well as invested billions on border security and modernized the visa system.

    But McCain, R-Ariz., one of four GOP members of the Gang of Eight, noted that the U.S. Senate passed the bill over Cruz's objections. It failed to become law after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives declined to act on it.

    "Ted Cruz -- I didn't know that he was a member of the House as well," McCain said Monday in a meeting with Arizona Republic editors and reporters. "It's just not true. The bill did pass the Senate of the United States, and Cruz didn't try to stop it (procedurally). Or if he did, it was undetected by me. I'm sure he did with stirring up his base, but not through any legislative activities."

    Cruz has been battling with U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another Gang of Eight member and a GOP presidential hopeful, over whether he ever supported the legalization component in the 2013 bill. Cruz, in fact, at the time was unequivocally opposed to what he considers "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. He voted against the immigration bill on June 27, 2013, and The Arizona Republic subsequently reported the next month that Cruz's campaign website was hosting an online petition opposing the “fundamentally flawed” legislation.

    However, complicating the matter are earlier 2013 comments from Cruz that suggested an immigration-reform compromise was possible if citizenship was "off the table."

    Cruz and his allies now say that amendments he offered at the time, such as one that would nix the path to citizenship, were not intended to find that compromise but instead to kill the bill.

    "This was done precisely so the proponents of citizenship would vote against it, showing they were in fact insisting on citizenship in their legislation," Amanda Carpenter, a former Cruz aide, wrote on the Conservative Review website. "But now, the Rubio camp is telling folks that because Cruz’s amendment only attacked citizenship, but not legalization, Cruz supports legalization. This is a stretch."

    But U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., another GOP Gang of Eight member, told The Republic that Cruz's 2013 quotes about a compromise reflected what many GOP amnesty foes were saying in 2013. Back then, no one seriously was considering extreme options such as mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, as Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has advocated this year, he said.

    "And so when Cruz offered an amendment to offer legalization but not citizenship to those who are here now, that was consistent with where most Republicans who weren't supporting the bill were," Flake said. "To say now that he never supported any form of legalization, that, one, doesn't square with what he said several times and, two, it really doesn't square with what the mood and the tenor of the debate was at that time. Virtually everyone was supporting at least legalization."

    McCain isn't buying it, either.

    "I'm now told that (Cruz's offering of amendments) was some kind of diabolical plot that would undermine the bill," McCain said sarcastically. "Sorry, I'm not Machiavellian enough to understand those machinations."

    http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...bill/77715906/
    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Heart of Dixie
    Posts
    36,012
    McCain and Flake are both open borders RINOs. JMO

  3. #3
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    But they are telling the truth.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  4. #4
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Gheen, Minnesota, United States
    Posts
    67,706
    Yes, I hate to say it but they do have the truth on their side with this one. But we are glad that Ted Cruz fought against the amnesty bill in the Senate. We would appreciate him even more if he had stopped it in the Senate!

    W
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  5. #5
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Quote Originally Posted by ALIPAC View Post
    Yes, I hate to say it but they do have the truth on their side with this one. But we are glad that Ted Cruz fought against the amnesty bill in the Senate. We would appreciate him even more if he had stopped it in the Senate!

    W
    Exactly. But he didn't stop it. Thank you William.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  6. #6
    MW
    MW is offline
    Senior Member MW's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    25,717
    I'm sorry, but I'll take Sen. Sessions word over McCain and Flake's any day of the week!

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts athttps://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  7. #7
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Posts
    55,883
    Jeff Sessions has been in the US Senate since 1997. And where are we? I don't agree with Jeff Sessions on his social agenda. I agree with his immigration and trade agenda. But here we are 18 years after he was sworn in as a US Senator, and where are we? I adore Jeff Sessions for what he seems to be doing for our country. But I'm sure he knows as a lawyer, as a former prosecutor, a former state attorney general, and a current US Senator for 18 years, that it's results that matter.

    Strategies and poison pill schemes don't matter when they fail. And when the objective was to introduce a bill that had it passed would have resulted in a permanent subclass of people permanently in our country with no rights of citizenship. Not even I would have supported that. There is no hard-liner harder than me and even I would not have voted for the Cruz Amendment.

    Legal immigration has increased for the past 20 years. Illegal immigration has increased for the past 20 years. Talk is fine. Reports and disclosures are wonderful, too. The more we know about this problem, the more trouble we know we're in.

    What Americans want are results via actions that lead to outcomes and solutions. It doesn't matter any more what a fine upstanding person one is, who goes to church, has faith, joined the reserves, ran for office, ran for another office, and another and re-election of that one and that one again and that one again. It doesn't matter what you think about a girl or woman's right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy or whether gay couples should have equal protection under the law.

    What matters is ... after 18 years .... here we are.

    In business we call it the "bottom-line": 20 million or more illegal aliens in the country, the President just admitted another 3 million legal aliens into the country legally with Congressional approval, every net new job has gone to and immigrant of one type or another, and we're $19 trillion in debt with more immigrants to enter next year and more debt to pay for it.

    Desired Results. That's all we want.

    We're tired of the talk, we're fed up to our ears with the schemes, ploys and tricks, and we won't accept the continuing eternal resolution that's obviously in effect to never solve a problem while expecting to be re-elected for "trying".

    You know what "I tried but failed" gets you in the real world?

    Absolutely Nothing.
    Last edited by Judy; 12-24-2015 at 05:59 AM.
    A Nation Without Borders Is Not A Nation - Ronald Reagan
    Save America, Deport Congress! - Judy

    Support our FIGHT AGAINST illegal immigration & Amnesty by joining our E-mail Alerts at https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

Similar Threads

  1. John McCain and Jeff Flake Working on Alternate Plan to Address Border Crisis
    By Jean in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 07-10-2014, 07:02 PM
  2. Replies: 3
    Last Post: 06-25-2013, 08:16 AM
  3. Ted Cruz, Jeff Sessions vow to keep up fight on immigration bill
    By Jean in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 06-22-2013, 11:45 AM
  4. Is Rep. Jeff Flake the House's John McCain?
    By 2ndamendsis in forum illegal immigration News Stories & Reports
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 06-09-2006, 02:36 AM

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •