On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said the Senate’s immigration bill if enacted into law would most hurt Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder. He illustrated that point by explaining how his father would have been fired as a legal immigrant who was working as a dishwasher in 1957 had the bill been law then.
“This bill hurts the most those who are struggling to begin climbing the earliest rungs [of the economic ladder],” he said.
Cruz said if the bill is enacted into law, it would increase unemployment among African-Americans, the young, Hispanics, and legal immigrants.
Keynoting the D.C. March for Jobs rally, which the Black American Leadership Alliance organized, Cruz said that because the immigration bill would intersect with Obamacare, employers would be incentivized to hire illegal immigrants and those that received provisional status under the Gang of Eight bill over American citizens and legal immigrants because they would be exempt from Obamacare.
He told the story of his father, Rafael, who immigrated to the United States legally and started out as a dishwasher to pay his way through college.
Cruz emphasized how important that first job was in serving as a stepping stone for his father’s life and noted that the Senate’s immigration bill would deprive such opportunities for Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder working to improve their socio-economic status.
He said had Obamacare and the Gang of Eight bill been law, the restaurant his father washed dishes for would not have wanted to pay a fine for hiring his dad, who was a “legal immigrant who followed the rules.”
He said what was incredible about his dad’s story was how commonplace it is and insinuated the Senate’s immigration bill would makes those stories less common.
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