Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Monday that President Barack Obama is the single “biggest obstacle to passing common sense immigration reform.”
“A path to citizenship is the most divisive aspect of this bill,” Cruz told ABC’s Jeff Zeleny, “and the White House is insisting on it.”
Cruz slammed both the White House and Congress for being soft on border security provisions and for shutting down substantive amendments to the immigration bill that would prevent incentivizing continued illegal immigration.
“The path the White House is going down, I believe, is designed for this bill to fail,” Cruz said. “It is designed for it to sail through the Senate and then crash in the House to let the president go and campaign in 2014 on this issue.”
Cruz has been criticized for going against the grain of the GOP leadership, earning him the nickname “wacko bird” from Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
To that criticism, Cruz responded “if standing for liberty, if standing for free market principles and the Constitution makes you a wacko bird, then I am a very proud wacko bird.”
