President Barack Obama has been abusing his executive powers, according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
In an interview that aired Tuesday on Fusion, a TV channel launched by ABC and Univision, host Jorge Ramos asked Cruz whether he agreed with his father Rafael’s comparison between Obama’s use of executive power and the leadership of former Cuban President Fidel Castro.
“I think he has absolutely been abusing his power,” Cruz responded. “And when you have a president who says ‘Regardless of whether Congress acts, I’m going to force my agenda on the American people,’ that’s wrong.”
Ramos then pivoted to the subject of immigration, asking why the tea party senator opposes a path to citizenship for immigrants who are already in the United States when Cruz’s father, a Cuban immigrant, gained citizenship in 2005.
“A path to citizenship for those who came here illegally — in my view I think that is unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, sometimes decades in line to come here,” Cruz said, pointing out that his father immigrated legally.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said earlier this year that he believed Obama might legalize the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the country by executive order if Congress failed to act on immigration reform. The president has since vowed not to use his executive authority to extend deferred deportations beyond DREAMers, or immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Watch the interview below, courtesy of Fusion. Skip ahead to the 4:20 mark for Cruz’s comments.
