Texas Sen. Ted Cruz struggled Wednesday to explain why he supported an amendment to the 2013 Gang of Eight bill, which some have claimed was because Cruz supported a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, central to the controversial comprehensive immigration reform bill.
In an interview with Fox News, host Bret Baier asked Cruz why he fought to add an amendment to a bill that went against his very conservative position on immigration.
“That particular amendment was an amendment I introduced to remove citizenship to say those who are here illegally shall be permanently ineligible for citizenship. Now the fact that I introduced an amendment to remove part of the Gang of Eight bill does not mean I support the rest of the Gang of Eight bill,” Cruz said.
Baier pushed harder, questioning why Cruz would want to pass a bill he did not entirely support, calling attention to Cruz’s different messages on the blanket term “immigration reform” then and now.
“You said ‘my objective was not to kill immigration reform,’ you said you ‘wanted it to pass’ at the time,” said Baier.
Cruz said the point of introducing that amendment and others was to point out Democrats’ hypocrisy of supporting a bill with those amendments that banned certain actions by President Obama on immigration.
