Staffers for Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign have begun circulating a video, labeled as being from June of 2013, in which Texas Senator Ted Cruz expresses support for amnesty.
The clip has Cruz describing the impact of amendments he was offering to the Gang of Eight immigration bill, saying, “The 11 million who are here illegally would be granted legal status once the border was secured — not before — but after the border was secured, they would be granted legal status. And indeed, they would be eligible for permanent legal residency. But they would not be eligible for citizenship.”
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The 12-second clip was circulated by Rubio campaign staffers on social media.
https://t.co/stW1J11FM5 pic.twitter.com/2l1lEWA5Ee
— Todd Harris (@dtoddharris) November 12, 2015
Harris lists himself as a “Media consultant, Rubio adviser, and all around Republican hack.”
.@tedcruz in 2013: "the 11 million who are here illegally would be granted legal status” https://t.co/yCZ3DrMT38
— Joe Pounder (@PounderFile) November 13, 2015
Pounder joined the Rubio team only six days ago, he served as president of American Rising PAC before joining the campaign.
Former Cruz communications adviser and CNN contributor Amanda Carpenter defended her old boss and gave some context to the attack.
Can we talk about the Cruz/Rubio differences on immigration? I was there in the Senate when it all went down
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
I understand why the Rubio camp wants to say they have the same position but it's blatantly false. There's nothing slippery about Cruz
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Ask yourself this: If Cruz had the same position on a path to citizenship why would he try to kill Rubio's Gang of 8 bill?!
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Cruz took on an incredible amount of political risk working to stop amnesty. I was there. Everyone was against us
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Cruz introduced amendments specifically designed to expose the fact all Gang of 8 cared about was path to citizenship.
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
During debate the Gang wanted everyone to think it was about fixing the system and border enforcement. No, it was about path to citizenship
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
So Cruz said ok, here are some amendments that do everything EXCEPT path to citizenship. And the Gang killed them exposing the big hoax
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Cruz's work was essential in proving that the Gang bill was only about path to citizenship. He was successful!
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
And to say now that somehow his work killing the bill is somehow a sign of support for it is well…."slippery"
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Lastly, if you question Cruz's dedication on stopping amnesty look at his work to defund Obama's executive amnesty
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
Cruz and Lee demanded a vote on it, throwing the Senate into a rare Sat session last December. Everyone in DC was FURIOUS
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) November 13, 2015
The same YouTube account that posted the first video, named “Hypo-Cruz,” has a second, longer video of Senator Cruz on his “Gang of 8” immigration bill amendment. It appears to back up Carpenter’s assertion that Cruz was attempting to expose the bill as being only about citizenship for illegal aliens.
Cruz said, “And I’d like to make a final point to those advocacy groups that are very engaged in this issue and rightly concerned about addressing our immigration system and, in particular, about addressing the situation for the 11 million who are currently in the shadows. If this amendment is adopted to the current bill, the effect would be that those 11 million under this current bill would still be eligible for RPI status. They would still be eligible for legal status and indeed, under the terms of the bill, they would be eligible for LPR status as well so that they are out of the shadows, which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as their principal objective to provide a legal status for those who are here illegally to be out of the shadows. This amendment would allow that happen, but what it would do is remove the pathway to citizenship so that there are real consequences that respect the rule of law and that treat legal immigrants with the fairness and respect they deserve.” (Emphasis added.)
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