During the November 10 Republican presidential debate, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that reporters and news anchors who do not see illegal immigration as a threat would change their tunes if the people crossing the Rio Grande had journalism degrees and threatened to destroy the financial livelihood of those who work in the mainstream press.
He said these things after Republican presidential hopefuls John Kasich and Jeb Bush countered Donald Trump’s strong stand against illegal immigration. Cruz went on to explain that it’s easy to be soft on illegal immigration when the mainstream media is not interested in cracking down on it either.
He observed: “When the mainstream media covers illegal immigration they do not see it as an economic issue, but I can tell that for millions of Americans watching this [debate] at home it is a very personal economic issue.”
Cruz said things would be different if the jobs being threatened by illegal immigration were those that hit a little closer to the pocketbooks of disinterested parties.
He said, “I will say, the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press, then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.”
Cruz added, “And I will say for those who believe people ought to come to this country legally and [that] we should enforce the law, we’re tired of being told [that that position] is anti-immigrant.” He said “it’s offensive” to be told upholding legal immigration and enforcing the law is somehow “anti-immigrant.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.