Sessions says Rubio wrong on immigration attacks: ‘Cruz stood with me’

(Video above: Senator Jeff Sessions backs Senator Ted Cruz in his spat with Senator Rubio)

WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is lending his significant credibility to Senator Ted Cruz in a spat with Senator Marco Rubio, after the two presidential candidates tangled over their respective records on the issue of immigration.

Cruz has long been critical of Rubio’s participation in the so called Gang of Eight, a bi-partisan group of senators who pushed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that many conservatives view as amnesty. Cruz continued that line of attack against Rubio earlier this week during the most recent Republican presidential debate.

Rubio shot back, however, by claiming that Cruz’s hardline rhetoric on immigration does not match up to his actual record, which Rubio says is not much different than his own.

Here is a transcript of their exchange:

RUBIO: As far as Ted’s record, I’m always puzzled by his attack on this issue. Ted, you support legalizing people who are in this country illegally. Ted Cruz supported a 500-percent increase in the number of H-1 visas, the guest workers that are allowed into this country, and Ted supports doubling the number of green cards.

CRUZ: Look, I understand Marco wants to raise confusion, it is not accurate what he just said that I supported legalization. Indeed, I led the fight against his legalization and amnesty. And you know, there was one commentator that put it this way that, for Marco to suggest our record’s the same is like suggesting “the fireman and the arsonist because they are both at the scene of the fire.”

He was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border, I was fighting to secure the border. And this also goes to trust. Listening on the campaign trails, candidates all the time make promises…

RUBIO: Does Ted Cruz rule out ever legalizing people that are in this country now?

CRUZ: I have never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization

Cruz’s “intend to” language was far from his finest moment, and a campaign spokesperson later clarified that the senator would not support legalization under any circumstances. But the crux of Rubio’s argument is that Cruz offered an amendment during the Gang of Eight bill debate that would have granted legal status, but remove the possibility of citizenship, to individuals in the country illegally.

Cruz says now the amendment was meant as a “poison pill” to kill the whole package, or at the very least as a way to expose that what Democrats really wanted was not to “bring people out of the shadows,” as they often claimed, but rather to grant citizenship to millions of future Democratic voters. By removing citizenship from the equation, Cruz allies said he was exposing Democrats’ true motives.

Rubio and other scoff at that explanation, and some pundits argued after the debate that Cruz’s conservative luster on the issue of immigration had been dimmed by the Rubio exchange.

But the one individual whose record on the issue of immigration is beyond question with conservatives is Sen. Sessions, making his perspective on the Rubio-Cruz spat the definitive word for many immigration hawks on what actually happened.

During an appearance on the Howie Carr Show on Thursday, Sessions firmly sided with Cruz.

“Senator Cruz stood with me,” Sessions said emphatically. “We recognized that the talking points that Senator Rubio and others were using to describe the monumental (Gang of Eight) bill were not accurate. It would not do the things they said it would do. The law enforcement people opposed it vigorously.

“And so one of (Senator Cruz’s) 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. Of course, the bill allowed for citizenship as part of amnesty. (Cruz’s amendment) didn’t fix everything, but of course I voted for it, and so did he and he spoke for it and he sort of teased or mocked the other side by saying, ‘Well, you say you want immigration, you can have immigration, but give us citizenship.’ Oh no, they wouldn’t do that. Ted won that debate — lost the vote, but won the debate.

“The vote was a good vote,” Sessions continued. “It exposed how politically attuned the Democrats and sponsors of the bill were. The key parts were to have citizenship and voting rights for people who had been in the country illegally. I don’t think that should have ever been done… (Senator Cruz and I) stood together on this one, I’ve got to tell you. And I think Senator Rubio has to answer for things that were in that bill that I don’t think were good policy.”