"On Monday (of last week), I had the opportunity to tour Lackland Air Force Base where they had 1,200 little boys and little girls being held there and what we are seeing is a humanitarian disaster which is in direct consequence to President Obama's lawlessness."

In 2011, he said, there were 6,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended trying to come into this country.  Then in 2012, right before the last election, "President Obama illegally granted amnesty to some 800,000 people who were here illegally who had entered as children.  As a result we saw an immediate spike in the numbers of unaccompanied children.  It went from 6,000 in 2011 to this year it is estimated to be at roughly 90,000."

"It's important to understand that their parents are handing them over to transnational global criminal organizations and cartels.  These are hardened, brutal criminals and these little boys and little girls are being subjected to physical violence to sexual violence, their lives are in danger.  One of the senior officials at Lackland described how some of these little boys and girls are being held hostage and part of the way they horrifically extract more money from their families is they will cut off part of their body parts and send them back to their families and they make other children do it.  They make other little boys and little girls cut of fingers and ears.  They put machine guns to their heads and if a child refuses, they murder that child." 

"The system is anything but humane, immigration is an issue in which there is a great deal of bi-partisan agreement," stated the US Senator who said he is the son of legal immigrants from Cuba who came to Texas in 1957 in search of The American Dream, "We need to get serious about enforcing our law and solving this problem of illegal immigration."

He added that the country needs to work to completely streamline legal immigration so that we become a nation that not only welcomes, but celebrates legal immigration to this country.

"I am the son of an immigrant who came legally 57 years ago to Texas seeking the American Dream and if we focus on areas of bi-partisan agreement, that's how we address and pass common sense immigration reform."

When asked who he feels should be responsible for their care he said, "While they're in the custody of the federal government, the federal government is having to deal with it.  We heard a story that drug cartels left a quadriplegic child who was paralyzed from the neck down on this side of the border, they just abandoned him by the side of the river.  Obviously, we're America, obviously we're going to provide for the basic needs of that child.  We are a compassionate nation, we always have been, but the priority needs to be to reunite that child with their family back home."

He was then asked about cartel leaders who presently reside in the United States to which he responded, "Listen, I think we need serious law enforcement against the cartel leaders who are in the United States and serious law enforcement efforts to stop the human smuggling that is victimizing so many innocents."

Cruz, who will vote on the President's nomination of Julian Castro as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, replied to the question of how he will vote on the appointment, "I had the opportunity to have a visit with Mayor Castro who came by my office and we had a very good conversation and I committed to Mayor Castro that I would keep an open mind.  I'm going to assess his record and assess it on the merits.  So we're still looking at the record and listening what Castro has to say."

When one looks at the economic prosperity of the city of San Antonio, Mayor Castro's leadership and that of his administration is evident, however when asked of his opinion on the grandeur of the city and its accomplishments, he had the following to say on the matter, "I would not hold myself out as an expert on municipal policy the mayor has implemented.  I would say that San Antonio is an example of the prosperity in Texas, of the prosperity that, frankly we should be emulating all across America.  In San Antonio we have seen economic growth, we've seen jobs which have been a result of policies at the state level that have created an environment of low tax, low regulatory environment that has enabled small businesses to grow to prosper and create jobs.  San Antonio has seen an explosion of jobs in the energy sector from the Eagle Ford Shale that is producing jobs all throughout San Antonio and then there's Toyota, we have terrific, good news that Toyota is moving their headquarters to North Texas.  I think that all these are policies that should be a model for the nation.  If you want people who are struggling to have jobs to have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream, you've got to have an environment where businesses can create jobs where the private sector can prosper and where people can come to this nation with nothing.  In 1957 when my father came to this nation, he came with nothing.  He had $100 hidden in his underwear and he washed dishes for 50 cents a day and he was able to live in a nation where small businesses could prosper and he and my mother went on to start a small business."

"If you look at the Hispanic community and obviously San Antonio has a thriving Hispanic community.  There are 2.3 million Hispanic small business owners in this country.  One in eight Hispanic households have a small business owner.  We need to get back to an environment where small businesses are growing and prospering and creating jobs,  The Obama economic agenda has hammered small businesses.  People who have most been hurt the most by the Obama economic agenda are small business owners.  They are young people Hispanics, African Americans, single moms," Cruz Concluded,  "We need to return to an environment  where people are struggling but have hope and ambition and the desire to achieve the American Dream can do so and get away from this failed economic agenda and get back to the constitutional liberties this great nation was built upon, thank you very much."