Ted Cruz: Immigration Will Increase US Joblessness
Photo Credit: Graeme JenningsSen. Ted Cruz, a leading voice in the national debate over immigration, on Monday appeared before a group that supports curbing both illegal and legal immigration and urged his fellow Republicans in the House to reject immigration reforms approved earlier by the Senate.
Cruz, the son of a legal immigrant from Cuba, has not publicly called for limits on legal immigration and made he no mention of such restrictions in his address to the DC March for Jobs outside the Capitol. But March organizers — including the Black American Leadership Alliance and Tea Party groups — do support curbing legal immigration, saying it could take jobs away from “millions of American citizens.” Cruz also claimed the Senate immigration reform would cost Americans’ jobs but without specific reference to legal immigrants.
“If this bill is passed, it will increase unemployment,” Cruz, R-Texas, said. “If this bill is passed it will increase African American unemployment. If this bill is passed it will increase youth unemployment. If this bill is passed it will increase Hispanic unemployment.”
House leaders insist they have no intention of taking up the Senate bill, which provides a pathway to citizenship. And many House Republicans, like Cruz, cite a similar approach taken in 1986 that allowed undocumented workers to be legalized but lacked the border security measures needed to prevent millions of other illegal immigration from crossing a porous border.
“We might have been foolish enough to fall for this once in 1986,” Cruz said, “but we’re not foolish enough to fall for it again.”
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