Valley Central - Senator Cruz to President Obama: "Stop Granting Amnesty"

News Article

By Valeria Aponte

Senator Ted Cruz claims that to solve this immigration crisis, the federal government needs to stop amnesty.

Saturday, Texas Senator Cruz was in the Rio Grande Valley touring the McAllen Border Patrol stations, both the one on Military Highway and the other that will open in a matter of days on Ursula Ave.

Also, Cruz with conservative talk show host Glen Beck volunteered at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

This marks Cruz first visit to the Valley since the current humanitarian crisis erupted.

The senator was in in the Valley for only a day but he managed to make some time to speak to Action 4 News about what he believes caused this immigration crisis.

"If you look what is causing this crisis it's very clear that it is the promise of amnesty that is causing so many tens of thousands of kids to risk their lives coming to this country," Cruz said.

Cruz claims Border Patrol agents he met inside the McAllen Border Patrol station agree with him and that 95 percent of those immigrants inside admitted that they came because of the promise of amnesty.

"I asked, Why are they coming? To every Border Patrol agent I met with gave the same answer, they said they are coming because they believe they get amnesty," Cruz said. "That's why these kids are coming and I asked ok how do we fix it and they said the only way to fix it is to send them home, don't give them amnesty."

Cruz said that the number of immigrants crossing illegally has exponentially grown throughout the years.

"In 2012 the president unilateraly granted amnesty to some 800,000 people who were here illegally who had entered as kids," Cruz said. "The direct and foreseeable and predicted consequence of that is that we have seen, an explosion in the kids coming illegally."

However some of these children are fleeing some of the most violent countries in the world.

According to the United Nations, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala are on the top five list of the countries with highest murder rates in the world.

Immigrants who have spoken to Action 4 News said the statistics are accurate and violence forced them to flee their country.

"The administration pointing to the violence in Central America ignores the facts and the reason they are pointing at the violence of Central America is because they are refusing to take responsibility for the failed policies that had produced this crisis," Cruz said.

However, according to Cruz some lawmakers are headed in the right track with their actions to solve this humanitarian crisis.

Cruz is talking about Senator John Cornyn and Congressman Henry Cuellar's proposed HUMANE Act.

"I think both Senator Cornyn and Congressman Cuellar are showing real leadership, trying to address this problem and I think they have beneficial elements in their legislation. The most critical piece however to addressing this humanitarian crisis is ending the promise of amnesty.."

This week Senator Cruz introduced legislation that would prohibit President Obama from granting amnesty in the future, use taxpayer funds to expand DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and deny work permits to new immigrants who enter the country illegally.

Cruz already plans to fight for three legislative reforms to solve this crisis:
1. Stop the flow of illegal immigration
2. Reunite immigrants who crossed illegally during this crisis with their families back in their home countries
3. Protect the US Mexico border.

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