Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., would not have made it to Congress under a proposed immigration bill.
Gutierrez's comments came during an interview Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
The proposed bill would use a point-based system to prioritize applicants and would favor people who speak English or have advanced skill or education, the Washington Examiner reported.
"I look at the bill, and I think to myself, Sen. Rubio wouldn't be a senator, and . . . Sen. Cruz wouldn't be a senator, because their dads and moms wouldn't have been allowed into this country if you would have used these standards," Gutierrez said on the show.
The Examiner noted both Cruz and Rubio are Cuban-Americans whose parents fled the island nation.
Gutierrez said the bill has a personal impact on him. His website noted he was born in Chicago to parents who left Puerto Rico.
"Let me, first of all, start from a personal perspective," he said. "My mom and dad came in the 1950s. Mom had a fifth-grade education. My dad an eighth-grade education. They didn't speak a lick of English, yet they worked really hard.
"And their son got to become a member of the Congress of the United States. That's a tradition I don't want to deny to others."
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