When I first started watching Ted Cruz’s newest television spot, I was confused. The campaign ad features hundreds of lawyers and journalists ostensibly running across the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to achieve the opportunities that only America can afford.
I was shocked that Cruz had accidentally been so sympathetic to Mexican immigrants—the argument he was making, I thought, was that we would work hard to make it easier to come to the U.S. if we thought the potential new citizens were highly trained professionals. Maybe that’s how we should start to think about all the potential talent coming to us from the south.
But, no. I was so wrong, and so stupid.
“I will say the politics of [immigration reform] would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande,” he says in a voice over. “Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press. Then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.”
Following Cruz’s reasoning, the border’s current insecurity doesn’t threaten the livelihood of the coastal, professional elite. This ad attempts to demonstrate why.
If elected president, Cruz promises to triple the number of border control agents, to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and to increase deportations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-SC1u…
Contact the author at joanna@jezebel.com.