Ted Cruz: 'I Am a Proponent of Immigration Reform'

Texas senator and aspiring GOP presidential nominee Ted Cruz is widely depicted by liberal amnesty backers as a diehard enemy of their brand of immigration reform.

While Cruz voted against the 2013 "Gang of Eight" immigration bill and has strongly opposed President Barack Obama's executive amnesty plans, he has also taken positions that sound strikingly different from those of staunch amnesty opponents such as Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions.

Sessions, for example, has been sharply critical of expanding the number of H-1B visas, pointing to abuses in the program and arguing that it harms American workers.

But speaking with Javier Palomarez, president of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday afternoon, Cruz declared that "there is no stronger advocate for legal immigration in the U.S. Senate than himself," The Weekly Standard reported.

The Texas Republican pointed to his support for an amendment to the Gang of Eight bill two years ago that would expand the number of H-1B visas.

"When that amendment came to a vote, every single Democratic member on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against it," said Cruz, who ended up opposing the final bill. "I think the way to get something done is not to play the divisive politics."

While describing himself as a "proponent of immigration reform," Cruz said political leaders need to focus on those aspects which have bipartisan support.

Cruz spent much of the immigration discussion blasting the way Obama has approached the issue. The president, he said, has been exploiting the issue of immigration reform for political purposes.

"What he's doing is focusing deliberately on the most partisan, the most divisive issue on this debate," Cruz said.

MSNBC reported last month that Cruz's office had indicated that "he remains open to a path to legal status for undocumented workers, putting him at odds with conservatives who deride such a position as unacceptable 'amnesty.'"

The left-leaning network asked Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies about the Texas Republican's position.

Krikorian indicated that Cruz was trying to have it both ways, suggesting that his position was: "I'm against amnesty, but amnesty doesn't include giving these people work permits."

"Really? Then Obama didn't give amnesty to all those people," Krikorian said sardonically.

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