Republican presidential candidate nominee Ted Cruz has made a bid to steal the supporters of rival Donald Trump by adopting a new plan that would put fresh limits of legal immigration, construct a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico, put an end to birthright citizenship, and increase the deportation of undocumented immigrants.
The proposal, which was unveiled by the Texas senator at a fiery Orlando campaign rally in Florida, saw Cruz echoing the hard-line stance on the immigration issue that has seen Trump rise to the top of the Republican polls. Although Cruz has always been steadfastly against comprehensive immigration reform, he has previously been supportive of the idea of expanding legal immigration into the United States.
The senator’s shift in position appears to be an attempt by Cruz to seize Trump’s supporters as he begins a steady rise in the polls. Cruz has promised triple the amount of border agents on the US border with Mexico and to “build a wall that works”; however, his biggest shift is his proposal to put an end to increasing legal immigration while workforce participation by American workers remains at a very low percentage, even by historical standards. This is despite previously having supported an expansion of the H-1B US visa program for highly-skilled foreign workers. “Legal immigration needs to be structured so that it serves America’s needs,” Cruz says. “We welcome people from all over the world, but we shouldn’t welcome people defying and gaming our laws.”