Sen. Ted Cruz lashed out over the White House's proposal to grant a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young illegal immigrants.
"I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” Cruz told reporters. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
President Trump on Thursday offered a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who have applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as well as those who are eligible but haven't yet applied or entered the system. This, he put forth in exchange for $25 billion for the border wall and other security measures.
“We’re going to morph into it,” Trump said. “It’s going to happen, at some point in the future, over a period of 10 to 12 years. I think it’s a nice thing to have the incentive of after a period of years being able to become a citizen.”
Cruz said this offer is "inexplicable" and went further than former President Obama because even his administration did not include a provision for citizenship.
“For some reason that to me is utterly inexplicable, we see Republicans falling all over themselves to gallop to the left of [former President] Obama in a way that is contrary to the promises made to the voters who elected us,” he added.
Trump announced last year that he would be ending DACA with a six-month delay to allow members of Congress to find a solution by March 5.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member