Ted Cruz is upset with Washington, D.C. Democrats for their failure to govern.
The small-government worshipping Texas lawmaker lashed out at his senate colleagues after Republicans failed to pass a bill cracking down on so-called "sanctuary cities" who refuse to round-up their undocumented residents for deportation.
"Democratic senators choose to value partisan loyalty to the Obama White House over protecting the lives of the children who will be murdered by violent criminal illegal aliens in sanctuary cities," Cruz ranted during one of his trademark floor speeches ahead of the vote today.
The bill, sponsored by Louisiana Senator and current gubernatorial candidate David Vitter, was introduced in the wake of this summer's murder of Kate Steinle by an undocumented criminal in San Francisco. The gunman had previously been deported from the country five times. The so-called "Donald Trump Act" would have cut off federal funding to cities that do not cooperate with federal officials to deport undocumented immigrants.
The bill failed with only 54 votes.
"If it is the Democrats’ position for partisan reasons that they would rather stand with violent criminal illegal aliens, that is a sad testament on where one of the two major political parties in this country stands today," Cruz lamented, taking a break from his usual campaign trail antics to cast a vote back in D.C.
At least one Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, locked in an embattled reelection fight, voted against the law that would create a new mandatory minimum sentencing law while most criminal justice reforms in this country seek to move away from such draconian rules. From the Huffington Post:
The bill includes a provision called Kate's Law, named for Steinle, that creates a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years for people convicted of reentering the U.S. -- already a criminal offense -- if they were previously convicted of illegal reentry or of an aggravated felony.
“Do you stand with the violent criminal illegal aliens who are being released over and over again?" Cruz asked, directing his fire towards Senate Democrats. "Because, mind you, a vote ‘No’ is to say the next time, the next murderer like Kate Steinle’s murderer comes in, we shouldn’t have a mandatory five-year prison sentence, instead we should continue sanctuary cities that welcome and embrace them, until perhaps it is our family members that lose their lives.”
There are approximately 340 "sanctuary cities" across the U.S.
Watch Cruz blame Democrats for future murders in the United State Senate:
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