Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has labeled Mexico's President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador a "far-left socialist" whose victory Sunday shows the need for President Donald Trump's wall to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Waco Tribune-Herald reports Cruz told supporters during a campaign stop in Waco on Tuesday that López Obrador has urged Mexicans so inclined to enter the United States illegally.
"Maybe this was just campaign rhetoric," Cruz said. "But if we have another Fidel Castro on our southern border, that is going to be a problem," he said, according to the newspaper.
And, Cruz added, that underscores the need for the border wall, as well as "twice as many boots on the ground" and aerial surveillance.
He also said López Obrador, 64, had been running on an "anti-American campaign for a long, long time," The Texas Tribune reports.
López Obrador who ran a populist campaign and pledged to put Mexico's interests first, won by more than 50 percent of the vote count Sunday.
Cruz also blasted Democrats who he believes are too soft on immigration policy.
"Some congressional Democrats are arguing the solution is let everyone go – just don't detain adults who cross over illegally, and then you can keep the kids with their parents because you're letting everyone go," Cruz said at George's Restaurant, a popular Waco eatery, according to KCEN-TV.
"I think that is a mistake. If we go back to the old policies of catch and release, they don't work, and it only encourages more and more illegal immigration."
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