ThinkProgress
By Kerna Lerner
October 16, 2015
On
Tuesday morning, Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz spoke to a
crowd of Iowa voters from a small hotel in rural eastern Iowa. As he
spoke, calling for tightening
immigration enforcement and securing the borders, he stood in front of a
wall painted with the words of Matthew 11:28 — “Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Following
his remarks, Roger Farmer, a Mennonite from eastern Iowa, asked Cruz to
reconcile his support for deportation with those words from the Bible.
“The Bible says
we should welcome the stranger and the immigrant,” he said. “That verse
on the wall behind you says a similar thing. Your policies seem to be
in opposition to that.”
Cruz quickly tried to justify his policies in front of the largely religious audience.
“The
fact that we lock our doors doesn’t mean we hate our next door
neighbors,” he said, before going on to discuss his support for securing
the borders and preventing
undocumented immigrants from getting into the United States. Cruz also
pointed out that he is the son of a “legal immigrant” and that we should
continue to welcome legal immigrants.
“We are a loving, generous, welcoming country,” the Texas senator said.
But
to Farmer, Cruz’s answer was not sufficient. Farmer has been fighting
for immigration justice with “Friends of Pastor Max,” a group formed in
support of Iowa City
Mennonite Pastor Max Villatoro.
Villatoro
was deported to Honduras earlier this year, leaving his wife and
children behind in Iowa. The father of four was considered a “high
priority” for deportation
for a nearly two-decade-old drunk driving conviction. At the time, he
received 25,000 signed petitions on his behalf.
“What
happened to him didn’t make any sense to me and Mr. Cruz’s policies
accentuate that and emphasize that,” Farmer said. “He encouraged legal
immigration which is great,
but he did not address what to do with people who are here not legally,
and that’s one problem we have now. And so he didn’t address that. None
of [the Republican candidates] do.”
During
a video chat hosted by the immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice in
June, Villatoro spoke about how hard it is to be separated from his
family. “My life is there,”
Villatoro said, having called Iowa his home for 20 years. “I’m a
stranger here.”
Max
Villatoro and his four children when they visited him in Honduras this
August.Max Villatoro and his four children when they visited him in
Honduras this August.CREDIT:
Villatoro
was targeted by law enforcement officials in March when they arrested
more than 2,000 convicted criminal immigrants during a week-long raid.
But nearly half
of those people were individuals whose most serious crimes were
misdemeanors. Some of those immigrants finished their criminal sentences
years ago and have since turned their lives around.
Recognizing
this, many cities have started refusing to cooperate with immigration
authorities to deport immigrants, earning the name “sanctuary cities.”
But Cruz claims
that these cities are actually sheltering “murderers and rapists.”
When
ThinkProgress asked him at a campaign stop in Keokuk, Iowa about his
legislation to eliminate federal funding of those cities — given the
fact that the crime rate
is actually lower among immigrant populations than the general public
and that sanctuary cities foster better relationships between law
enforcement and the community — Cruz said that the government should
“enforce the law.”
“The
simple reality is we need to secure our borders and it doesn’t make
sense to be allowing people into this country with criminal records who
are violating the law,”
he said. “In the year 2013, the Obama administration released into the
public over 104,000 criminal illegal aliens. 196 of them were murderers.
They were illegal aliens with homicide convictions. Nearly 400 of them
had sexual assault convictions. If I’m elected
president, the federal government will no longer be releasing murderers
and rapists who are here illegally.”
He
also called for the passage of Kate’s Law, introduced after 32-year-old
Kate Steinle was killed by an undocumented immigrant in San Francisco
in July. Steinle’s death
unfurled anti-immigrant sentiment against sanctuary cities and GOP
candidates, most notably Donald Trump, have cited the tragedy to double
down on calls to secure the border and to get rid of sanctuary cities.
“This
beautiful young lady was murdered because of the unwillingness of
politicians to enforce the law,” Cruz told ThinkProgress Tuesday. “That
is not right, and if I’m
elected president, it will end.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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