Bloomberg
By Sahil Kapur
November 12, 2015
Two
days after taking veiled jabs at his rival, Senator Ted Cruz took off
the gloves and called out Senator Marco Rubio by name Thursday for his
role in helping to author
a 2013 immigration bill that would have provided immigrants in the U.S.
illegally with a potential path to citizenship.
Cruz's
comments, on a program with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, set
off a war of words between the two senators, both children of
immigrants, with each arguing
the other was soft on illegal immigration. And that is raising concerns
among some party strategists that the high-profile fight could further
alienate Latino and Asian-American voters, wrecking the party's chances
in a general election where 30 percent of
the electorate is projected to be non-white.
“This
is disaster on all kinds of different levels,” said John Feehery, a
veteran Republican strategist and lobbyist. “I've always been concerned
that if we don't get
immigration right we have no chance to win this. And right now it
doesn't look like we are getting it right or we're going to get it
right.”
“Talk is cheap.”
Senator Ted Cruz
“Talk
is cheap. You know where someone is based on their actions,” Cruz told
Ingraham. In South Carolina, Rubio fired back that his Texas rival's
past positions weren't
“dramatically different” than his, citing amendments Cruz proposed to
the 2013 bill to keep the work permits for undocumented people (while
stripping out the citizenship component) and to increase H-1B work visas
for highly-skilled foreign workers.
The
showdown comes as Rubio and Cruz rise in the polls while picking up
endorsements and donors, fueling predictions that the fight for the
Republican nomination could
come down to a duel between the two young Cuban-American senators.
Republican strategists are nervous that a race to the right on
immigration—already a vulnerable issue for the party with Latino and
Asian-American voters—could sink them in the general election.
Katie
Packer Gage, the deputy campaign manager for 2012 presidential nominee
Mitt Romney, who lost an election in which President Barack Obama was
overwhelmingly supported
by Hispanic voters, urged Cruz and other Republicans not to alienate
more Hispanic voters in 2016.
“I
have a huge concern. If you look at where Donald Trump is with Hispanic
voters, he literally is in the sewer,” said Gage, referring to the GOP
front-runner, who has
promised to deport an estimated 11 million people now living illegally
in the U.S. “For now I don't think Hispanic voters necessarily equate
that with the party.” But Gage said that perception could readily change
given Trump's long tenure as the front-runner,
combined with “candidates like Ted Cruz trying to drive our party
further to the right” on the immigration issue. “It's a problem,” she
said.
Even
so, the race appears to be on. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick
Santorum, a GOP presidential candidate who is barely registering in the
polls, argued that Cruz's
position is “not markedly different than Senator Rubio's position” and
that neither is sufficiently conservative when it comes to legal or
illegal immigration.
“I
find it somewhat amusing the two of them are fighting over how many
angels are dancing on the head of a pin,” Santorum said in an interview.
“I know Trump talks about
it,” he added, “but I'm the only one that's been consistent.” Santorum
not only would deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally, but would push
to reduce legal immigration to protect American workers, he said.
Steve
Schmidt, the senior campaign strategist for John McCain, the
Republicans' 2008 presidential nominee, said the party need to raise its
share of the Hispanic vote
by double-digits from the 27 percent Romney won. “Democrats have many
many demographic advantages” in the electoral college, Schmidt said.
“It's very difficult to see how Republicans put the math together
without getting 40 percent of the Latino votes.”
Battle Lines
On
Ingraham's show, Cruz argued that he has consistently taken the
position that borders must be secured before any other changes in
immigration law can be considered,
contrasting that with Rubio's position. “The Gang of Eight, they fought
tooth and nail to try to jam this amnesty down the American people's
throat,” Cruz said, referring to a bipartisan group of senators,
including Rubio, who drafted the 2013 bill.
Rubio,
who changed his tune after the House rejected the bill and now wants
border security mechanisms in place before debating legalization, pushed
back after a campaign
stop in South Carolina. He did so by highlighting Cruz's own detours
from conservative orthodoxy on immigration.
“Ted
is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country
illegally,” the Floridian told reporters. “In fact, when the Senate bill
was proposed he proposed legalizing
people that were here illegally—he proposed giving them work permits.
... He's supported a massive expansion of the H-1B program—a 500 percent
increase.” The H-1B program is controversial because some more highly
paid workers believe it allows employers to
shut Americans out of jobs.
Cruz had proposed an amendment to strip the citizenship component for people in the country illegally but keep the work permits.
Rubio's
contention is “simply false,” said Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.
She said Cruz's amendment wasn't an indication that he supported legal
status, but rather
a strategic effort to make the bill less bad by stripping out the path
to citizenship. “Senator Cruz was doing his job as a senator to improve a
fundamentally flawed bill, and two, to expose the bill for what it was,
which was amnesty,” she said. As conservatives
elevate their attacks on the H-1B program, Frazier qualified Cruz's
position on visas for highly skilled foreign workers, saying that it
“needs to be fixed to stop the abuse and put American jobs first before
any conversations are had about expanding the program.”
It
is not uncommon for senators to propose amendments to alter legislation
that they oppose. The Cruz amendments failed and the senator ultimately
voted against the bill.
The Texas senator has said he won't discuss what to do about the
millions of people in the U.S. illegally until the border is secure.
While
Rubio avoided immigration during this week's presidential debate,
former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Ohio Governor John Kasich directly
attacked Trump's plan to
deport people and to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Kasich
called it “a silly argument. It is not an adult argument. It makes no
sense.” Bush, who supports immigration reform that includes a path to
legal status but not citizenship, made a moral
case against mass deportation.
“Twelve
million illegal immigrants, to send them back, 500,000 a month, is just
not possible. And it’s not embracing American values. And it would tear
communities apart,”
Bush said. He also made note of the potential electoral consequences
for the Republican Party. “And even having this conversation sends a
powerful signal—they’re doing high-fives in the Clinton campaign right
now when they hear this.”
Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon confirmed Bush's hunch.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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