Sen. Cruz Statement on Gang of Eight Bill Vote

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) issued the following statement regarding today's vote on S.744, the Gang of Eight's immigration reform bill:

Unfortunately, all of the concerns that have been repeatedly raised about this bill remain: it repeats the mistakes of the 1986 immigration bill; it grants amnesty first; it won’t secure the border; and it doesn’t fix our broken legal immigration system.

This bill doesn’t solve the problem because the process it went through was fatally flawed– it was written behind closed doors with special interests; in the Judiciary Committee, the Gang of 8 and Democrats blocked all substantive amendments because of a previously cooked deal; and on the Senate floor, the majority blocked any attempts to fix the bill.

Further, in conjunction with Obamacare, the Gang of 8 bill creates a tax penalty on employers – effectively, up to $5,000 – for hiring U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. But that penalty does not apply to those with RPI status, giving a powerful incentive for job creators to hire illegal immigrants instead of U.S. citizens or legal immigrants. That is indefensible. I filed an amendment to fix this defect, but was blocked by Senate Democrats from receiving a vote on that solution.

Sadly, this bill won’t fix the problem with our immigration system and will only encourage more illegal immigration and human suffering.

I strongly support commonsense immigration reform that secures the border before legalization, fixes our legal immigration system, and upholds the rule of law. This bill isn’t it.

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