Big Bird fight was fun, but Ted Cruz’s better trolling was this move on immigration
Ted Cruz is about halfway through his second term as a senator, and he doesn’t have a long list of legislative accomplishments to tout.
But when it comes to a major part of the congressional job description these days — trolling opponents — he might be the Henry Clay of his time.
The Texas Republican has been in another extended Twitter battle this week over Big Bird. Yes, the “Sesame Street” character who tweeted (ha!) that he’d gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. The intent was to promote the shot for children who are newly eligible, though, as one Twitter wag noted, Big Bird himself is almost a senior citizen and should have been vaccinated months ago.
That part wasn’t Cruz’s point. He called it “government propaganda,” and the predictable cycle unfolded: mockery by other Twitter users, late-night jokes, other conservatives piling on the Muppet.
A lesser-noticed Cruz troll from last month, however, deserves a closer look. He introduced a measure to address the surge of illegal immigration and the toll that month after month of record-setting apprehensions takes on communities such as Del Rio.
Actual legislating? Eh, not quite.
Cruz’s bill would require new immigrant processing centers in liberal enclaves around the country. Among them are Cambridge, Massachusetts (home of Harvard University, where Cruz got his law degree); Palo Alto, California; and Newport, Rhode Island. All migrants apprehended along the Texas border would have to be moved to the specified locations.
“How exactly do you think the rich, stuck-up liberals in Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard would react if they saw 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 illegal aliens being dropped off week after week in the vineyard?” Cruz said on FOX News.
Cruz knows it will never become law. He’s making a point, and in this case, a good one. Border communities are overwhelmed as never before. The cost of services to the state, counties and cities is considerable.
Texas has more than half the U.S.-Mexico border. Cruz is right when he says we feel the impact of lax immigration policies in a way that many progressives who essentially advocate open borders do not.
He also knows his bill will never become law. But at least in Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren or Nancy Pelosi, he has a more appropriate trolling target than poor Big Bird.
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