Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks in Des Moines, Iowa on March 18, 2014. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
(CNSNews.com) – By delaying his promised executive action on immigration until after the November election, “President Obama has decided this election will be a referendum on amnesty,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on Tuesday.
Cruz is demanding that the “do-nothing” Senate, led by Harry Reid (D-Nev.), allow every senator to vote on Republican legislation that would end “the promise of amnesty” by defunding President Obama’s DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program.
“We are here today to call on one very simple thing, which is for Harry Reid to allow the Senate to do its job, to actually show up and schedule a vote, and let senators go on record — whether or not they support amnesty. If senators support amnesty for those here illegally, let them look in the eyes of their constituents before Election Day and say this is what I support — you let me know if you agree or not.”
House Republicans passed a bill defunding DACA before leaving for their August recess, but the Senate adjourned without making it clear that Obama “has no authority to grant amnesty.”
“Which means,” Cruz said, “when the president tries to unilaterally grant amnesty — and he’s promised to do so this year, by the end of the year, right after the election — every Senate Democrat who stood with Harry Reid against allowing a vote on this legislation — every single Senate Democrat bears the responsibility for the president’s illegal amnesty.
“And as much as the decision to delay the amnesty until after the election is an attempt to avoid Democratic accountability — or frankly of not thinking too highly of the American people — thinking the American people can’t figure that out — well, let me tell you, I think the American people are a lot smarter than the president seems to give them credit for.”
Cruz said amnesty ensures that children will continue to be abused: “Amnesty is not compassionate, it is not humane, it is exacerbating a criss at the border, it is lawless, and it is wrong.”
Cruz noted that an estimated 90,000 unaccompanied children are expected to come here illegally this year, most of them because they believed they would get a “permiso” allowing them to stay.
“The direct cause of this crisis is President Obama’s lawlessness,” he said. “We cannot solve the crisis at the border until we end President Obama’s amnesty.”
And according to Cruz, “The only way to solve the crisis at the border is to end the promise of amnesty that is causing these children to come, and causing these little boys and little girls to be victimized, to be physically assaulted to be sexually assaulted by violent drug cartels and coyotes that are bringing them into this county.”
At a news conference of his own on Tuesday, Sen. Harry Reid said Republicans “have every right to do whatever they want legislatively,” and that includes defunding President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
“If they want to be the lead team of shutting down the government, that’s what they’re going to have to do,” Reid said.
Asked if there’s any chance of bringing up DACA defunding in the Senate, Reid said, “Well, if I have anything to do with it, no. No, no.”
Reid said House Republicans should have passed the Senate immigration bill more than a year ago.
“The president has stated he’s going to do something administratively, unless there’s legislative action taken. It appears to me, based on what we have been told and what I see, the Republicans still have a chance to do something,” Reid said.
“They complain, they grieve, they stomp. Why should the president do anything administratively? Let’s do it legislatively. They’ll have another chance to do it legislatively. If they don’t, I hope the president goes real big and does something administratively, which I believe he has the authority to do.”
