Ted Cruz is weak on amnesty (legalizing illegal aliens; comprehensive immigration reform)

Texas senator Ted Cruz is presented as America's Top Conservative, yet he's very weak on what most people would call amnesty.

First, it's necessary to define terms: this site uses "amnesty" as a shorthand for any form of mass legalization of illegal aliens whether it includes a "path to citizenship" or not.

Others - such as John McCain - like to play word games, pretending that if a massive legalization plan doesn't include the "path to citizenship" and/or that if the plan has tough entry requirements then it's not amnesty. See reform not amnesty and amnesty require for more.

According to this site's definition of amnesty - defined here as any form of mass legalization program - Ted Cruz is definitely weak on amnesty and is open to negotiating the details.

For instance, here's his entire statement from January 28 of this year (cruz.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=339434) about the Gang of Eight proposal:

I appreciate the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system. There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.

Note that Cruz isn't opposing the senators' plan to legalize millions upon millions of illegal aliens, he's just raising "deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship" part of the senators' plan.

Cruz isn't even outright opposing that "path to citizenship"; based on his statement above he might be open to supporting that "path" if he gets the right deal.

Based on Cruz' statement, if Congress wanted to pass a bill that would turn millions of illegal aliens into legal "guest workers", Cruz would be open to the idea. Compare Cruz' response to that of this site, or imagine how Tom Tancredo or Kris Kobach would respond. Would they oppose just the "path to citizenship", or would they oppose the massive legalization plan entirely?

Note also that converting millions of illegal aliens into legal workers wouldn't stop there: the Democratic Party would work night and day to convert those workers into voters. In fact, that effort would be much like the current effort, right down to the Democrats and their helpers holding out the Hispanic vote as a carrot to the GOP, and many GOP leaders falling for it. Further, having a permanent population of serfs might be good for business, but it's not at all conservative due to the impacts that it would have on society.

In July of last year, I asked if Ted Cruz would stop playing word games and would oppose comprehensive immigration reform instead of just opposing "amnesty", something with a disputed meaning.

We now have our answer: Cruz supports what this site calls amnesty, in that he does support a massive legalization program for illegal aliens. He does support "comprehensive immigration reform". He just has "deep concerns" with giving those millions of newly-legalized former illegal aliens citizenship.

Want to do something about this? Look up those who support @SenTedCruz and who should oppose amnesty and then point out the above to them (watch out for those who like to play word games). If a high profile conservative supports Ted Cruz, try to change their mind and if that doesn't work try to get their followers to do it.