Texas senator Ted Cruz, who is positioning himself as a potential presidential candidate for the Republican Party, is walking a fine line on the contentious issue of immigration: he is casting himself as an advocate for reform while still objecting to undocumented immigrants being allowed to get on a path to full citizenship.
Cruz was outspoken in his objection to the immigration reform bill created by the Gang of Eight that passed the Senate two years ago; however, on Wednesday he claimed that despite his objection to the offering of citizenship to undocumented immigrants he supports the need to both encourage and celebrate legal immigration and pointed out that he has long supported a dramatic rise in the amount of high-tech US visas.
Cruz says that he supports immigration reform even though he criticized the Democrats for ending the prospect of a bipartisan deal on the issue before negotiations could even begin due to their insistence on including a pathway to US citizenship. “I consider myself a proponent of immigration reform,” Cruz noted during a US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Q&A session in Washington. “There is no stronger advocate of legal immigration in the US Senate than I am.”
Cruz’s remarks appear to offer a deliberate contrast to the views of Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor, who also seems likely to run for the position of GOP presidential candidate, with Walker taking a clear protectionist stance when it comes to the level of legal immigration.