Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz declared “I am proud to defend Donald Trump” and promoted his “legislation to increase the number of H-1B visas if there are people who are educated and talented and creating jobs” on Tuesday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.”
Cruz said, “I am proud to defend Donald Trump. I like Donald Trump. I respect Donald Trump. And he is highlighting an issue that Washington politicians don’t want to talk about, which is illegal immigration. … And the sad reality is, the Washington cartel supports amnesty, the Washington cartel doesn’t want to stop illegal immigration, so they’re mad at Donald Trump for focusing on this critical issue, and I’m not going to play that game. The mainstream media loves to get a whole bunch of Republicans — we’ve seen one after another after another of the presidential candidates stand up and smack Donald Trump. I think it’s wrong, I’m not going to do it.” He further accused the “Washington cartel” of supporting the Gang of Eight immigration bill and praised Trump for “shining a light” on the issue of illegal immigration.
Later he stated, “we should use legal immigration because you can check and make sure that people coming are not murderers, are not rapists, are not criminals. When you have an unsecured border, we don’t know who’s coming across.” And invited those who think support the status quo of illegal immigration on compassion grounds to “come down to the border and take a look at the photographs of the bodies of women and children brutalized and left to die in the desert by coyotes, by transnational, vicious criminal cartels that are smuggling these people in. That is not humane. It is not compassionate.”
Cruz added, “most of the Republican field have, at one time or another supported amnesty, supported that…deal of amnesty today for a promise to secure the borders in the future” and argued border security should be taken care of first.
The discussion turned to legal immigration, Cruz said, “we should improve and streamline legal immigration.” He also discussed H-1B visas arguing that in the status quo, “every year US colleges and universities educate tens of thousands of foreign students who are getting masters and PhDs in engineering and math and computer science, and we’re sending them back to their countries. And as a result, they’re going back to their countries, they’re starting businesses there. They’re creating jobs there, and their companies are competing with us and taking jobs away from us. I don’t think that makes any sense. So, I’ve introduced legislation to increase the number of H-1B visas, if there are people who are educated and talented and creating jobs, the data shows for every H-1B visa holder that comes in, he or she creates 1.7 jobs for Americans here. I want job creations, I want innovators, I want new opportunities for America.” Cruz was asked about Disney’s use of H-1B visas to replace US workers who were forced to train their replacements, he stated that he didn’t know the facts of the Disney case, so he couldn’t comment.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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