Ted Cruz Spokeswoman: Cornyn Bill 'Does Not Go Far Enough'

A bill introduced by his home-state colleague and Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) “does not go far enough” in addressing the tens of thousands of illegal alien children streaming across the southern U.S. border, Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), told Breitbart News.

“The Cornyn Cuellar bill takes positive steps but does not go far enough,” Frazier said. “We must put a stop to the President’s amnesty if we want to stop this crisis, and that starts with stopping DACA.”

The criticism from Cruz comes after Cornyn aides have touted Cruz’s claimed support for the measure. Asked whether Cruz supports the Cornyn bill, Frazier said he did not because “the top priority is putting an end to DACA and Cornyn’s bill doesn’t do that.”

The Cornyn bill amends a 2008 human-trafficking law that has been cited as a key obstacle to deporting the illegal alien children flooding the border, as well as language mirroring a House proposal from Rep. Michael McCaul requiring the administration to create a plan to secure the border.

Cruz has called for the legislation to address Obama’s executive actions on immigration and has offered his own bill aimed at curbing the flow of illegal immigration rather than dealing with illegal aliens once they’re here.

“What I want to do is solve the crisis,” Cruz said in an interview on Fox News Sunday this weekend, adding:

The cause of this crisis is the promise of amnesty. If you look at the history of this issue–in 2011, there were roughly 6,000 children apprehended coming in illegally. Then in 2012, President Obama unilaterally granted amnesty to some 800,000 people who were here illegally who entered as children. The direct foreseeable consequence of that was the number of unaccompanied children skyrocketed so that this year, the Obama administration is estimating that 90,000 kids will come, next year 145,000. That’s up from 6,000 just three years ago.

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace pressed Cruz on why he’s not supporting the other bills–like Cornyn’s or a forthcoming House GOP bill–even if they don’t take enough action that he wants.

“The only way to solve this crisis is to stop President Obama’s amnesty,” Cruz said, to which Wallace replied, “What if that blocks action on this crisis?”

“I don’t want to block action,” Cruz said. “What I want to do is have action that fixes the problem. If we pass a bill–let’s take President Obama’s proposed bill, $3.7 billion–it does nothing to solve the problem.”

Wallace then showed a quote from, and played video of, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacking Cruz. The quote that Wallace showed on screen was of Reid on the Senate floor arguing that Cruz was using illegal alien children as chips in a high-stakes political poker game.

“Had we done comprehensive immigration reform, we wouldn’t be having this issue,” Reid added at a press conference last week. “Everyone here, the border is secure.”

“President Obama and Harry Reid both engage in debates divorced from the facts and divorced from the reality,” Cruz responded. He continued:

Harry Reid lives in the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C. I’m sure, from his perspective, the border seems secure. I would invite Harry Reid to come with me down to Texas and see the border. On the border, we are seeing the opposite of following the law. The border is not secured; 90,000 children are expected to come into this country illegally this year, and Harry Reid says the border is secure? I’ll tell you who’s holding these kids ransom: It’s Harry Reid and the President because their view is, “Don’t do anything to fix the problem.” The Gang of Eight bill is one of the causes of this problem. What the kids are saying is they’re coming because they believe they’ll get amnesty. Part of the Gang of Eight bill is promising them amnesty.