Ted Cruz blasts Obama over ‘amnesty’ for immigrants
Ted Cruz blasts Obama over ‘amnesty’ for immigrants
By TODD J. GILLMAN tgillman@dallasnews.com
Washington Bureau
Published: 09 September 2014 09:54 PM
Updated: 09 September 2014 10:17 PM
WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz led a chorus of conservatives Tuesday denouncing President Barack Obama for planning to grant “amnesty” to 5 million or more people in the country illegally — and for delaying any such orders until after the November elections.
“President Obama has decided this election will be a referendum on amnesty,” Cruz asserted. “We cannot solve this crisis at the border until we end President Obama’s amnesty.”
The blistering attack from the right came even as the White House faced fierce pushback from immigration advocates dismayed by Obama’s decision Saturday to put any immigration-related executive action on hold for at least two more months.
Pro-immigrant groups feel betrayed, and many fear that Obama will never fulfill his promise to step into a vacuum left by congressional stalemate.
Cruz likewise questioned Obama’s resolve, even as he warned that the president cannot be trusted to abandon his pro-immigrant agenda.
“I understand the immigration groups that, when they hear a promise from the president, they have reason to doubt it,” Cruz said. “It’s the same reason abroad that both our allies and our enemies have reason to doubt the president’s resolve. When you don’t follow through on what you say, that causes people to call into question what you say.”
But, he said, Congress must preclude any presidential action that would let millions of immigrants stay in the country after arriving without permission — action, he warned, that would serve as a “magnet” for millions more in the future.
Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, joining Cruz at a news conference at the Capitol, asserted that Obama had delayed executive action because “he is afraid of the American people. … The president himself knows it is not popular.”
Cruz was also joined by fellow Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah, and a number of House Republicans, including Texas Reps. Pete Olson of Sugar Land, John Carter of Round Rock, Roger Williams of Austin and Louie Gohmert of Tyler.
Some Senate Democrats seeking re-election in November had feared backlash if Obama used his authority to delay deportations or otherwise alter immigration policy. At a Rose Garden appearance in late June, Obama had vowed to do just that by the end of summer, to circumvent House Republicans who had blocked an immigration overhaul.
Cruz and others seeking to repeal Obama’s order preventing deportations of some young people brought here illegally as children demanded support from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and especially other Democrats who pressured Obama to hold off.
Cruz is demanding a Senate vote on a House-passed bill that would freeze the executive order Obama issued in June 2012. He wants it attached to any short-term spending measure that would keep the federal government open past the end of this month.
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