Ted Cruz has always coupled his no-amnesty, secure-the-border immigration policy with enthusiastic support for streamlining and encouraging legal immigration. That might be changing.
The Texas senator and leading Republican presidential candidate said in interviews this week that there was a lot to like about Donald Trump’s immigration policy proposals. The New York billionaire businessman/entertainer wants to limit and possibly reduce legal immigration, amend the Constitution to end birthright citizenship, possibly for current citizens born of illegal immigrants, and round up and deport the approximately 11-12 million mostly Hispanic illegal immigrants that reside in the U.S.
Cruz prides himself on his ideological consistency, and his campaign on Thursday shrugged off suggestions that the senator was shifting in tone or substance to avoid being outflanked by Trump on an issue that is critical to the grassroots conservatives he considers crucial to his 2016 prospects.
“It shouldn’t be surprising that there’s some commonality between Trump’s plan and Sen. Cruz’s previously expressed positions,” Cruz campaign senior spokesman Rick Tyler told the Washington Examiner in a telephone interview. “I’m not rejecting them, and I’m not supporting them. We’re looking at them.”
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination according to most state and national polls, has roiled the GOP presidential primary with his early, unlikely rise and his bombastic, controversial rhetoric. His immigration policy proposals are a hard line set of ideas that the most ardent border hawks in the field of 17 Republican contenders, including Cruz, were not promoting, even if they were on record as supporting.
The issue of birthright citizenship and whether the Constitution should be amended to so that children born on U.S. soil are not automatically citizens, is a prime example. Cruz was already on the record as opposed to birthright citizenship. But in the past, he has said stripping such rights are unrealistic and counterproductive. Until this week, it was hardly something he mentioned often as part of his immigration policy priorities.
Earlier this year, during two interviews this year with the Examiner spaced months apart, and during an event hosted by U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Cruz never mentioned birthright citizenship. Additionally, while consistently emphasizing his opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants and support for increasing border security to finally stop illegal immigration, Cruz was quick to tout his support for legal immigration.
On the campaign trail, Cruz often discusses immigration in personal terms, relating how his father left Cuba and emigrated to the U.S. because he wanted to live in freedom, rather under the Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. Here’s what Cruz said on Feb. 23, when asked about immigration and the 2016 elections.
“I think there’s overwhelming partisan agreement outside of Washington that we’ve got to get serious about securing the border and solving the problem of illegal immigration,” Cruz said. “I think there is also significant bipartisan agreement outside of Washington that we need to improve and streamline the legal immigration system, that we need to remain a nation that doesn’t just welcome, but that celebrates legal immigrants.”
Two months later, in another interview with the Examiner, Cruz appeared to knock other Republicans who favored limiting legal immigration according to its impact on U.S. workers and domestic wages. “I am the son of an immigrant who came legally from Cuba. [President Ronald] Reagan referred to legal immigrants as Americans by choice and there is no stronger advocate of legal immigration in the U.S. Senate than I am.”
And here’s Cruz on April 29, during a question and answer session after speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, responding to a question about what to so with the 11-12 million illegal immigrants: “Once we demonstrate we can secure the borders, I think then, we can have a conversation about the people who are here illegally. I think until then the American people don’t trust Washington.”
Cruz sounded different earlier this week, during an interview with conservative talk radio host Michael Medved.
“I welcome Donald Trump’s immigration proposal. Virtually every element in the proposal that he’s submitted is contained in legislation that I filed years ago in the United States Senate that I’m fighting to do. I’m glad to see, for example, that he proposed tripling the border patrol; that’s something I campaigned on,” Cruz said, adding that Trump has forced a discussion about “the enormous downward pressure on wages and employment that unrestrained illegal immigration is providing.”
In the Medved interview, Cruz did not comment on the more exotic proposals Trump offered, including leveling tariffs on Mexico to force them to pay for the wall, forcibly rounding up millions of illegal immigrants, even deporting their citizen family members if necessary, and searching through and impounding money that illegal immigrants send to family back in their home country. Cruz also did not comment on Trump’s support for constricting legal immigration in deference to domestic wages and employment.
Rick Tyler, Cruz’ spokesman declined to address where the senator stands on these more controversial issues, saying he did not want to get ahead of the campaign’s forthcoming immigration policy proposal. In particular, Tyler did not rule out Cruz, generally a free-market oriented conservative, embracing protectionist immigration policies that limit legal immigration, as proposed by Trump and his chief consultant on immigration, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.
“What I’m not prepared to do today is do a policy rollout on immigration in full. So in terms of reacting to other people’s plans and new editions, all I can say is we’re happy Trump rolled out a plan, and we’ll be rolling out a plan and people can compare those plans and decide what makes sense,” Tyler said.
“He has some definitive thoughts on how the legal immigration process is supposed to work,” Tyler added. “His position would fall most closely — when you fix the illegal immigration problem, what does the market demand? If the need for America is labor from abroad — that doesn’t seem to be the current case, but it’s unknown.”
Cruz isn’t the only Republican who has been ensnared — or influenced — by Trump on the topic of immigration.
In the last 48 hours, Trump’s competitors have been forced by reporters to discuss the merits of birthright citizenship and the term “anchor baby” simply because he raised the issues and talks about it as his primary concern. The term “anchor baby,” deemed offensive by some immigrants, refers to a child born to parents who purposely emigrated to the U.S. illegally so their child would be an American citizen.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who previously supported comprehensive immigration reform and the legalization of illegal immigrants, only to change his position earlier this year after he started preparing to launch his presidential bid, has been purposely vague on whether he backs birthright citizenship. Meanwhile, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, considered moderate on immigration reform because he does support comprehensive reform and legalization, created a mini media firestorm after using “anchor baby” in an interview.
“If there’s another term that I come up with, I’m happy to hear it,” Bush said, when asked by reporters if he thought “anchor babies,” was offensive.
Disclosure: The author’s wife works as an adviser to Scott Walker.
