Campaign ads warning of immigrants illegally crossing the border into the U.S. are quickly becoming a staple of the Republican presidential primary fight. But Ted Cruz has added a new twist: His latest ad imagines the border crossers as dozens of men with briefcases and women in heels, sloshing through a river and run through the desert.
In a voiceover, the Texas Senator makes an economic case for being tough on illegal immigration, saying media and political elites cannot relate to the realities for lower-wage workers. “The politics of it would be very very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande,” he says. “Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages of the press.”
MORE Here’s What’s Wrong With Donald Trump’s Campaign Ad
Cruz’s spot comes in the same week that both businessman Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush released new ads, in a flurry of activity before early-voting begins in Iowa and New Hampshire.
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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com