Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Tuesday implied that Fox News host Megyn Kelly is “playing the game” of the “mainstream media liberal journalist” by asking presidential candidates whether they want to deport the children of illegal immigrants.
Kelly asked Cruz on her show what he would do as president with two illegal immigrant parents and their American citizen children. “[W]ould you deport all of them?” she asked. “Would you deport the American citizen children?”
Cruz avoided that question by saying he’d start by focusing on two areas of bipartisan agreement, securing the border, and improving and streamlining legal immigration.
“But, that doesn’t sound like an answer,” Kelly said. “Mr. Trump answered that question explicitly last night … Will you do so now?”
“Well, Megyn, what I’m doing is answering what I think Congress should do,” responded Cruz. Cruz said he’s introduced legislation to boost U.S. Border Patrol agents and monitoring at the border, and establishing a biometric exit-entry system.
But Kelly continued to press Cruz on her question.
“Senator, I understand all that,” interrupted Kelly. “And you’ve outlined your plan, but you’re — unlike you, you’re dodging my question. You don’t want to answer that question. He says he would, Donald Trump says they’re all gone under his policy.”
“Megyn, I’m not playing the game …” said Cruz.
“What would a President Cruz do?” Kelly asked. “Do the American citizen children of two illegal immigrants who are born here, the children — do they get deported under a President Cruz?”
“Megyn I get that that’s the question you want to ask,” replied Cruz. “That’s also the question every mainstream media liberal journalist wants to ask. They focus exclusively on the 12 million people …”
“Is it an unfair question?” she asked.
“It is a distraction from how we actually solve the problem,” he said. “You know, it’s also the question Barack Obama wants to focus on.”
Cruz repeated that the way to “solve the problem” at the border is to first focus on “where there’s bipartisan agreement.”
“Once we’ve secured the border, once we’ve actually proven we can do this, once we stop the Obama administration’s policy of releasing 104,000 violent criminal illegal aliens in one year, once we’ve solved that problem, then we can have a debate, then we can have a conversation,” Cruz concluded.
Kelly also asked Cruz whether he thinks the Fourteenth Amendment would need to be amended to end birthright citizenship. Cruz said that policy needs to end, but said he’s open on exactly how to do it.
“Now, as you noted, there is a legal dispute about the best means to do it,” he said. “And there are serious legal scholars who argue that Congress could do it through statute defining what it means to be ‘subject to the jurisdiction,’ the language of the 14th Amendment. There are other serious constitutional scholars who argue the only way to change it is through a constitutional amendment.”
“My view is we should pursue either or both, whichever is effective,” said Cruz. “What matters, is that we should change the policy so we’re not rewarding, and incentivizing, and encouraging more illegal immigration.”
