June 19, 2013
Wayne Slater
The Dallas Morning News



Sen. Ted Cruz says he has a way of dealing with two hot-button issues – illegal immigration and IRS targeting conservative groups — at the same time. “Take every one of those IRS agents and put them on our southern border.” Speaking to Tea Party activists at a rally in Washington, the freshman Texas senator allowed that the idea was mostly as a joke, but suggested it could have some merit. “If you were crossing the border illegally and you saw an army of IRS agents, you’d turn around and go home.”

As Todd Gillman wrote earlier, the Tea Party confab in DC had its share of representatives from Texas. Cruz has been outspoken about abolishing the IRS, which got a big round of applause from the Tea Party crowd on Wednesday. “The IRS has no business asking what books you’re reading. The IRS has no business asking any Americans what is the content of your prayers,” he said, but in response to such a question, he said, “I hope the answer was forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

Before the Tea Party rally, Cruz was a guest on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. Limbaugh was effusive in praise for Cruz: “You’re fearless. You’re a freshman, you’re you’re acting like you’ve been there three terms.” Cruz said supporters of the Gang of Eight immigration bill, which would provide a pathway to citizenship, are operating for political motives. He said Democrats just want to admit people who would eventually become Democratic voters and Republicans fear that appearing anti-immigrant will cost them the support of a growing Hispanic population. Said Cruz: “This is a crock that being sold to Republican politicians that they can just buy off Hispanics.” Although the bill would impose a 13-year delay before undocumented immigrants in the U.S. would be permitted to apply for citizenship, Limbaugh suggested that once the bill is passed, Democrats would move quickly to repeal the waiting period in order to more quickly create Democratic voters. “You’re absolutely right,” said Cruz. “That is coming.”

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.c...igration.html/