Sen. Cruz: Current Immigration Bill Doesn’t Fix the Problem
Addresses Black American Leadership Alliance, DC March
WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) today spoke at the Black American Leadership Alliance’s D.C. March for Jobs to address concerns with the aspect of the Gang of Eight bill that would impose a penalty on U.S. employers for hiring U.S. citizens and U.S. permanent residents.
“One of the most egregious aspects of the gang of eight bill is its intersection with Obamacare, which penalizes businesses that hire a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident over an illegal immigrant,” Sen. Cruz said. “This is utterly and completely indefensible. If this bill passes it will increase unemployment: it will increase African American unemployment, Hispanic unemployment, youth unemployment and even legal immigrant unemployment.”
The senator continued, “This bill most hurts those who are struggling to climb the economic ladder. We need to fix this problem, we need to fix our broken immigration system we need to secure our borders now, we need to welcome legal immigrants and we need to uphold the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution.”
Sen. Cruz presented an amendment that would have fixed this issue by defunding Obamacare until there are no more individuals with RPI status. But the Senate Democrat majority blocked his request.
He also presented several amendments that would have strengthened border security measures; reformed the high-skilled temporary worker program; modernized, streamlined and expanded legal immigration; prohibited federal, state, or local entitlement benefits for those here illegally; and ensured that those in the U.S. illegally are not given a path to citizenship. Senate Democrats refused to allow a vote on any of these amendments.
###
