Sessions defends Cruz on immigration battle with Rubio: 'We stood together on this one'
By Howard Koplowitz | hkoplowitz@al.com
U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., came to the defense of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday over Cruz's battle with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on immigration.
Rubio and Cruz are vying for the 2016 Republican nomination for president, and the two senators went toe-to-toe on immigration during Tuesday night's CNN debate, where Cruz attacked Rubio for being one of the sponsors of the so-called Gang of Eight immigration compromise in 2013, which included Democratic senators like Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois. Rubio later backtracked from the bill, which would have given illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, after it was clear it wouldn't pass Congress.
He later said immigration reform should be done in piecemeal instead of a broad bill like the 2013 proposal.
Meanwhile, Rubio countered by suggesting Cruz "supports legalizing people in this country illegally, increasing H-1B visas and doubling the number of green cards," referring to an amendment the Texas senator tried to insert into the 2013 legislation.
But Cruz, who frequently mentions Sessions as a partner on defeating the 2013 immigration bill, has said the language he wanted inserted was a "poison pill" designed to prove that the Gang of Eight's main motivation for the bill was amnesty for illegals.
During an appearance on Howie Carr's radio show Thursday, Sessions sided with Cruz.
"Sen. Cruz stood with me. ...We stood together on this one, I got to tell you," the Alabama senator said. "We recognized that the talking points that Sen. Rubio and others were using to describe this monumental bill were not accurate. It would not do the things that they said it would do. The law enforcement people opposed it viciously and vigorously. And so one of his amendments was to block citizenship, and he made it just to block citizenship for anybody who entered the country illegally, which I think is exactly right."
Alabama's senator, widely recognized as the body's loudest voice on illegal immigration, noted that he voted for Cruz's amendment because it would have tanked the bill's provision to give citizenship to illegals.
"Of course the bill allowed for citizenship as part as amnesty. [The amendment] didn't fix everything in the bill and I of course voted for it and so did he and he's spoken for it and he's sort of teased or mocked the other side by saying that, 'Well, you say you want your immigration you can have your immigration, but you give us citizenship,"
Sessions said.
"Oh no, they wouldn't do that, Schumer, he had a fit over that in a heated debate and Ted won that debate. Lost the vote, but he won the debate."
Cruz's presidential campaign is making stops in Daphne and Trussville this weekend.
Listen to Sessions' appearance below::