I will admit it's pretty outrageous for Cruz to argue we should use law enforcement to enforce the law.
What's interesting that his position on this has changed... and what has caused the change. And whether he wants to arrest and deport ALL illegal immigrants, or just those that have committed (other) crimes and/or work illegally? But no matter, let's focus on his new position. Just how does Cruz plan on reaching this "solution" and round up 12 million (or whatever number you care to use) illegal immigrants? And can we all watch the video as he leads these law enforcement raids? I am sure people will enjoy seeing our law enforcement rounding up kids of illegal immigrant parents (or are those birthright citizens?). All in the name of "enforcing the law."
So Cruz intends to be selective in his solution to this critically important problem facing America? And that selective enforcement will simply follow Obama's and other past President's administration's enforcement practices? Why didn't he just say that? Wow... Ted Cruz is really a problem solver!
No, as you know very well, Obama has selectively taken it upon himself not to enforce it in a number of cases.
Huh? How does this differ from Cruz, who Commodore says will also be selective in who he enforces the law against?
Reading between the lines, I think Cruz is saying there that, in principle, those 12m people are subject to deportation. But, in actual practice, we're not going to make an extraordinary effort to actually identify, apprehend and deport 12m people. In that regard, it'll be business as usual for ICE. In other words, he'd undo Obama's humanitarian adjustments made to the enforcement of immigration law, and revert to a pre-Nov 2014 operation, plus a big wall and more border security. But, he would not endorse Trump's unrealistic project of rounding up and deporting 12m people, and doesn't want his legal citizen voters to worry that they will be inconvenienced in any way. That seems like the picture of a perfect conservative plan on immigration. You get your stupid wall and enforcement of the law on the books without the overbearing interference of the feds in people's daily lives. I think it kinda sucks. Even assuming the wall works (and I actually don't have a problem with the wall), there's still 12m people inside the country that need a real solution. And Cruz's solution seems to be to exploit them for labor and allow ICE to prey upon them for a slow attrition of their number. Aside from the injustice of that for the affected, it doesn't seem like it is optimizing the situation for our economic and social benefit. If border security can really stop the material inflow of illegal migrants, we should be taking what's here and setting a permanent solution that minimizes economic disruption and promotes community and family integrity. A deportation solution seems like an exercise in cutting off your nose to spite your face.
No question it would be difficult, perhaps impractical. 1. That doesn't mean you offer or hint at any type of legalization. That only incentivizes more undesirable behavior. 2. While those here should be a concern, the higher priority is preventing more in the future. Leaky boat, etc.
All in favor of difficult and impractical solutions... Me and President Reagan believe some (ok, WRT Ronny believed) recognition that we won't be able to deport all illegal aliens and pretending they won't exist isn't the best solution, so doing something to work towards citizenship may be a workable solution. Preventing more? Building a huge wall around the country? Barbed wire, moats with alligators? While I am all in favor of increasing the number of patrols, working to lessen businesses that hire illegals, etc, which may lessen entry into the country. But simply building a wall won't do much to lessen the problem.
Not really. Pretty much everyone bringing up any sort of legalization is tying it in with much stronger regulations going forward. This is a red herring. On the other hand, all the stuff we give to illegals who do come here does definitely incentivize more undesirable behaviour. Is it? Why worry about the much smaller number coming over annually, yet not address the many millions already here?
I don't agree it's the higher priority. But the two sides keep talking past each other on this -- one insisting on fixing the entry problem and ignoring the problem of the people already here, and the other insisting on fixing the problem for the people here and not fixing the entry problem. I would say they are both priorities, and any solution should address both issues. Republicans think they can fix the entry problem with walls and border patrols. I'm fine with letting them try. But Republicans in general and Cruz in particular want to leave the problem of 12m illegals unattended to -- or rather he thinks the status quo of tacitly exploiting illegals for labor and denying them equal protection is the solution he wants to go with. I want both issues addressed at the same time. Anyway, this is going a bit far afield. I don't think Cruz is flip-flopping on immigration. I just think his position earlier and still today is bad.
“Donald [Trump] said once he deports them he would let them back as citizens, I will not,” Cruz says Ted Cruz says that he will deport 12 million people if he becomes President of the United States. “We should enforce the law, how do we enforce the law?” Cruz told Bill O’Reilly on Monday’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” “Yes, we should deport them, we should build a wall, we should triple the border patrol. Federal law requires that anyone here illegally that’s apprehended should be deported. http://www.thewrap.com/ted-cruz-tells-bill-oreilly-he-will-deport-12-million-as-president-video/
And yet he's deported more people than any President in history. Facts always have a liberal bias on talk radio. http://blogs.reuters.com/data-dive/2015/02/25/tracking-obamas-deportation-numbers/ “America is expelling illegal immigrants at nine times the rate of 20 years ago; nearly 2m so far under Barack Obama, easily outpacing any previous president,” the Economist wrote in February 2014. “Border patrol agents no longer just patrol the border; they scour the country for illegals to eject. The deportation machine costs more than all other areas of federal criminal law-enforcement combined.” Critics may declare President Obama soft on immigration, but as this Reuters graphic shows, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data the Department of Homeland Security deported 414,481 people in fiscal year 2014, down from 438,421 the year before. Each year of the Obama administration has seen more deportations than any preceding president; the pre-Obama high of 358,886 removals in FY2008 came during President George W. Bush’s last full fiscal year in office.
I don't think it takes an extraordinary effort in terms of some large police force rounding people up. Really what it takes is locking down a verifiable ID requirement for employment and going after employers that violate that requirement. Illegals won't stay here if they can't find work.
