Sen. Cruz Praises Trump On Changes To Immigration, Cuba Policy
ARLINGTON (CBS11) - Sen. Ted Cruz praised President Donald Trump's decision to end former President Barack Obama's executive action called, DAPA.
It would have deferred deportations for an estimated 3.5 million illegal immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens or here in the U.S. legally.
The Senator said, "I think it is a step in the right direction that the Trump administration is going to follow the immigration laws that have been passed by Congress and are on the books and it's not going to continue President Obama's illegal executive amnesty in the DAPA program."
The Obama administration's policy never went into effect because states like Texas filed suit, and the federal courts have blocked it.
President Trump however is not ending the Obama administration's policy to defer deportations for the children who were brought illegally into the U.S. known as DREAMERS.
The President campaigned that he would end that program as well, but changed his mind.
Sen. Cruz appeared at a news conference in Arlington Friday, where General Motors announced plans to open a supplier park to support building its full-size SUV's at its nearby plant.
The facility will house up to 1250 employees, including 850 new jobs to the city.
Six hundred of the jobs will replace work previously done outside the U.S.
The Senator said, "My number one priority is "jobs, jobs, jobs. The way we get jobs is tax reform, regulatory reform, is repealing Obamacare."
As he has said previously, he is ignoring what he calls the "political circus" in Washington and won't focus on the special counsel investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
While some Republicans have criticized special counsel Robert Mueller, Sen. Cruz praised him. "I do think Bob Mueller is a good and honorable man and so I hope he will focus on his specific assignment and not allow it to turn into a far-ranging fishing expedition or political attack. I don't believe he will and I certainly hope he won't."
Senator Cruz also praised President Trump's announcement Friday that he's changing some of the Obama administration's policy toward Cuba.
President Trump said the U.S. won't lift sanctions on Cuba until the island nation releases all of its political prisoners and respects Cubans' rights to speak and gather freely.
He also said the U.S. will restrict the flow of American money to Cuba's military.
Cruz, whose father and aunt were both imprisoned and tortured in Cuba years ago said, "I've met with Cuban dissidents who have said after Obama embraced Castro, the oppression increased, the imprisonment increased, the torture increased, human rights went down. What happened is billions of dollars went into strengthen the communist government."