Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) fell apart when asked for a real world solution on how to solve the immigration issue on Meet The Press.
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CHUCK TODD: What do you do with the 11 million people though? Do you have to send ’em back, or do you give them a way to get legal?
TED CRUZ: Chuck, I don’t accept the premise that you have to solve every aspect of this problem all at once. President Obama and the Democrats focus on that issue because the question you’re asking is the most divisive partisan question in this entire debate. And I don’t believe President Obama wants to solve this.
CHUCK TODD: I understand that it’s divisive. But the– it’s still a problem.
TED CRUZ: B– but– but you don’t have to solve every problem at once. Look, here’s the problem–
CHUCK TODD: That’s fine. But explain how you do it?
TED CRUZ: I am explaining how. The last time Congress passed immigration reform was in the 1980s. And Congress came to the American people with the following tradeoff. Congress said there were three million people living here illegally. Congress said, “We will grant amnesty to those three million. In exchange, we’re gonna secure the borders. We’re gonna solve the problem so that illegal immigration goes away.”
Well, we all know what happens. The amnesty happened. And the border never got secured.
And here’s the sad truth. A lot of Republicans in the Washington cartel, they’re all for amnesty too because from the perspective of the Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street, it’s cheap labor.
CHUCK TODD: You still didn’t say what you’d do with the 11 million.
TED CRUZ: Well, my view is first, we secure the borders and solve the problem of illegal immigration. And then I think we can have a conversation about what to do about the people who remain here. I don’t think the American people will accept any solution until we demonstrate step number one, we can secure the border.
CHUCK TODD: So anything’s on the table? Potentially deportation or not deportation, but anything’s on the table for the 11 million–
TED CRUZ: I think we should secure the border and then have a conversation at that point. Stop using the Washington approach of I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. The American people aren’t going for it.
Cruz never answered the question, and his inability to answer the question demonstrates how the immigration issue paralyzes the Republican Party.
Ted Cruz knows that the United States can’t deport 11 million people. He also understands that giving those people a path to legal status is the common sense solution. What Cruz and every other Republican can’t do is make the case for a path to citizenship because their party is extremely anti-immigrant and racist.
The result of this denial of reality is that any time a Republican candidate like Ted Cruz gets pressed on immigration, they fall flat on their face. Cruz went from a cocky candidate to stumbler and bumbler as soon as Chuck Todd kept asking what he would do with the 11 million people who are in this country illegally.
Ted Cruz has no chance of ever being elected president because like every other Republican when he was asked for a reality-based solution to a problem, he fell apart.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
