Cruz Handles Question from Progressive
Senator emphasizes compassion for legal citizens and enforcing the law
Manchester, NH — It began like many other questions supporters ask Ted Cruz: a preface highlighting shared ideals of upholding the Constitution and a deep religious background.
But Martha Lineberger, after quoting a long Bible passage about helping the poor, asked the Texas senator how he could square his immigration policy with “the words of the Lord.” At an event dominated by “amen”s and “hear, hear”s at American Legion Sweeney Post 2, the young woman’s pointed — if not hostile — question was oddly dissonant.
Mr. Cruz began by emphasizing how “we’ve always been a compassionate people.” Rather than focusing on illegal immigrants, he pivoted to the “legal immigrants and citizens losing out” as a result of current immigration policy. “We need to have compassion for them,” he said, citing how illegal immigrants, in his view, drive down salaries and cost legal residents jobs.
“People leave [their native countries] because their countries don’t listen to the laws,” Mr. Cruz noted. “In America, our laws mean something.”
In part thanks to Donald Trump, who has called for a wall to be built along the southern border, immigration has become a central issue in the Republican campaign. Mr. Cruz has positioned himself alongside Mr. Trump as a hardliner on the issue. He, too, has called for a wall, as well as tripling the number of border patrol agents and heightening surveillance and tracking systems.
A Brooklynite originally from North Carolina, Ms. Lineberger is a public defender who arrived in New Hampshire Thursday afternoon to ask candidates “tough questions” on behalf of progressive causes. She reported she has seen Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jeb Bush and “someone else” she forgot in addition to Mr. Cruz.
“He didn’t answer my question,” Ms. Lineberger said, adding that his position is “unkind to the poor.”
She tried following up with Mr. Cruz while he was speaking, but the senator cut her off. “I’m not here to debate with you,” he said. “I’ll gladly answer your question, but I’m not here to debate.”
The transition from talking about compassion to enforcing the law was quick, if not smooth. He laid out a general principle: “legal, good; illegal, bad.”
He circled back to finish his answer with a more upbeat tone, reminding the attendees that the US is the “most compassionate nation,” welcoming more immigrants than any other country and referencing Emma Lazarus’s “The New Colossus,” which appears on the Statue of Liberty.
Ms. Lineberger said she is an “undecided progressive” who plans to vote for a Democrat, although she did note that “Jeb’s immigration plan is much better.”
While her and Mr. Cruz may not agree on the issue, the exchange demonstrates how both have embraced the unique process of the New Hampshire Primary, in which personal contact between voters and candidates is the norm. Mr. Cruz devoted a portion of his speech to lavishing praise on the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation status. “Vetting the candidates,” he said. “That’s the special role y’all are engaged in.”
