Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has held off sharing details about what he would do with millions of illegal immigrants already in the U.S. but on Wednesday he said he would focus on other immigration-related actions before exploring the answer to that question.
“Once we have demonstrated to the American people that this isn’t an empty promise, this isn’t an, ‘I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,’ but the problem is solved, then at that point I think the American people would be open to having a conversation about what to do about whatever population that will be markedly smaller remains here,” Cruz told listeners in the Your Choice, Your Voice Washington Examiner teleforum.
His administration would finish building a double-layer 700-mile fence on the Mexico-U.S. border, which currently stands at 36 miles long under the Obama administration. Cruz said he would enforce existing federal law that requires the implementation of a biometric entry-exit system to track anyone who comes in to the U.S. on a visa.
In addition to tripling Border Patrol agents and adding four times the number of fixed wing and rotary wing aircrafts to monitor the border, Cruz would implement E-Verify programs to ensure illegal immigrants are ineligible for jobs.
Then, Cruz explained, he would deport all criminal illegal aliens. Current federal policies under the Priority Enforcement Program require only the most dangerous criminals to be removed after serving prison time, but the junior senator said all criminals would be sent home.
He would enforce federal laws to override state laws that give illegal immigrant households what he said were an estimated $14,000 annually in welfare benefits.
“All of those tools together will secure the border once and for all,” said Cruz, currently ranked second among GOP presidential candidates in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings.
