ICYMI: Sen. Cruz: A False Promise of Amnesty is the Opposite of Compassionate; We Need to Fix the Problem
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today spoke on Fox News Sunday about the ongoing immigration crisis and the bill he recently introduced to address it. He also discussed what steps should be taken to stop President Putin's aggression in Ukraine. See highlights below. Watch the full video here.
Regarding immigration:
"The cause of this crisis is the promise of amnesty. If you look at the history of this issue, in 2011, there were roughly 6,000 children apprehended coming in illegally. Then in 2012, President Obama unilaterally granted amnesty to some 800,000 people who were here illegally, who entered as children.
"The direct foreseeable consequence of that was the number of unaccompanied children skyrocketed so that this year the Obama Administration's estimating 90,000 kids will come next year; 145,000. That's up from just 6,000 three years ago."
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"What I want to do is have action that fixes the problem. If we pass a bill - let's take President Obama's proposed bill, $3.7 billion - it does nothing to solve the problem."
"No, what I'm interested in is fixing the problem. And it's only Washington - all of the proposals being floated are missing the cause of the problem."
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"It is the opposite of compassionate to continue this crisis. I don't want to see tens of thousands of little boys and little girls being physically assaulted, being sexually assaulted by drug dealers. The way to fix it, the bill I've introduced is a very simple bill.
"It is a page and a half. And it simply says the President cannot grant amnesty going forward. It prohibits the President from granting amnesty."
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"The objective here should be to help the kids and the way you help the kids is you eliminate the magnet which is President Obama's amnesty."
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"I'll tell you who's holding these kids ransom is Harry Reid and the President, because their view is don't do anything to fix the problem. He mentions comprehensive immigration reform. The Gang of Eight bill is one of the causes of this problem because what the kids are saying is they're coming because they believe they'll get amnesty; part of the Gang of Eight bill was promising them amnesty."
Regarding stopping Putin's aggression in Ukraine:
"We should do a number of things. One, we need vigorous sanctions. We need sanctions that target the Russian energy sector, the Russian financial sector, that put serious consequences for what Putin is doing.
"Two, we should immediately reinstate the anti-ballistic missile batteries in Eastern Europe that President Obama canceled in 2009 in an effort to appease Russia.
"And three, we need to open the export of liquid natural gas, which will help liberate Ukraine and Eastern Europe and will also impose real financial penalties on Russia and will create jobs and economic growth back here.
"That's what leadership would look like, standing up to Putin instead of demonstrating weakness because when Putin sees weakness, he demonstrates over and over again aggression and willingness to go after others."
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