Cruz, Paul: Shut Down Immigration from Islamic State Nations

Presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are demanding a halt to immigration from Muslim nations with jihadist movements.

Their fellow contender, Sen. Marco Rubio, did not call for curbs to Muslim immigration in his live response to the President address on Fox News – a response promoted by Rubio’s campaign.

Cruz tweeted that if elected president, “I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country.” Cruz elaborated in a statement:

The President should place an immediate moratorium on refugees from countries with a significant al Qaeda or ISIS presence, such as Syria. I’ve introduced legislation to make this happen; it is not a desired step, but a necessary step for the security of the United States.

Similarly, Rand Paul tweeted, “While ‪@POTUS paid lip service to this fight, he plans to keep failed rules in place & allow tens of thousands of refugees to enter the US.”

“Immigration visas & refugees from countries with active terror networks must be halted while we determine how to better secure our borders,” Paul in a separate tweet. “His administration is focused on gun laws that won’t stop terrorists while pushing policies that will let more of them in the country,” Paul wrote.

By contrast, in his prime-time Fox News response, Rubio did not call for Muslim immigration curbs of any kind, although he did admit ISIS is trying to infiltrate the refugee program. In fact, Rubio has previously said he’d “hate to use” Congress’ power of the purse to block funding for Obama’s refugee program.

Fox News’ Bret Baier did not ask Rubio about his statements in favor of bringing Syrian refugees into the United States.

Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch is a co-chair of the Partnership for a New American Economy, which has supported Rubio’s Gang of Eight bill and new I-Squared bill – both of which would dramatically expand Muslim immigration into U.S. communities. Echoing the group, Rubio’s campaign theme is “A New American Century.”

As Conservative Review’s Daniel Horowitz has explained, Rubio’s 2013 immigration bill would have substantially expanded the admission of Muslim refugees. “The Gang of 8 bill,” Horowitz wrote, “created an entire new pipeline for refugees… In totality, [Rubio’s] bill would have created endless avenues for this president to bring in an unlimited numbers of Islamic immigrants from the most volatile corners of the world.”

Rubio’s 2015 I-Squared bill would substantially increase Muslim migration as well.

On Thursday, Rubio voted against an amendment offered by Sen. Paul to pause immigration from more than 30 Muslim nations with Jihadist movements. Both Senator Rubio and Senator Graham – the two Gang of Eight representatives running for President – opposed Paul’s amendment.

Cruz voted for Paul’s amendment, which failed 89-10.

Both Paul and Cruz opposed the Gang of Eight bill which, had it become law, would have issued 33 million green cards in a single decade.

Earlier this week,  the Hill reported that Paul slammed Rubio for voting to continue the importation of migrants from terror-prone regions—quoting Paul as declaring that Rubio’s vote was consistent with Rubio’s support for “open borders.”

Back in 2013, Rubio also opposed a Rand Paul amendment to increase the screening of foreign migrants. As The Washington Post, Politico, and other outlets reported, the Gang of Eight Senators coordinated to kill conservatives amendments, even as Rubio publicly fostered the impression he wanted to fix the bill.

The Hill newspaper summarized Paul’s fresh criticism of Rubio:

The first job of the President should be to secure our borders and fix broken refugee and visa systems to stop terrorists,” Paul, a GOP presidential candidate, said during a string of tweets aimed at the Florida Republican, also a 2016 candidate. “Yesterday I introduced my SECURE bill as an amendment in the Senate, to protect our borders and resources. Marco Rubio voted no.”… “For years on this important national security test, I have led, and Marco Rubio has failed,” he said in a separate tweet, adding, “As I led, Marco Rubio has gone the other way, preferring open borders, broken systems and siding with [Democratic Sens.] Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.

Every five years, as the Senate’s Immigration Subcommittee has documented through public Homeland Security data, the U.S. will issue green cards to another nearly 700,000 Muslim immigrants. A green card entitles the recipient to collect welfare, federal entitlements, tax credits, work permits and a path to citizenship and voting. The female Jihadi in San Bernardino, for instance, had reportedly been approved for a green card after getting her K-1 fiance visa.

According to Rasmussen, 65 percent of conservative voters believe we should accept zero refugees from the entire Middle East. When asked about Syrian Muslims in particular, a recent Economist/Yougov poll found that 66% of women believe America “should not accept Muslim Syrian refugees.”

According to Pew, 92 percent of all GOP voters, and 83% of all voters, wish to see no growth in immigration levels at all. This means Rubio’s support for greatly expanded immigration in general, and greatly expanded Muslim immigration in particular, places him outside both the mainstream of the GOP and also the mainstream of the country. In fact, it places him well to the left of most Democrat voters, as Pew finds only 20% of Democrats wish to see greater immigration.

As of the most recent census accounting, there are 42.4 million immigrants living in the United States, an all-time record. Census data shows another Los Angeles will be added through immigration every three years under current policy.

In his Fox News appearance, instead of calling for curbs on Muslim migration Rubio instead called for sending ground troops into Syria.

Rubio also told CNBC’s John Harwood on October 5 that he wanted to enforce a no-fly zone in Syria, where Russians are now flying planes, and would be willing to enforce the fly-zone against Russians, saying: “I am confident that the United States Air Force can enforce that [no-fly zone], including against the Russians.” Harwood pressed, asking what he would do if  Russia simply didn’t respect the no-fly zone. Rubio said: “Then you’re going to have a problem. But that would be no different than any other adversary.” Harwood followed up: “Don’t you think the prospect of potential military—hot military conflict with Russia would scare the American people?” Rubio replied: “The consequences of not doing anything would scare them even more… we cannot say, well, if Putin is going to test us then we can’t do anything.”

Rubio has also previously suggested that we defend Turkey against Russia in the event of a conflagration, after Turkey shot down Russian pilots for allegedly flying over Turkish airspace. As Rubio told Fox News following Turkey’s action: “It’s important for us to be very clear that we will respond and defend Turkey if they come under assault from the Russians.”

Russia and the Assad government are allies.

According to a report in the DailyMail, after being fired on by the Turkish, “helpless Russian pilots were shot dead [by Syrian rebels] as they parachuted to the ground.” The Daily Mail writes, “disturbing footage shows a dead pilot covered in blood, on the ground as anti-government fighters gather chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’”.

In response to Rubio’s earlier statement on Turkey, conservative columnist and best-selling author Ann Coulter tweeted, “Rubio will go to war w/ Russia over Turkey’s borders but won’t defend America’s.”