Sen. Ted Cruz has blasted President Barack Obama's "amnesty" policy for illegal immigrant children that he says has resulted in thousands of them being physically and sexually assaulted by vicious drug cartel coyotes.
The Texas Republican said in a commentary for
The Texas Tribune that the border crisis is the "direct result" of Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, while adding that it opened the door for minors to become easy targets for predatory criminal traffickers.
"If amnesty is granted to those who come as children, many more children will come," said Cruz. "And those children are being victimized, many physically and sexually assaulted by violent drug cartel coyotes.
"It is not compassionate to act like the Democrats, who are doing nothing to stop tens of thousands of little girls and boys from being abused. We cannot solve this crisis without ending the amnesty."
Cruz said that the GOP would "welcome" a debate over how to secure the borders and reform the "legal" immigration system, but noted that Obama and his supporters are "devoted to amnesty."
"They're holding the safety and security of our nation hostage to get it," wrote Cruz.
"Although polling shows that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama's immigration policies, the president and his allies remain committed to an agenda that has created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
"As the son of a refugee from Cuba, I understand the plight of immigrants in a very personal way. And I'm unwilling to follow the president's course of spending billions on social services but maintaining the amnesty that will in perpetuity cause thousands more children to be victimized."
Cruz wrote that the before the deferred action order was passed by Obama, "without approval from Congress," only 6,000 unaccompanied children were seized at the border in 2011. But in 2014, an estimated 90,000 will cross the border, "many of them smuggled by vicious criminals," Cruz said.
"I am opposed to the president's immigration policy because I believe immigrants deserve better," Cruz added. "Immigrants deserve a system in which they will be welcomed to the United States safely and with dignity."
And he concluded by saying, "The solutions are really quite simple: Secure the border, end the amnesty, and implement a system that celebrates legal immigration. If, that is, Democrats would let us."
Meanwhile, Republican Ruben Villarreal, mayor of Rio Grande City in South Texas, has announced his strong support for Texas. Gov. Rick Perry's decision to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the region to help deal with the countless crimes committed by illegal immigrants, the
Texas Tribune reports.
"Beggars can't be choosers," he said. "I'll take whatever help they can give me. They make a huge difference for me."
Villarreal said he needs the extra manpower so that his police force can concentrate on the community instead of immigration concerns, according to the Texas Tribune.
The measure has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers, who claim that it is purely political posturing from a potential White House candidate in 2016.