Senator Ted Cruz declared his candidacy for the Presidency on Monday in a speech given at Liberty University. It was a fine presentation of patriotic principles where he called on conservatives to rise up and “reignite the promise of America.”

He spoke extemporaneously, without the help of a teleprompter, the gadget vital to Obama maintaining the appearance of intelligence. There’s no question that Cruz is one of the brighter persons in Washington.

Cruz touched briefly upon immigration:

(TRANSCRIPT from WaPo)

Instead of the lawlessness and the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the borders.

(APPLAUSE)

And imagine a legal immigration system that welcomes and celebrates those who come to achieve the American dream.

Immigration enforcement is not his strongest subject.

In 2013, I spent many hours watching the markup of the Senate’s Gang of Eight amnesty bill, and Cruz was a potted plant in comparison to Senators Sessions and Grassley, who submitted 49 and 77 amendments respectively to improve the dangerously flawed legislation.

The hearing was the basis of my June 4, 2013, Vdare article, WaPo Compares Senator Sessions To George Wallace—He Must Be Doing Something Right! Following is a snip highlighting Cruz’s underwhelming performance:

The Republicans, conversely, had a number of diverse amendments.

Celebrated newbie conservative Ted Cruz of Texas wrote just five, and kept a mostly low profile in the hearing even when he showed up. He did pipe up to chastise the bill for making the illegal immigration problem worse by having no real enforcement. But he enthusiastically entered an amendment to increase H-1b tech visas by 500 percent, from 65,000 now to 325,000, which surely made Facebook founder (and cheap-labor abuser) Mark Zuckerberg smile. (Zuck needs to pinch pennies to keep up his $7-million Palo Alto house after he lost $4 billion in net worth due to the IPO flop of FB.)

Interestingly, the clip I linked to his proposal in the hearing to increase H-1b visas is still available on the Cruz Tube channel:

The Cruz amendment would have upped the annual H-1B cap from 65,000 to 325,000, or in Cruz’s words “increase it by 500 percent” as if that would be a good thing. The amendment was defeated in committee, perhaps because it would have increased the fees to businesses using foreign worker visas.

Last week’s Senate hearing focused on protecting American jobs provided plenty of evidence that the visa program for skilled STEM workers is a scam to save money for billionaires.

However, the fact of business displacing American tech workers for cheaper foreign workers has been known for years, so Cruz cannot claim ignorance.