From the office of
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz
R-Texas

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has issued the following statement this week following President Joe Biden's executive action rejoining America to the Paris Climate Agreement.

By signing this order, President Biden indicates that he's more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh.

Rejoining the Paris agreement isn't about "restoring America's leadership abroad" or "solving the climate crisis," but instead it is about Democrats' plans to destroy jobs they don't like – including thousands of manufacturing jobs – and cede control of our energy future to other countries. America's "commitment" to the Paris Climate Agreement will be used by the Biden administration as justification for a whole litany of new executive actions and burdensome federal regulations to shape our energy and environmental policy – which will burden American families, manufacturers, and businesses with higher energy costs at a time when they are already struggling.

If the Biden administration believes that rejoining the agreement is something the American people should support, then he should submit the Paris Climate Agreement to the Senate as a treaty and let the people decide through their elected representatives. But he knows that it would fail. So like his Democratic predecessor, President Biden is governing by executive fiat.

Without the Paris Climate Agreement, the United States has led the world in emissions reductions. Likewise, the United States over the last 50 years has dramatically reduced the levels of some of the most harmful pollutants and improved the air quality for all Americans, while at the same time helping more people get better paying jobs and improving their lives.

Rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement will do little to affect the climate, and will harm the livelihoods of everyday Americans all across the country. I'll continue working with my colleagues to fight for blue-collar workers and to defend America's energy independence.

According to one analysis, the regulations necessary to meet the original commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement would result in the loss of 400,000 American manufacturing jobs and would cost families of four $20,000 in lost income over a nearly 20-year period.

This estimate is based on former-President Obama's commitments. Upon rejoining the agreement President Biden will submit his own commitments which are expected to be even more extreme than his Democratic predecessor.

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Executive Orders on immigration puts illegal immigrants before American workers

• Cruz also issued the following statement after Biden announced that he intends to implement a number of immigration policy changes via executive order.

It is deeply troubling that most of Joe Biden's first acts as president were to protect illegal immigrants and encourage illegal immigration at the expense of American jobs and workers. Not only has he chosen to halt construction of a wall on America's southern border and to continue Barack Obama's illegal executive amnesty by preserving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, but he is promoting open-borders legislation that would gift citizenship to over 11 million illegal immigrants, roll back immigration enforcement, and promote and increase foreign labor at a time when many Americans desperately need work.

These actions illustrate that today's Democratic Party puts people here illegally - or attempting to come here illegally – before American workers. President Biden and his administration may not see a problem with illegal immigration, but millions of working men and women do. His executive actions and policies make a mockery of the rule of law, and his deeply unserious legislative push demonstrates that, despite his rhetoric, he is fully on-board with the radical open-borders agenda. I will continue to fight for measures to secure our border, reform our legal immigration system, and uphold the rule of law.