Q&A with Sen. Ted Cruz: Cuba, border crisis and elections

Senator Ted Cruz, who joined the U.S. Senate in 2012, has proved himself a passionate fighter for economic growth, the Constitution, and religious freedom. My Faith Votes had the opportunity to speak with him in July.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Watch the full interview here.

Cuba is a place that’s dear to your heart; your father is from Cuba and was imprisoned and tortured there. In the wake of the current protests from the Cuban people against the communist government, what can you tell us about this situation?

We are seeing people demonstrate extraordinary courage and patriotism. They’re going to the streets of, not just Havana, but cities all throughout Cuba demanding freedom. Cuban protestors are being thrown in prison and getting tortured. They’re risking their lives to stand up to this communist regime.

The United States could have a profound impact on the situation by demonstrating moral leadership. Joe Biden needs to stand up and say America stands with the Cuban people. We are with the protestors and oppose the dictatorship that is torturing its own people. The Cuban people deserve free speech, religious liberty, and free and fair elections.

The U.S. should also be working to expand internet access in Cuba. The Cuban regime is trying to block Internet access to silence their citizens, and we should be using the tools we have to enable them to speak out.

We’ve seen videos of people at the border, and we’ve heard of the number of unaccompanied minors there.  Do we have a crisis at the border?

We absolutely do. In politics, there are a lot of manufactured crises. What’s happening at the border is different. The situation at the border is worse than I have ever seen it in the nine years I’ve served in the Senate. We’re on a path to see over 2 million people cross the border into this country illegally this year, and that’s the highest rate of illegal immigration in 21 years.

It was caused by three decisions that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made at the beginning of the administration. First, they immediately halted the construction of the border wall. Second, they reinstated the failed “catch and release” policy. This policy allows people who are apprehended at the border to be released after being given a court date, and they just never show up for their court date. Thirdly, they ended the incredibly successful “Remain in Mexico” international agreement that President Trump negotiated with the Mexican government.

During his first week in office, President Joe Biden ripped that successful agreement into pieces and we went from the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years to the highest rate in 21 years. And there is a human cost. We saw thousands upon thousands of children packed in, one on top of another. These children are being brought in by human traffickers. They're facing physical assault. They're facing sexual assault. We saw little girls that were being raped by human traffickers. These are the scum of the earth that are making millions by trafficking in human beings. It is a crisis. It's a manmade crisis. And it really is horrific what's happening.

What do you think is at stake for our nation as we look to the next elections?

If you look at our nation, there are a lot of believers who don't engage in the political world, and we're seeing the most far-reaching assault on our values that we've ever seen. So, I think an enormous amount is at stake.

I’d put what Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi are trying to advance into two buckets. The first bucket is just bad policy. They’re adding trillions of dollars of new spending and taxes. They’re killing jobs and regulating small businesses to death.

The second bucket is the profound structural changes the left wants to make to change the rules of the game. S.R.1, what I call the “Corrupt Politicians Act,” was just one example. They also want to add two new states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, because they believe both of those states would elect two left-wing senators each. The most dangerous thing they want to do is pack the U.S. Supreme Court. They want to immediately add four left-wing judicial activists. It’s all about control.

I think there was no legacy of Donald Trump more important than appointing principled constitutionalists to the courts. That's something I've been deeply involved in for the last nine years. And I think if you value our liberties under the Constitution and Bill of Rights, you've got to have judges that will protect those rights and not tear them down. When we look at America now, we see the most far-reaching assault on our values and our cultures, on the principles that built America, we've ever seen.