published Jan 25, 2018, 2:13:23 PM, by Sahil Kapur
(Bloomberg) —

Senator Ted Cruz blasted the idea of giving young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship, a day after President Donald Trump said he was open to the idea as part of immigration legislation being negotiated in Congress.

“I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” the Texas Republican said in the Capitol. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”

Cruz didn’t mention the president in his remarks, but they resurfaced some of the bitterness still left over from the presidential campaign. Trump fought Cruz for the Republican nomination and won with a hardline immigration stance that rejected “amnesty” for anyone in the country illegally. During the primaries, Cruz also took a strong stance on immigration and came out firmly against legalizing undocumented immigrants.

But on Wednesday, with negotiations on immigration legislation in Congress moving slowly, Trump indicated he was willing to be flexible.

“It’s gonna happen at some point in the future, over a period of 10-12 years,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think it’s a nice thing to have the incentive of after a period of years being able to become a citizen.”

Cruz said that President Barack Obama’s 2012 creation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which included included temporary work permits and deportation relief for young people that met certain criteria, didn’t provide a path to citizenship.

“For some reason that to me is utterly inexplicable, we see Republicans falling all over themselves to gallop to the left of Obama in a way that is contrary to the promises made to the voters who elected us,” Cruz said. “We need to honor the promises we made. And that is what I am energetically urging my colleagues to do.”

In the mix of proposals is one offered by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, which would grant “dreamers” a green card and path to citizenship if they met certain criteria. A competing GOP plan led by House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte includes three-year work permits for the “dreamers” but doesn’t promise them green cards. It allows them to apply through a rigorous process with a high bar that many won’t meet.

Cruz wouldn’t say if he views the Goodlatte proposal as being a path to citizenship. His office didn’t immediately return a follow-up request seeking clarity on that.