Ted Cruz: Obama Should Visit Border to See If US Better 'By Almost Every Measure' Since 2008

On Wednesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said President Barack Obama should visit the border to see whether the country has improved by “almost every measure” since he took office, as Obama claimed in an address in Colorado.

During that speech, Obama said, “by almost every measure we are better off than when I took office – by almost every measure.” Cruz responded that was why Obama “needs to visit the border.”

After meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry on Wednesday in North Texas, Obama said he would not visit the border because he was “intimately aware” of everything that is going on there. Cruz had also sent Obama directions to border towns like McAllen and Laredo in case Obama wanted to make a detour from his three Texas fundraisers for Democrats on Wednesday and Thursday.

Why he needs to visit the border… MT @markknoller: “By almost every measure we are better off than when I took office,” says POTUS

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 9, 2014

Cruz, on the Senate floor, also said that the chaos at the border has resulted from Obama’s implementation and promise of amnesty programs. The number of illegal immigrant children crossing the border spiked after Obama unilaterally enacted his temporary amnesty program for illegal immigrant children in 2012:

According to the Christian Science Monitor, “during the decade preceding fiscal year 2012, the federal government agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally dealt with an average of 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year.” In fiscal year 2011, there were 6,560, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Yet, as the Monitor noted, the following year, when Obama enacted DACA, “the number jumped to 13,625,” and at least 50,000 have entered illegally since October of last year. Officials estimate at least 150,000-160,000 more will try next year.

Though White House officials have gone on a public relations campaign to tell Central Americans that they will not receive amnesty, many illegal immigrants have said they traveled to America believing the Obama administration would never deport them if they made it across the U.S.-Mexico border.