ICYMI: Democrats Block Sen. Cruz Request to Vote on Bill to Prevent President Obama From Expanding Amnesty

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today requested unanimous consent to pass H.R. 5272, a bill that would effectively end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and prevent President Obama from taking executive actions to illegally expand amnesty in the future. He debated with his colleagues Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) following Sen. Menendez’s objection to his request.
 
“All 55 Democrats bear responsibility for President Obama’s amnesty. I understand the President thinks it’s politically clever to delay the amnesty until after the election, but I have real faith in the American people, that it’s too clever by half. There is not a single Democrat in this chamber speaking out for eliminating the President’s authority to grant amnesty. Clarity in elections, enabling the American people to hold all of us accountable, is a very good thing. The House of Representatives, is leading, but the United States Senate, under Democratic control, refuses to even allow a vote on solving the crisis at the border or stopping the President’s illegal amnesty.
 
Sen. Cruz continued, “The senate majority leader today seems to view his principal obligation as protecting his members from hard votes. I'd like to point out, the concept of a hard vote only makes sense if there is a disconnect between what a Senator says at home and what he or she does in Washington.
 
Concluding his debate with Sens. Durbin and Menendez, Sen. Cruz said, “This exchange has shined light and made clear to the voters, number one, that amnesty is coming and, number two, that all 55 Senate Democrats bear direct responsibility for President Obama's illegal amnesty.”
 
Yesterday, Sen. Cruz along with Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) and U.S. Representatives Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Roger Williams (R-TX), Ted Yoho (R-FL), John Carter (R-TX), Mo Brooks (R-AL), and Pete Olson (R-TX) held a press conference encouraging action on this legislation to solve the crisis at our southern border and prevent President Obama from expanding amnesty.
 
In July, Sen. Cruz introduced the Protect Children and Families Through the Rule of Law Act, portions of which will prevent President Obama from expanding amnesty to millions of more immigrants who come to the U.S. illegally, as he has suggested he plans to do after the 2014 midterm elections. The Democrats again today, refused to consider H.R. 5272, Representative Marsha Blackburn’s sponsored legislation that passed the House in August.

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