Preacher
Gold Member
Cruz floated an amendment to Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill in 2013 that would have preserved work permits andgreen cards for illegals but would have eliminated the path to citizenship. His campaign will tell you (and actually did tell me) that he did that not because he’s gung ho for legalization but because he wanted to set a trap for Democrats. Cruz wanted to prove that Dems don’t give a wet fart about letting illegals stay here to work and “come out of the shadows” or whatever; what they care about is turning illegals into citizens, because citizens vote and Latino citizens (especially if they’re recent immigrants) overwhelmingly vote Democratic. So Cruz called their bluff. I’ll trade you work permits and green cards for citizenship, he said. Democrats refused and rejected his amendment with help from Republicans like Rubio. That was really stupid strategically, since this sort of threshold legalization is exactly what illegals need to prepare the battlespace politically for eventual citizenship. But the amnesty activists on the left aren’t willing to play the long game so Schumer wasn’t either. They want a path to citizenship now. Cruz’s amendment went up in smoke and he got to tell everyone that he’d proved his point.
Trump or Nothing!
