ORLANDO, Fla. — Marco Rubio is “puzzled” by the Ted Cruz’s recent decision to go after his position on illegal immigration.
Cruz has argued this week that Rubio was part of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” that pushed an immigration bill that would have delayed immigration enforcement, and instead would have created a path to citizenship. But on Friday, Rubio said his position isn’t all that different from Cruz’s.
“I am puzzled, and quite frankly surprised by Ted’s attacks since Ted’s position on immigration is not much different than mine,” Rubio told reporters at the Florida GOP’s Sunshine Summit Friday.
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“[Cruz] is a supporter of legalizing people that are in this country illegally. If he’s changed that position — well, he certainly has a right to change that position – but he should be clear about that,” he added.
“On other issues regarding immigration, he’s gone much further than I have,” he added. “He wanted double the number of green cards [and] he wanted a 500 percent increase in the number of H-1B visas.”
“Everybody running for president on the Republican side in one way or shape supports some form or fashion of legalization of people who are living in this country illegally,” the Florida senator said.
Cruz, who many consider a hardliner on the hot-button issue, told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham Thursday that Rubio “fought tooth and nail to try to jam this amnesty down the American people’s throats over and over and over again” as a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” in 2013.
“The Gang of Eight voted as a gang against enforcing and securing the border,” the Texas senator claimed.
On Friday morning, Cruz laughed off the suggestion that the two senators are in virtual agreement on immigration.
“I have to admit that I laughed out loud at that,” Cruz said Friday morning on the “Mike Gallagher Show.” “That’s like Obama saying my position is the same as his on Obamacare. That’s like Ayatollah Khamenei saying my position is the same as his on the Iranian nuclear deal.”
“It is laughingly, blazingly, on its face, false,” Cruz added.
The two senators spoke within an hour of each other at the Sunshine Summit Friday.
