‘Every damn day’: Cruz brings heat on immigration but is overshadowed at GOP convention | Opinion
Sen. Ted Cruz’s message at the Republican convention Tuesday night was unmistakable — unchecked illegal immigration is a threat to all Americans.
“Every day Americans are dying, murdered, assaults, raped by illegal immigrants that the Democrats released,” the Texan warned GOP delegates gathered in Milwaukee.
And while he offered some specious reasoning, he punctuated his speech with a rallying cry that the crowd soon echoed: “Every damn day,” meaning somewhere, Americans are victims of heinous crimes committed by those here illegally. He offered the alarmed delegates a bright spot, promising: “We can fix it. And when Donald Trump is president, we will fix it.”
It was a typical Cruz performance: powerful and pugnacious. And yet he was soon overshadowed by several other speakers, many of whom could be rivals if he wants to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028.
Nikki Haley. Ron DeSantis. Marco Rubio. And don’t forget new vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance, who didn’t speak Tuesday but entered to cheers and sat with Donald Trump, watching the proceedings.
Eventually, even Cruz’s message was overshadowed by poignant stories from relatives of some of the very crime victims he mentioned.
His speech was far from perfect. He blamed President Joe Biden for a surge in illegal immigration, and while that’s certainly true, Cruz claimed that 11.5 million people have crossed the border illegally under Biden. That apparently lumps together various groups, including many who were turned away or denied asylum claims. But Cruz implied that that large number was allowed to stay in the country, and that’s not the case.
Cruz also said that such illegal immigration “happened because Democrats cynically decided they wanted votes from illegals more than they wanted to protect our children.” Surely, Democrats perceive some political benefit, but it would probably be decades before anyone who came over illegally was in position to become a citizen and vote.
The more convincing argument is that Democrats are so blinkered about what Hispanic voters actually value and so sheepish about enforcing American interests that they won’t craft an immigration system that controls the border and imports the workers we need rather than just those who manage to make it across.
Cruz also used the tired trope that this is the most important election ever, saying “never before has an election mattered so much” because of the “invasion” of immigration.
How is it possible that, miraculously, every four years is the biggest election we’ve ever had?
Directionally, though, Cruz’s speech landed. Chaos at the border is a real weakness for Democrats. Cruz painted a picture of families whose loved ones were ripped away. The counterargument that gets made — those here illegally don’t commit as much crime as American citizens — is accurate. But it overlooks the common sense that any American to the right of Bernie Sanders can see: These crimes wouldn’t have occurred if the perpetrators hadn’t been let in or allowed to stay in the first place.
Cruz has made it no secret that he loved running for president in 2016, despite the outcome, and relishes the chance to do it again. First, he has to win a third term in November against Dallas Democratic Rep. Colin Allred. The race will be competitive but, in the end, it shouldn’t be all that close.
No one speech or convention appearance will determine if he can pull it off. But Tuesday night proved that if he goes for it in 2028, he’ll certainly have plenty of competition — and that, despite being the runner up to Trump eight years ago, he’s now much lower in the pecking order than he might like.
This story was originally published July 17, 2024 at 5:28 AM.
