DAPHNE, Ala. — During a weekend campaign stop in south Alabama, Republican senator and presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said he had “three words” for people questioning whether the southern border can be secured: “Secretary Jeff Sessions.”
“We are going to deport criminal illegal aliens, we are going to pass Kate’s Law [mandatory minimum sentences for illegal immigrants who are deported but later return to the U.S.], we are going to end welfare benefits for those here illegally,” Cruz told a raucous crowd of over 1,300 Alabamians. “For anyone who wonders, ‘Can we really secure the border?’ I’ve got three words for you: Secretary Jeff Sessions! You want to talk about a homeland security secretary who would go down and build the wall himself!”
Cruz is in the middle of a campaign swing through several southern states, seeking to lock up conservatives support in the southeast where many voters will head to the polls for the so called SEC Primary on March 1st.
What a Ted Cruz event looks like when conservatives unite. This was earlier today in Alabama. pic.twitter.com/3IywQ6U0sg
— Rick Tyler (@rickwtyler) December 19, 2015
Cruz’s record on immigration has been under attack in recent days after rival candidate Marco Rubio criticized him for offering an amendment during debate over the Gang of Eight immigration bill that would have granted legal status, but remove the possibility of citizenship, to individuals in the country illegally. Rubio said the amendment was proof that Cruz supported “legalizing people who are in this country illegally.”
Cruz says now the amendment was meant as a “poison pill” to kill the whole package, or at the very least as a way to expose that what Democrats really wanted was not to “bring people out of the shadows,” as they often claimed, but rather to grant citizenship to millions of future Democratic voters. By removing citizenship from the equation, Cruz allies said he was exposing Democrats’ true motives.
The media have seized on the disagreement and pressed Cruz on the issue in numerous interviews over the past week, but Senator Sessions, whose credibility on the immigration issue is unquestioned among the conservative base, has repeatedly come to Cruz’s defense.
“One of the things you’ve been hearing about is criticism of Ted and what he did with regard to the massive immigration bill they tried to ram through in 2013,” Sessions told the crowd on Saturday. “Let me tell you, I was there every step of the way. Ted Cruz was on my side, he fought this legislation all the way through.”
Cruz’s campaign tour will continue Sunday with a stop in the Birmingham suburb of Trussville. Doors open at the Trussville Civic Center at 1 p.m., with the event starting at 2 p.m. Tickets are free, but event attendees must register in advance on Eventbrite.
